New Tank, what would you do...

A

Ashlar

For the past 7 weeks, I've been running the nice 45g corner tank that I picked up from Harial next to my refugium as a fish qt. (1 week of cycling / stabilization and 6 weeks of hypo.) With the last fish having found a new home (the engineer goby) I sat staring at an empty tank. I just finished plumbing this tank to also dump into my sump and be supplied from it.. so I have ~300g total system volume.

Over the past 7 weeks, I've had a lot of ideas for this tank:
-smaller agressives / not reef safe - dwarf lion, angel, puffer, trigger, etc (most would get too big, but there are a few..)
-cryptic refugium (I picked this up from calfo & fenner's invert book- they mention it, but give little details as to what fish or inverts are too shy for a brightly lit tank) lit by a red light.
-sea grass tank: Not macroalgae, but honest to goodness grasses- turtle grass, shoal grass, manatee grass, star grass. I put a 7" DSB in this tank in case I want to go this route (turtle grass wants a deep substrate.)
-RDSB (remote deep sand bed) / chaeto grow out tank: My chaeto has a tendency to strangle the macroalgae in my refugium, so I thought about putting it all in this tank by itself and letting it grow out there (then I could think about more sea grasses in the refugium.)
-Rics / softies propogation tank: I could move the 150w mh pendant from my coral qt which would sufficient for limited propogation.
-Anem propogation: Yes the sherman RBTA split again, no it's not for sale. I don't know if I could get the nerve up to take a razor to it.

What does everyone think?
 
@Ashlar wrote:
-cryptic refugium (I picked this up from calfo & fenner's invert book- they mention it said:
I picked up a copy of this: http://www.animalnetwork.com/usa/marusadefault.asp at a Petsmart and it had an article by Richard Harker about cryptic aquarium creatures ("The Unseen Benefactors"). Don't remember what all it said, but I'll try to find my copy.
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As tempting as it would be, I would NOT do the aggressive tank...

These critters tend to be heavy/messy eaters, and the pollution from them could cause problems in the whole of the system...
 
Agree on ditching the agressive unless it was like a single lion or something. Since it's displayed I would use it as some sort of display. A mangrove forest with segrasses and a couple seahorses would be cool.

I've long been tempted to setup an RBTA prop tank but just haven't done it but there are less attractive and cheaper ways to do that.
 
@sunfun wrote:
Sea horse tank? or maybe a planted crab/shrimp tank would be cool too. said:
Yah, if I do sea grasses, I'll probably get a pistol shrimp / digging goby pair.

@bellapoison wrote:
I picked up a copy of this: http://www.animalnetwork.com/usa/marusadefault.asp at a Petsmart and it had an article by Richard Harker about cryptic aquarium creatures ("The Unseen Benefactors"). Don't remember what all it said said:
Cool, thanks. The majority of what I found talked about scypha sp. sponges and 'pods. Those teases.. they mention tubastrea sp. corals, sponges and tunicates, and 'shy twilight fishes and invertebrates'.

@Serk wrote:
As tempting as it would be said:
I actually think my refugium is nutrient limited.. I've bumped up the feeding quite a bit, but I'm still testing for 0 nitrates.

@kwl1763 wrote:
Agree on ditching the agressive unless it was like a single lion or something. Since it's displayed I would use it as some sort of display. A mangrove forest with segrasses and a couple seahorses would be cool. I've long been tempted to setup an RBTA prop tank but just haven't done it but there are less attractive and cheaper ways to do that. said:
I've thought about a mangrove, but the whole addtl lighting above the tank, rinsing the leaves off, etc just seems like too much work. Same with sea horses. They're cute, but I'm not sure we have the time to devote to them.

www.floridapets.com does have a nice selection of sea grasses.
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how about a mantis shrimp tank?

If you want some mangroves i have some seed stalks not sure if they will grow....i took some from my Uncle's mangroves from the Phillipines. Couple of them are sprouting
 
45g for a mantis? He'd be living like a king! I wouldn't mind getting a mantis when I have room for a species only tank, but it would probably be in the 10-20g range.

If I do decide to do the mangroves, I'd love to get one that I knew where it came from- that'd be cool!
 
Hmmm... The Mantis idea is intriguing, get one of the bigger/fancier Mantis...

But, the catch with that is IF it breaks the glass, it's not just it's tank, it's your whole system that's gonna be dumping on the floor...
 
I like, the smaller aggressive w/ dwarf lion or cryptic. I think I am leaning more towards the cryptic, it would be cool and something different.
-Chuck
 
Oooooo. You are so busted Scott. Good luck with that and let us know how that turns out. :lol:

My vote is anome tank :roll:

But if you wanted to go against the better half, I wouldn't, maybe you can throw some grass in there with a few shrimp for movemnt.

Keep us posted...if you get to keep the house!
 
I like the anemone idea, that's what is currently in the works for my 46 gallon. I also really like the idea of doing a mangrove tank, and I'm sure you could find some pretty cool stuff to go along with it.
 
Three of those flashlight fish would be way cool!

Here's some more info on bioluminescent fish:

http://www.milton.edu/academics/pages/marinebio/biolum.html
http://www.extremescience.com/deepcreat.htm
http://people.cornellcollege.edu/a-carlson/geo105/morebiolumfish.htm

That last one has some really cryptic looking fish...click through the different pages! :shock:
 
I've figured out what you SHOULD do with this new tank, can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!!!

Put it in your truck and bring it to your good buddy Serk's house! Rumour has it he doesn't have enough tanks!!! :wink:

Seriously, if those deep water species could be gotten, and could survive in the lower pressures of our tanks (And higher temperatures then they're used to, I'm sure) a Giger themed tank would be REALLLLLLY unique!!!
 
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