SpecialCareInverts
- #1
I am going to use this thread to document my build and (more importantly) bounce ideas off the community.
About me:
I used to be a huge freshwater guy a few years ago, building planted tanks for local businesses and then I thought I would take a risk and build this tank and it went horrible due to rushing. Afterwards, I moved to saltwater, took my time and became knowledgeable in saltwater care with filter-feeding and hard-to-keep inverts. After things went wrong with my local maw-and-paw saltwater business, I shut down my tank as they were my biggest supplier for special equipment. So know I am back building my dream tank slowly and with much better planning.
The idea:
This tank will be a filter feeder tank for bamboo shrimp, freshwater clams and fast-water fish that happen to live with them. Also if you know more filter-feeders, please comment them below.
The substrate:
For the substrate, I am going to go with my old tried-and-true dirted deep sand bed. It will be ~6 inches, in the order of 2 inches of dirt, one inch of light- dirt and heavy sand, then 3 inches of pool filter sand. Inhabiting the dirt, I will add three bags of black-worms, then wait a couple weeks to add some trumpet snails.
rock:
similar to live-rock in saltwater aquariums, I plan to use lava rock as a place for bacteria to inhabit with the rock-structure touching glass (rock goes in before substrate.)
plants:
I am going to try and use some deep-root plants to stretch down into the dirted area. That aside, I plan to go with amazon swords, bananas (I know not deep roots,) wisteria, probably a couple moss balls, and java moss on my rocks.
water flow:
for this I'm not sure if I should go linear, or random. Either way: it is probably going to go around 1,000 gph. Is this too high?
filtration:
here is a straight saltwater method. I am going to do a SUMP, filled with java rock, an diy algae scrubber, and a diy activated carbon reactor. I might be doing vodka dosing as filter tanks tend to run high-nitrate. The carbon reactor is because filter tanks start to get cloudy from the foods.
feeding:
I need to talk about feeding before cycling because my cycling depends on the feeding method. I plan to go heavy with vampires because I had them in the past and LOVED them. The clams are because I had scallops in my saltwater and loved them--I am aware that clams tend to hide though. For the food, I am going to be doing twice-daily dosing of golden pearls which is a special made filter-feeder food.; this food can skyrocket your nitrate levels though, which is why I'm going to be vodka dosing. For the fish, I will probably be doing all frozen, with them having free range of the blackworms and those little bugs that always hide in java moss.
cycle:
my cycle is going to be dependent on my heavy feeding method, so I am thinking of dosing liquid ammonia daily, until ammonia drops and nitrate spikes. Then I am going to add my cleanup crew, and start bi-daily dry dosing of golden-pearls. Once I see how my tank holds up to feeding that, I will add a couple vampires, and watching their feeding response coupled with reading levels, adapt accordingly.
Cleanup crew:
trumpets, black worms added as needed, critters in java moss, ghost shrimp, and nerites
Definite stocking:
Cleanup crew, bamboo shrimp, freshwater clams
Tentative stocking depending on further re-research:
hatchet fish, cory school, and neons (I need to find out if they can do heavy flow and hard water.)
water quality:
my water is hard at 122 mg/l
lighting:
I have a reef light left-over with a programmable blue and white led timer
Thoughts and feedback? Like I said, I don't want to rush this like I did my previous
About me:
I used to be a huge freshwater guy a few years ago, building planted tanks for local businesses and then I thought I would take a risk and build this tank and it went horrible due to rushing. Afterwards, I moved to saltwater, took my time and became knowledgeable in saltwater care with filter-feeding and hard-to-keep inverts. After things went wrong with my local maw-and-paw saltwater business, I shut down my tank as they were my biggest supplier for special equipment. So know I am back building my dream tank slowly and with much better planning.
The idea:
This tank will be a filter feeder tank for bamboo shrimp, freshwater clams and fast-water fish that happen to live with them. Also if you know more filter-feeders, please comment them below.
The substrate:
For the substrate, I am going to go with my old tried-and-true dirted deep sand bed. It will be ~6 inches, in the order of 2 inches of dirt, one inch of light- dirt and heavy sand, then 3 inches of pool filter sand. Inhabiting the dirt, I will add three bags of black-worms, then wait a couple weeks to add some trumpet snails.
rock:
similar to live-rock in saltwater aquariums, I plan to use lava rock as a place for bacteria to inhabit with the rock-structure touching glass (rock goes in before substrate.)
plants:
I am going to try and use some deep-root plants to stretch down into the dirted area. That aside, I plan to go with amazon swords, bananas (I know not deep roots,) wisteria, probably a couple moss balls, and java moss on my rocks.
water flow:
for this I'm not sure if I should go linear, or random. Either way: it is probably going to go around 1,000 gph. Is this too high?
filtration:
here is a straight saltwater method. I am going to do a SUMP, filled with java rock, an diy algae scrubber, and a diy activated carbon reactor. I might be doing vodka dosing as filter tanks tend to run high-nitrate. The carbon reactor is because filter tanks start to get cloudy from the foods.
feeding:
I need to talk about feeding before cycling because my cycling depends on the feeding method. I plan to go heavy with vampires because I had them in the past and LOVED them. The clams are because I had scallops in my saltwater and loved them--I am aware that clams tend to hide though. For the food, I am going to be doing twice-daily dosing of golden pearls which is a special made filter-feeder food.; this food can skyrocket your nitrate levels though, which is why I'm going to be vodka dosing. For the fish, I will probably be doing all frozen, with them having free range of the blackworms and those little bugs that always hide in java moss.
cycle:
my cycle is going to be dependent on my heavy feeding method, so I am thinking of dosing liquid ammonia daily, until ammonia drops and nitrate spikes. Then I am going to add my cleanup crew, and start bi-daily dry dosing of golden-pearls. Once I see how my tank holds up to feeding that, I will add a couple vampires, and watching their feeding response coupled with reading levels, adapt accordingly.
Cleanup crew:
trumpets, black worms added as needed, critters in java moss, ghost shrimp, and nerites
Definite stocking:
Cleanup crew, bamboo shrimp, freshwater clams
Tentative stocking depending on further re-research:
hatchet fish, cory school, and neons (I need to find out if they can do heavy flow and hard water.)
water quality:
my water is hard at 122 mg/l
lighting:
I have a reef light left-over with a programmable blue and white led timer
Thoughts and feedback? Like I said, I don't want to rush this like I did my previous
