45 Gallon Shallow Caribbean Biotope

[UCedumacasion]

I went back and forth on this tank, I wanted to do a Reef Tank but decided I wasn’t going to want to invest hardly anything into corals. Then it was on to a frag tank, this idea stayed around for about 6 months, but then I went snorkeling on a couple of local reefs and saw something special. The local animal life is crazy and all in our back yard. I can honestly say I’ve never had an appreciation for Gorgonians, Pork Fish, Sponges, and Macro Algae and now I want them to be the focal point of my tank.

I’m going to go with something different now. A Caribbean Biotope tank. I want to go 100% Caribbean Animals in this tank.

I'm using Haitian Rock, Local Natural Seawater, Caribsea Ocean Direct sand and collecting most of what's going in the tank. There's some fish that I'll have to source from stores but I want to keep it simple, beautiful, and fun. I love going out on the reefs.

Because I feel that my Fluidized bed filter will be under used I think I’m going to have fun stocking this tank. My proximity to a couple of local fish stores will make it easy for me to get NSW for my inhabitants. The lack of many hard corals will make it easy for my neighbors to watch it over Christmas. Local animals mean that I will hopefully be able to recreate the beauty out on the reef.

It’s a stretch, and the first tank I’ve had in about 3 years but I think it’ll end up being pretty cool.

Here's a link to my tank's neighbor, we have them about 4" apart in the "dining room area" because who needs a dining room when you have reef tanks?
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2457446


Supplies:

2 20# Bags of Caribsea Ocean Direct Sand (Yup, no false advertising there, I’m pretty sure that anyone in South Florida can tell you that, absolute concrete when placed in buckets, wood bark, etc. There’s no way that their name can be considered false advertising)

1 45 Gallon Deep Blue Tank – 36 x 24 x 12

1 Koralia K 3 (Damn right, brought this baby out of storage, still works like a charm)

1 Ecosystem Sump (Not using the Ecosystem method)

1 Mag drive 7 return pump

31# of Haitian Live Rock (I love this stuff, beautiful shapes and pretty cheap over here. Moderately scrubbed and soaked for 15-20 minutes in saltwater)

1 Recirculating Reactor (going to be a Fluidized Sand Bed Filter; these things work wonders)


















Let me know what you think. Comments and suggestions welcome!

 

[UCedumacasion]

Here are some updated pix. It's coming along nicely.

Fish
2x Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis)
Juvenile Spanish Hog (Bodianus rufus)
Red Lip Blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus)
I'm done for a while on fish as the tank is really young and I didn't quarantine my Sergeant Majors because I was too excited to add them lol

Corals
Purple Flat Blade Gorgonian - Pterogorgia anceps
Purple Plume Gorgonian - pseudopterogorgia bipinnata
Plexaura flexuosa


Critters
4 Scarlet Hermit Crabs -
4 Nerite sp. Snails
1 Sand Sifting Cucumber

Blue Sponge (Species coming)
Red/Orange Sponge (species coming)
2 rhodactis sanctithomae
1 ricordia florida

 

[UCedumacasion]

Here are some updated pix. It's coming along nicely.

Fish
2x Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis)
Juvenile Spanish Hog (Bodianus rufus)
Red Lip Blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus)
I'm done for a while on fish as the tank is really young and I didn't quarantine my Sergeant Majors because I was too excited to add them lol

Corals
Purple Flat Blade Gorgonian - Pterogorgia anceps
Purple Plume Gorgonian - pseudopterogorgia bipinnata
Plexaura flexuosa


Critters
4 Scarlet Hermit Crabs -
4 Nerite sp. Snails
1 Sand Sifting Cucumber

Blue Sponge (Species coming)
Red/Orange Sponge (species coming)
2 rhodactis sanctithomae
1 ricordia florida

















[/QUOTE]

Blurry

 

[jonnyu]

Very cool. Post close up pics of the fish

 

[rovster]

I agree very cool. If I ever had or second or third tank would love something like this with only local stuff. I bet you could find some cool stuff in the keys. Are your two tanks plumbed together?

 

[G_Sanab922]

Very nice, i'm doing something similar with my 75. I'm sure you know but that hog will grow big just so you know and aggressive! Love your selection of fish though. Love the rock as well, where did you get it if you don't mind me asking?

 

[big-Ern]

Very nice. I have setup two local tanks before,as I dive and collect. There are lots of cool things that you can put in there that you don't see in the LFS often. There are many different hermits besides the red and blue legs usually seen. I really like the orange leg ones that have 1 big white claw. there are black legs with white dots, brown legs, white striped legs...
There are also a lot of different zoas local as well. Mostly brown or green but I have found some that resemble bloodshots, purple people eaters...
St.Thomas shrooms are cool, lots of feather dusters varieties, different color sponges, cinnamon polyps...
lots of cool inverts as well. green and white striped serpent stars, colorful pistol shrimp, decorator crabs,

A good place to look for ideas is diver tom's website. He is a collector in the keys and has images and descriptions of what he catches.

 

[G_Sanab922]

A good place to look for ideas is diver tom's website. He is a collector in the keys and has images and descriptions of what he catches.

+1

It's under new ownership but tom showed the new owner everything he knows. So he still collects a lot of the great critters we have down here. Recommend him as well

 

[UCedumacasion]

I agree very cool. If I ever had or second or third tank would love something like this with only local stuff. I bet you could find some cool stuff in the keys. Are your two tanks plumbed together?

No they aren't plumbed together, the two of us have such differing ideas on filtration that we're experimenting to see if one is better than the other or equally effective

Very nice, i'm doing something similar with my 75. I'm sure you know but that hog will grow big just so you know and aggressive! Love your selection of fish though. Love the rock as well, where did you get it if you don't mind me asking?

Oh yeah I know that one. I'm looking at this tank as a nursery and thinking of my fish being "on loan" that I'll pass along to other aquarists after they out grow my tank. Every fish I get will be under 3" at the time I get them

Very cool. Post close up pics of the fish

I will as soon as they have their fins clear up. There was no quarantine because I was too excited to have a tank so there was some cloudiness on their fins

Very nice. I have setup two local tanks before,as I dive and collect. There are lots of cool things that you can put in there that you don't see in the LFS often. There are many different hermits besides the red and blue legs usually seen. I really like the orange leg ones that have 1 big white claw. there are black legs with white dots, brown legs, white striped legs...
There are also a lot of different zoas local as well. Mostly brown or green but I have found some that resemble bloodshots, purple people eaters...
St.Thomas shrooms are cool, lots of feather dusters varieties, different color sponges, cinnamon polyps...
lots of cool inverts as well. green and white striped serpent stars, colorful pistol shrimp, decorator crabs,

A good place to look for ideas is diver tom's website. He is a collector in the keys and has images and descriptions of what he catches.

That's awesome!! I'm going to have to look for them. I want to do bryozoans and a bunch of other weird guys, I figure I want it to look exactly like when we dive. I think that's the point of tanks, I love for the animals to act like they are in the wild. 0

+1

It's under new ownership but tom showed the new owner everything he knows. So he still collects a lot of the great critters we have down here. Recommend him as well

Awesome! I'll talk to him. I've got several friends that are collectors as well. I'm looking to everyone for ideas

 

[UCedumacasion]

Very nice, i'm doing something similar with my 75. I'm sure you know but that hog will grow big just so you know and aggressive! Love your selection of fish though. Love the rock as well, where did you get it if you don't mind me asking?

The Rock is Haitian Rock. Most stores around here carry it. I think I saw some over at Fish Collection and Reeftop but don't hold me to it!

It's some of my favorite rock I've ever worked with. Easy to scape with and lots of beautiful shapes!

 

[Reef_Box]

Updates??

 

[Bob B]

Where did you buy the tank? Dimensions?

 

[Aquatic Reef Creations]

This thread is 10 months old.

 

[Reeferz412]

Where did you buy the tank? Dimensions?

It's from Deep Blue and I believe it was custom made last I talked with the owners. This tank is still running btw.

 

[UCedumacasion]

Hey Guys, been really busy, took a couple of pix after a water change earlier. I do them about every 3 weeks. Sorry for turbidity.

















And an older pic here...

 

[nivram]

Are all your gorgs photo synthetic?