A ~19,000 Gallon Aquarium
- Thread starter nahham
- Start date
fantastic4
New member
NAHHAM, have you considered placing white marble along all the walls and walk ways of your tank?
nahham
New member
I had a lot of comments regarding diving in the tank. So to answer all of you: yes you can dive in the tank, it will cost you $10 per person.
I did consider having marble on the bottom edge of the tank under each glass piece. One piece per glass with LEDs pointing downwards.
Daniel Reef
New member
Subscribed. Great tank. Can't wait to see the water and fish in the tank.
nahham
New member
The water quality still needs to be worked on. What do you think might help the water quality inline with the open circulation? I can't have a closed loop right now and will love to have something that help with the water quality without the need for extra 'equipment'. I already have gravel the fills the first chamber of the refugium and planning to add sand to that chamber. I am planning to add mangroves, algae, sand, and live rock to the second chamber. I'm not sure this is enough though. Carbon in a layer between the gravel in the first chamber maybe?
The 2 fish seem to be doing fine. We had them in the live-bait box in the yacht we spent two days in. I think they got acclimated to the water while we went into the waterway in front of our houses. We actually stopped to drop the fish in the aquarium before heading to the marina.
This one. The English name, anyone?
And this one. A small red grouper.
It is funny because those two fish are around 7 - 8 inches long and are totally lost in the tank right now, especially that the water isn't clear. If they are not next to the glass, you can't see them at all. When you can actually see them, they look tiny compared to the size of the glass. They choose to show up just next to the glass today though, which made the kids go crazy. I tried to take some photos but was not successful. Maybe tomorrow.
The 2 fish seem to be doing fine. We had them in the live-bait box in the yacht we spent two days in. I think they got acclimated to the water while we went into the waterway in front of our houses. We actually stopped to drop the fish in the aquarium before heading to the marina
.This one. The English name, anyone?
And this one. A small red grouper.
It is funny because those two fish are around 7 - 8 inches long and are totally lost in the tank right now, especially that the water isn't clear. If they are not next to the glass, you can't see them at all. When you can actually see them, they look tiny compared to the size of the glass. They choose to show up just next to the glass today though, which made the kids go crazy. I tried to take some photos but was not successful. Maybe tomorrow.
Daniel Reef
New member
Looks like some type of triggerfish.
digitalchrisg
New member
keep the pictures coming....
nahham
New member
Thanks for stopping by and thank you for the info. You pointed me to the right direction.
I found out it is a triggerfish. A Starry Triggerfish (Abalistes stellatus) resembles what I have in my tank. All what I've read points out it is not reef safe even though we caught it in a reef-like environment .. mmm ..
They are probably saying "usually/normally": Sometimes size does matter ..
nahham
New member
The water quality still needs to be worked on. What do you think might help the water quality inline with the open circulation? I can't have a closed loop right now and will love to have something that help with the water quality without the need for extra 'equipment'. I already have gravel the fills the first chamber of the refugium and planning to add sand to that chamber. I am planning to add mangroves, algae, sand, and live rock to the second chamber. I'm not sure this is enough though. Carbon in a layer between the gravel in the first chamber maybe?
The 2 fish seem to be doing fine. We had them in the live-bait box in the yacht we spent two days in. I think they got acclimated to the water while we went into the waterway in front of our houses. We actually stopped to drop the fish in the aquarium before heading to the marina
This one. The English name, anyone?
And this one. A small red grouper.
It is funny because those two fish are around 7 - 8 inches long and are totally lost in the tank right now, especially that the water isn't clear. If they are not next to the glass, you can't see them at all. When you can actually see them, they look tiny compared to the size of the glass. They choose to show up just next to the glass today though, which made the kids go crazy. I tried to take some photos but was not successful. Maybe tomorrow.
First of all congratulations for the build. Very nice!
I don't know exactly what is the second fish because they can change their colour but you can try one of this names:
Cephalopholis sexmaculata
Cephalopholis miniata
Cephalopholis sonnerati
Variola louti
Good luck!!!:twitch:
ransomed4ever
New member
triggers will be found in reef areas because they feed on inverts that live in the reef. triggers will be ok in a reef tank if you don't plan on having shrimp, snails, crabs ect. so they aren't safe in most reef tanks
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
I guess the problem with using gold or silver is it gets too hot to sit on and it reflects the light in your eyes
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
The best in-line filtration devices would be a pleated cartridge filter, activated carbon canister filter, and UV sterilizer canister filter. You can find these at a pool supply company. An ozonizer is another easy device to add that is very efficient for large tanks. The carbon may be hard to service if it is in a partitioned box.
The trigger you have has a smaller upturned mouth like the planktivore triggers that are reef safe. There are no guarantees though. I realize you brought home the fish that were easy to catch but as far as triggers go, try to focus on ones with a mouth like this one found in the Red Sea. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/images/oct2002/Crosshatch-Male-web.jpg
The trigger you have has a smaller upturned mouth like the planktivore triggers that are reef safe. There are no guarantees though. I realize you brought home the fish that were easy to catch but as far as triggers go, try to focus on ones with a mouth like this one found in the Red Sea. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/images/oct2002/Crosshatch-Male-web.jpg
Reefski's
Active member
the link did not work.
many large tanks also use a bead filter such as for a koi pond. check out the last article in the current issue of Coral magazine where Charles Delbeek talks about the large tank at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.
i love my Crosshatch trigger and he is reef safe. see my avatar.
many large tanks also use a bead filter such as for a koi pond. check out the last article in the current issue of Coral magazine where Charles Delbeek talks about the large tank at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.
i love my Crosshatch trigger and he is reef safe. see my avatar.
nmbeg
New member
I am just joining this thread, and I did not read all of it... but definitely amazing. I was just visiting dubai in November and wish I saw this thread... I would have visited you.
I don't know if someone already mentioned this, but I saw two amazing aquariums in Dubai: The Atlantis resort in Palm Jumera, and the HUGE tank at one of the malls (Mall of Dubai?).... you should definitely talk to them for support and ideas.
I don't know if someone already mentioned this, but I saw two amazing aquariums in Dubai: The Atlantis resort in Palm Jumera, and the HUGE tank at one of the malls (Mall of Dubai?).... you should definitely talk to them for support and ideas.
nahham
New member
Thanks for the information. I have no idea which one is my fish. I will need to look more closely at the fish and try to compare
What if I have lots and lots of shrimp, snails, and crabs??
I guess the problem with using gold or silver is it gets too hot to sit on and it reflects the light in your eyes
Yeah but a person needs his bling
I think canisters won't work. My pumps (1 working at a time) pumps around 9,000 gph. They pump into the first chamber of the refugium. I am thinking of buying the media you mentioned in bulk and layering them in this first chamber, maybe have it in layered nets to allow for easy backwashing and stuff. I would then have live sand, live rock, mangroves and algae in the second chamber.
I didn't notice the upturned mouth. I'll need to check. Red Sea isn't local fish
. That a great idea. Thanks for the heads-up. I still haven't look at the coral magazine but will do so ASAP.
Thanks for stopping by. In November we only had walls and nothing else
.I know the places but my philosophy is different. I live by the sea and want a mostly open system that turnover fresh sea water all the time. Dubai Aquarium (the one in Dubai Mall) and Atlantis Aquarium do not do so. I am also concentrating on local variety of fish, they went for the exotic and hard to keep. Understandably, they have a much bigger budget.
I did speak with people from Sharjah Aquarium. Even though it is much smaller, they have the same concentration as me (i.e. local variety).
puffmaster262
In Memoriam
my shrimp jumps onto my black tiger and they swim around tpgether
"Reef safe" is one of those terms that generally refers to much smaller tanks than this one. If you put a fish that eats ornamental shrimp or coral polyps into a 100 gallon reef tank, the effect will be hard to miss (no more shrimp, or disappearing coral colonies). 19,000 gallons might be big enough to have some predators and prey in equilibrium, with the shrimp reproducing too fast for the shrimp-eating fish to eat them all, or each coral colony only losing a few polyps per day to the polyp-eating fish. Predator-prey dynamics are always touchy, though, and they tend to cycle between spikes (thousands of ornamental shrimp) and troughs (dozens of shrimp). Still, I wouldn't rule anything out for this tank just because it's not considered "safe" in a 100 gallon reef.
Note: I would also suggest letting the prey get well-established before adding any predators. Coral-eating fish might have to wait a couple of years, for example, depending on how many coral colonies hitchhike in with your live rock.
Note: I would also suggest letting the prey get well-established before adding any predators. Coral-eating fish might have to wait a couple of years, for example, depending on how many coral colonies hitchhike in with your live rock.
Reefski's
Active member
reef safe should be called reef tank safe. not all critters that live on the reef are ok in our tanks. most butterfly fish will eat corals and not considered reef safe but in a big tank that might be ok. the Harlequin spotted file fish is one of my favorites but they eat corals. but if you have a lot of corals you could have one of them. parrot fish eat corals too and i don't want one of them in my tank.
Carl
Carl
mr.wilson
.Registered Member
I agree. The only reason why we call many fish & inverts non-reef safe is because they are kept in small tanks where they encounter the same corals repeatedly. Corals require coral pickers to remove the mucous coating on their tissue. Butterflies and angels are very reef safe as their purpose in the reef community is to find and eat dead or damaged coral tissue. They clean the wound and move on to the next ailing coral.
I keep making the mistake of thinking of this as a big tank on a closed system and not the open system that it is. In our closed systems we experience an unnatural build-up of elements to the point of toxicity. Biological filtration leaves us with residual nitrate so we have shifted our filtration focus to protein skimming. Nahham's tank will not have a build-up of residual nitrate or phosphate because these nutrient cycles are open to the ocean and the balance it offers.
The main concern with regard to Nahham's tank is pre-filtering the water from the ocean before it enters the tank. Water quality is only as good as what you start out with. In closed systems we start out with RO/DI water, and with open systems we start off with the local seawater. Unless you have thorough testing to establish what these water parameters are, you have no way of selecting a method for improving it.
We can assume there are free-floating algae spores and pathogens (diseases). Batch chlorination will kill these agents, but you don't want to go through all that trouble if you don't have to. Mechanical filtration will remove turbidity (sediment) as well as some bacteria and algae. It is also a cost effective process. You could use a sand filter with an automated backwash or a pool canister filter with a pleated 25 micron cartridge and diatom powder.
If you want to use activated carbon in your flow-through tank rather than a pressurized canister, you could try a plastic basket like the ones they use for delivering bakery goods so you can easily lift out the carbon for changing. It would also be a good idea to wrap the carbon in polyester fiber fill or some kind of a perforated bag so it doesn't spill all over the place.
If you leave carbon in the water for too long (over a month) it leaks everything it has collected back into the water.
I don't have any personal experience with it, but oyster shells have a pore matrix that works similar to carbon. If you have a local oyster industry, you may be able to get the shells for next to nothing. Of course a bed of live oysters is also an excellent filtration method. If you do a search you will find all kinds of references on activated (heated to 750 degrees) oyster shells, oyster shell absorption, buffering, algae and sediment removal etc.
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