New Tank

omreardon

New member
I have finally set up my 46 gallon tank. It went from a saltwater tank in 2003 to a freshwater tank and now back to a saltwater.

Thanks to fishdoc for the very nice live rock. I think I may need one or two more pieces but for now I think it looks very nice. These aren't the best pictures but you can kinda get the idea.

Olivia

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And a picture of the entrance to a jawfish home. I always wanted a jawfish so I figured now is the perfect time to set up a pvc house for one!

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looks great! setting up a new tank is so much fun!

from what i've read, the jawfish need a really deep sandbed and like really fat/chunky sand so they can burrow...and you'll wanna put a tight lid on it, they're jumpers...

mel can tell ya more, she's got a blue spotted...
 
Yeah, I had heard that about the sand and such. Then I saw a thread about someone making a pvc square with an opening for them to go in and out, this keeps them from burrowing around in other parts of the tank and disturbing the rock work. I haven't messed with it enough but I was told to take a hammer to a couple of smallish pieces of rock and scatter the rubble around the hole so the jawfish can move it around to decorate the entrance to his burrow. We'll see if it works at some point.

Thanks for the compliments!

Olivia
 
cool! let me know if it works...i LOVE jawfish, they're the coolest things. i've tried two that haven't made it past 2 days. :(
 
How do you post pictures in a thread...I have never learned how and can't find anything on the sight that shows me how?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14149026#post14149026 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hesstondc
How do you post pictures in a thread...I have never learned how and can't find anything on the sight that shows me how?

<a href="http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=333197">RC Photo Posting and Tips</a>

I find photobucket (or another hosting site) the easiest.
 
Of course, all you guys who post on photobucket, I never see your pics because photo host sites are blocked from work and I have dial-up at home. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14152237#post14152237 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Runner
Of course, all you guys who post on photobucket, I never see your pics because photo host sites are blocked from work and I have dial-up at home. :)

Who's problem is that? :p
 
After fighting it for years, I finally got high speed at home. Nice tank. :D
 
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Sorry. I haven't checked the thread until now.

Yes. I have a blue spotted jawfish. From my experience thus far I can tell you that they seem fairly delicate. I messed with Jaws's burrow, thinking I would clean the sand and give him something to do (rebuilding his structure). Well...long story short... He didn't eat for a while and got to be pretty thin. He's fine now and even eats out of my hand but I feel lucky that he made it through. I specifically created a pretty deep sand bed for him so he could burrow, specifically choosing a few different types of sand/rubble to give him as mixed of a substrate as possible. I bought tons of rock rubble for him and dropped little bits of it by his burrow every time I saw he had nearly used up what I had given him.

I also have a randalls shrimp with high fin red banded goby so they benefit from the mixed bed as well.

What I've been told about jawfish is to keep providing them rock rubble until they stop using it. They will continue to "construct" their burrow for far longer than you ever thought was possible.

I haven't heard about this PVC thing you've got going on but I doubt that Jaws would stick to it. Hah hah. He's pretty headstrong about his burrows.

Feel free to PM me with any questions about my experiences. I researched their care pretty heavily prior to my purchase (in an attempt to "walk the walk" so to speak).
 
Hey Mel,

Thanks for the observations. I was thinking of a yellow headed jawfish, not a bluespot, too spendy for me. :-)

I figure the pvc burrow might not work but it wouldn't hurt to try. I'll keep everyone updated.

Olivia
 
I'll second the tight lid. I had my yellow-headed jawfish jump to his death about a month or two after I got him -- and my tank was 95% covered. He found the opening. He was a pretty cool fish, too.

R.I.P.
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Maybe this is a stupid question. I also keep reptiles, specifically turtles and tortoises. They have to have very special UVA and UVB lights over their enclosures. It is a big thing in the reptile world that you should never put a glass cover over an enclosure as the good light waves can't go through glass. Is this also a concern for reef tanks? We take such care in choosing bulbs, light fixtures, etc I would hate to loose some of that goodness with a glass top.

Just a silly thought.

Olivia
 
If you have a double-ended bulb, you need a plate of glass to block the harmful UV. Other than that, I think PAR and color temperature play a bigger part of coral health than UV. Remember, also, that what we keep is typically 30+ feet below surface in the wild where the large majority of the UV is filtered out.

P.S. This wasn't a true technical answer, so YMMV.
 
To add to what Scott said there are no worries about blocking UV to marine animals. They don't develop metabolic bone disease like reptiles. The biggest worry with glass over a tank is trapping heat or more specifically loss of evaporative cooling.
 
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