Planning For Pipes

[jafoca]

Hello,

I am currently planning out a system that I plan to keep one or two pipefish in. I was wondering if you all could review my ideas and answer a couple of questions.

My system is going to be a 26 gallon all glass bowfront hopefully with a custom fit canopy and either power compact or metal halide lighting. I am planning to run a sump, but I first need to see what will fit in the stand I am getting (I have not seen it yet).

What size of a fuge is necessary to provide enough pods for a pipefish to live off of?

I am not sure what I want to do for water circulation yet, but i know low flow is really ideal. That said, i plan to have a relatively slow return pump and I also would like to run some kind of closed loop. I want to have many outlets to make sure there is good flow in my rockwork, but i also need to keep it calm for the pipe. Any ideas what to do about this?

My planned tankmates are going to be:
pearly jawfish
2 assessors, hopefully one yellow one blue
tridacnid clams
soft corals / maybe lps

Does this sound acceptable?

 

[waterfaller1]

The halides you will need for clams may be too much for most pipes. Caution with LPS as many of them have a strong sting~ hammers..torches, etc. Good luck finding a blue assessor...as of late they have not been available....you might have to wait, unless you know someplace that breeds them besides ORA. What type of pipes were you thinking? I would run the fuge so it returns by gravity...that way the pods won't get crushed. I would suggest a 20 gal...and try to make the main at least a 40 breeder.{depending on what type of pipes...some get quite large.} I constantly add pods to my system to insure their numbers for my pipes and mandarins...at least every few months or so.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

ok i dont see that you listed any corals that need mh so if i were you i would keep powere compacts and just do like branching leathers and low light lps also i would think about upgrading your system to at least a 30 gallon (more room under the stand with a 20 gallon sump in my opinion the best way to keep the pods around would be to have like cheato in the sump and have only a few coral and alot of macro algeas in the display as to have almost 2 fuges ive seen quite a few very beautiful planted tanks and i think this would be very cost effective and benificial to both the pod population and the pipefish
also you would be able to cross of the skimmer costs from you list because you probly dont want your pods to be ending up in the collection cup!
a 40 gallon breeder would be even a better canidate for a main tank because theres tons of room under it for a larger sump and theres alot of depth to the tank and its possible to do some VERY unique things to deep tanks

hth
xavier
(the kid reefer)

 

[garvondavis14]

please use punctuation.