Region-themed reef tanks

[BAMslam93]

Aussie corals, aussie/melanesian fish, so far working out, though it's really hard to find good fish from that region, wild caught aussie corals are extremely easy to get ahold of though, but then there's the pests that come with them.....

What species have you been keeping? That is one gnarly critter lol!

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

What species have you been keeping? That is one gnarly critter lol!

Fish or corals?

 

[BAMslam93]

There is more than one I think.

Very gorgeous colors! The coldwater anemones are honestly fascinating to watch with their transparent tentacles.

 

[BAMslam93]

Fish or corals?

Sorry, I should have been specific but fish for sure

 

[BAMslam93]

Define cold water... lol. I'm in Alaska and our water is a bit chilly to say the least.

Haha, I usually imagine Northern Pacific or Northern Atlantic but technically Southern California marine tanks could be considered temperate . So far, the only fish species I can find for sale from my area are Catalina gobies.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Sorry, I should have been specific but fish for sure

Unfortunately I've had bad luck with fish, my LFS has a 1 month medicated QT policy that all fish go through and so far most of them have vanished after 2-3 weeks (they didn't jump)



So far coral only, but i have a yellow assessor on week 3 of QT from a different area in the coral sea, so far eating well and active and hope to pick it up in ~10 ish days. Tank has been running for a year BTW

 

[BAMslam93]

Here’s mine

Checked out your tank and I'm excited to see your progress!

 

[BAMslam93]

Unfortunately I've had bad luck with fish, my LFS has a 1 month medicated QT policy that all fish go through and so far most of them have vanished after 2-3 weeks (they didn't jump)



So far coral only, but i have a yellow assessor on week 3 of QT from a different area in the coral sea, so far eating well and active and hope to pick it up in ~10 ish days. Tank has been running for a year BTW

Bummer but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and your yellow assessor!

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Bummer but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and your yellow assessor!

He'll have the whole 120 gallon tank to himself

 

[Pneumatic_Addict]

Im partial to red sea fish, they always attract my eye! Ive got 2 from the red sea. Most of my other fish are indo-pacific and Indian ocean fish. I guess you could say that because most of my fish are pacific and Indian ocean oriented since red sea fish are expensive!!! I guess that that would be my region tank if I had to classify it! lol but I really just pick fish I like.

We should all be partial to Red Sea! Lol.

I dove Ras Muhammad last year and it’s just unfair to what we have in the US. Monti’s and Stags the size of cars. Lyretails in droves. Massive Sohals, Pristine Regals, Macs, etc. etc. At such a higher temp. The resort we stayed at in S. Sinai had a reef not 20ft from our private beach you could swim to that was insane.

We got yelled at a few times by the dive instructor for not following the group. I finally told him “we’re gunna continue to explore & lag behind. Sorry.” Tipped him a 20 (600 EGP) and all was cool.

Great people.

 

[steveweast]

This is a video of my mostly Puget Sound biotope that I ran a decade ago. Operating temperature was 55F. It was primarily livestock that I collected from Puget Sound along with a few temperate Tasmania boxfish and Catalina gobies thrown into the mix.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

This is a video of my mostly Puget Sound biotope that I ran a decade ago. Operating temperature was 55F. It was primarily livestock that I collected from Puget Sound along with a few temperate Tasmania boxfish and Catalina gobies thrown into the mix.

Why did you take it down? That tank was stunning. Was that a trigger in there? Did you collect it yourself?

 

[steveweast]

Why did you take it down? That tank was stunning. Was that a trigger in there? Did you collect it yourself?

There is no trigger in there. The fish were Tasmania Boxfish, Tasmania Hula fish, Local Grunt Sculpin and pipefish and Catalina gobies. I took the tank down due to life changes.....and my suffering a fall accident that cost me my right leg. The tank sat empty for 8 years when....in 2022.....I started it up again but as a tropical mixed reef. Post accident, I can no longer don a drysuit to scuba and collect in Puget Sound....so, I returned to tropical reef keeping./

 

[steveweast]

Tasmania is the Southern tip of Australia....which has water temps similar to the Pacific Northwest.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

There is no trigger in there. The fish were Tasmania Boxfish, Tasmania Hula fish, Local Grunt Sculpin and pipefish and Catalina gobies. I took the tank down due to life changes.....and my suffering a fall accident that cost me my right leg. The tank sat empty for 8 years when....in 2022.....I started it up again but as a tropical mixed reef. Post accident, I can no longer don a drysuit to scuba and collect in Puget Sound....so, I returned to tropical reef keeping./

Yikes, that's rough. Sorry to hear about that..

 

[steveweast]

It’s all good now. Life goes on…..only now, I get really good parking.

 

[Kjames]

I've been thinking about a Georgia barrier islands tank for some years. I did a "life in jars" style experiment that was fascinating, to say the least. There is a spectacular amount of life in a couple of gallons of collected seawater. Lots of small crustaceans, a few different algae, hydroids(?), worms of all types, and a couple of teeny crab hitchhikers. Ultimately, the vegetation could not outpace the feeders and the higher life crashed. No fish to eat the herbivores. Would love to do that on a larger scale in an actual aquarium with some native fish.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I've been thinking about a Georgia barrier islands tank for some years. I did a "life in jars" style experiment that was fascinating, to say the least. There is a spectacular amount of life in a couple of gallons of collected seawater. Lots of small crustaceans, a few different algae, hydroids(?), worms of all types, and a couple of teeny crab hitchhikers. Ultimately, the vegetation could not outpace the feeders and the higher life crashed. No fish to eat the herbivores. Would love to do that on a larger scale in an actual aquarium with some native fish.

I wonder how much volume would be needed for a full scale self-sustsining ecosystems, not just fish to eat herbivores, but larger fish to eat the smaller fish, how large of a system would be needed for said fish to reproduce at a steady rate? I wonder if this has ever been done?

 

[Kjames]

It’s an intriguing question. Seems like it would take a large volume to establish territory and breeding areas for multiple species.

I’d be happy just to see a fish reproduce successfully in any of my tanks! A pair of my clowns spawned several times but everyone got eaten after a few days.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I wonder how much volume would be needed for a full scale self-sustsining ecosystems, not just fish to eat herbivores, but larger fish to eat the smaller fish, how large of a system would be needed for said fish to reproduce at a steady rate? I wonder if this has ever been done?

It’s an intriguing question. Seems like it would take a large volume to establish territory and breeding areas for multiple species.

I’d be happy just to see a fish reproduce successfully in any of my tanks! A pair of my clowns spawned several times but everyone got eaten after a few days.

It would take a huge amount of space for a small amount of fish, but you could work out a rough estimate if you're determined enough and have some specific species in mind to work with - I walked through roughly how to do this using a hypothetical crab in the link below:

Can someone lay out the kind of things I might need to do to sustain an Atlantic/Gulf shelf or estuary biotope with no mech filtration?

I've been doing a lot of reading through the forums and I am very interested in a nutrient recycling setup with no mechanical filtration, which would ideally make maintenance minimal. A pretty big challenge it seems, and not many people opt to create a closed loop recycling system so hard info...

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