30 Long Aggressive Reef

[edwar050]

I want to put all my more aggresive fish togeather so that I can once again have Inverts in my main display. I have a valentini puffer, two damsels blue/yellowtail, and a mean coral banded shrimp. Planning on center overrflow to 13 gallon trash can gravity fed to 20 gallon sump returned at mag 9.5 four feet head and mj 1200 in tank at surface w/ plenty of LR/Macro. Should be between 52-55 gallons of water.
I have seen some really nice T-5's for cheap and plan on throwing in some soft corals. My valentini is softie safe. I am concerned about the coral banded with the eel and valentini. Seems like it would be a death sentence for that mean shrimp. Any Ideas/advice. This will be a full DIY project and will be done as cheaply as possible from sumps, stand, canopy, possibly lighting, overflow, and anything else I can think of.
Just wanted some opinions before I start, Going to attempt a skimmerless setup with thin replaceable sandbed. Valentini is a messy eater and the moray will IMAO be the same, tis another reason for this idea that and I have many of the parts for this emabrgo already.

 

[pitbull01]

The shrimp WILL be dead-the puffer WILL eat it. Your damsels will most likely get eaten by an your eel. However, a 30 gallon is on the small side for MOST morays. However, there is an eel by the common name of "dirty yellow moray" (GYMNOTHORAX MELATREMUS) which is a dwarf eel that would be PERFECT for your system. They only get 8 inches max. Hope this helps some.
-Adam :happyfish
p.s.Your damsels may or may not get to be eel kill, depends how big the damsels are, how big the eel is, if the eel is starving-he may take a chunk of one, or eat it, and whether or not the damsels are fast enough.

-Adam

 

[pitbull01]

Oh, and DO NOT try the skimmerless setup, tried it-dont do it. Also, try not to do it the cheap way. I know the stuff may be cheaper at the store, but the expenses will add up when you have to keep buying new ones or parts or something.
-Adam
You will also want MAJOR filtration on that...kind of a high bioload.

 

[edwar050]

Thanks for the input, I know it will be a high bio-load as well. I did not think that snowflake eels were known for eating fish, I thought they had pebble teeth for inverts like the coral banded shrimp. I guess i could throw him in the sump or the 45 sump. I have thought about the skimmerless idea as well and dislike it myself. Guess I will go with a DIY venturi skimmer. I am only doing some variables the cheap way so that I can afford higher quality stuff for my main tank. I figure all I need is the lighting T-5 39 watt DIY 50 or less, mag 9.5 or 7 50$ used and the rest will be DIY. Eventually I may get a nice skimmer on it but as for now DIY is the only way to go for me. The tank will probably have 50+ pounds live rock. Would this not be enough for a snoflake?? Should I add bio-balls to the 13 gallon trash can sump?
I would have mad micro/rock and a skimmer. After 6 months up only then would I add the eel. Not going to do the setup without the eel. Tired of feeding my puffer in the reef tank bc of messy water quality.
Brad

 

[edwar050]

Also I already have a ten gallon with actinic strip light with two damsels + coral banded + small hermit cleanup crew with no filtration except LR and 400 GPH running through. This is the tank I was thinking of transfering. I am going to increase the water volume below the tank and max out the total system water for the setup at a minimum of 55 gallons :thinking: I am happy to recieve any/all input before I do this. Any FOWLR people feel free to chime in. I also am somewhat concerned about not being able to have inverts like snails and hermits in the tank, thinking of urchins. Any other FOWLR Inverts out there???
thanks for the info on the dirty yellow moray, def. going to look into it more.
Brad

 

[jer4916]

I dont know about the skimmer thing, i have a 125 gallon reef with a refigum, and i dont run a a skimmer myself...and my tanks levels are prefect and all of my animals are doing fine...really depends on the set up...so make sure you look into everything correctly.
~chris

 

[pitbull01]

I don't like the snowflake idea at all. I would seriously get that dwarf eel. A snowflake just gets too large for a 30 gallon, and the less space it has, the harder it tries to escape. I would also not put it in the sump because that is where the water is cleaned, personally, I like to keep it as clean as possible. Do not use bio balls, they can trap things and then release them-such as nitrates. And, any eel that can open its mouth far enough to eat it, it most likely will. Actually believe it or not-I have seen green morays in tanks with cleaner shrimps. If you introduce then cleaners first they USUALLY will not eat them, and will actually go inside the mouths of the eel-and the eel doesnt eat it!! So you may actually be able to keep the shrimp with it-just keep in mind it is sort of a hit and miss thing.
-Adam

 

[pitbull01]

Hey,
Here is a picture of the dirty yellow moray-the dwarf eel that only gets 8 inches max. I found it online.

 

[pitbull01]

Oh, but they are about 300.00 However, they are probably one of the hardiest, if not THE hardiest eel out there, even more so than a snowflake. I am yet to hear of someone that owns one that wasn't able to get it on frozen THE night they got it. They are very rare, but this is what you would need for a tank of your size. You could get a 55 gallon or something to let the snowflake just grow in your tank if you really like him or don't want to spend that much on a fish, but if you think about, by the time you buy the tank and the stand and the filters, etc, you will be spending much, much more. Keeping a snowflake in a 30 gallon is TORTURE.
-Adam :happyfish

 

[pitbull01]

Even if you do everything for the 55 gallon DIY.
-Adam

 

[edwar050]

I have already done a 55 with 45 behind the tank sump. I figured the yellow moray would run alot. I found an aquaC EV90 skimmer used for 100$ that I am going to pick up. I am thinking about a larger tank though I disklike the 55's and dont want to spent alot on lighting, only going T-5's. I suppose I could use the 30 long as a fuge and a 13 gallon trash can as a sump. Though I was trying to do it as simply as possible without spending mega bucks.

 

[edwar050]

Moved everything into a 120 with 12 nano quarantine.
Puffers doing well, shrimp in quarantine tank, would love to add cleaner shrimp to 120 but who knows.