jwilson
New Member
Hi all,
First let me start with an introduction. My name is Jim, I am a former SW tank owner from back in the early 80’s when SW fish keeping was FW with salt in it and a sand bed with plenum/under gravel filter. That experience was great but bachelorhood, moving and fishkeeping were a difficult mix.
Now, older and with more time and money I’m going to get back into the hobby with a 90 Gallon AGA Tech tank that I bought last year and have been planning the set up of ever since. I am planning a community tank that will have pretty mild mannered fish and corals, inverts, etc.
The DT will be on the first floor and I have a 25 gal sump with a Marine Technical Concepts HSA-1000 skimmer. I’m also setting up a 20 gallon long refugium and a 10 gallon QT tank. The refugium will be after the main supply pump and return it’s flow back to the pump side of the sump. In the refugium I plan to have chaeto on a reverse daylight timing and run one of two separate heaters there with the other being in the sump. It's main function will be to grow pods and RDP. Water will be from a mixing station that I am putting together using RO/DI water and I plan on using Marine Environment salt. Lighting will be handled by Outer Orbit Pro Series HQI/T-5/LED Lights with 2x 250W MH’s and 4x54W T-5’s and moon lights. I don’t have a chiller yet, and I’m hoping I won’t need one since the sump and the fuge are in the basement. The tank flow will be from the main pump, an Iwaki RLT100 which is sized to give just under the 1200 GPH that the dual returns can handle while also providing about 100 GPH to the fuge. Other in tank flow will be from (3) Koralia-2’s that will be on a Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper-II controller to get some oscillation as well as protect the larger of the heaters in case it fails “on”. Right now I am up to the point of having purchased all the above, and I'm currently building the fishroom/doing the plumbing.
For inhabitants I am thinking along these lines: a pair of common Clownfish, a Blue Flasher Wrasse, a Royal Gramma, a Yellow Tang, (6) Pajama Cardinal fish, a Lawnmower Blenny, a pair of Firefish, maybe a Naso or Hippo Tang and also maybe a long horned cowfish since the rest of the gang is pretty peaceful and I don’t think he will get attacked and nuke the tank and, since in my earlier years I had one, it wasn’t a problem and “Elsie” was one of my favorite fish.
Now, if you’ve read this far…… thanks. I’d appreciate any comments on what I wrote so far and now I am up to my questions – a bit on inhabitants and substrate.
At issue is that I want to have a Randall’s goby/ Randall’s Pistol shrimp pair but I prefer the look of a shallower sand bed and I don’t think I want, or need, a deep sand bed. Can I put in a 1” sand depth, and have a shrimp goby pair? I’m thinking that the shrimp will move some sand to make it deep enough for their burrow or is that just too shallow a bed? If that will work, I’ve read that the best for burrowers is a mix of larger and smaller pieces. So I was figuring on roughly a 50/50 mix of Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand (0.5-1.7 mm grain) and their Reef Substrate which has 1.0-2.5 mm grain with small shells/shell pieces. Will the coarser sand be too big/tough on the cucumber?
Again, thanks for taking the time to read this and I appreciate any comments you might have for me.
Jim
First let me start with an introduction. My name is Jim, I am a former SW tank owner from back in the early 80’s when SW fish keeping was FW with salt in it and a sand bed with plenum/under gravel filter. That experience was great but bachelorhood, moving and fishkeeping were a difficult mix.
Now, older and with more time and money I’m going to get back into the hobby with a 90 Gallon AGA Tech tank that I bought last year and have been planning the set up of ever since. I am planning a community tank that will have pretty mild mannered fish and corals, inverts, etc.
The DT will be on the first floor and I have a 25 gal sump with a Marine Technical Concepts HSA-1000 skimmer. I’m also setting up a 20 gallon long refugium and a 10 gallon QT tank. The refugium will be after the main supply pump and return it’s flow back to the pump side of the sump. In the refugium I plan to have chaeto on a reverse daylight timing and run one of two separate heaters there with the other being in the sump. It's main function will be to grow pods and RDP. Water will be from a mixing station that I am putting together using RO/DI water and I plan on using Marine Environment salt. Lighting will be handled by Outer Orbit Pro Series HQI/T-5/LED Lights with 2x 250W MH’s and 4x54W T-5’s and moon lights. I don’t have a chiller yet, and I’m hoping I won’t need one since the sump and the fuge are in the basement. The tank flow will be from the main pump, an Iwaki RLT100 which is sized to give just under the 1200 GPH that the dual returns can handle while also providing about 100 GPH to the fuge. Other in tank flow will be from (3) Koralia-2’s that will be on a Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper-II controller to get some oscillation as well as protect the larger of the heaters in case it fails “on”. Right now I am up to the point of having purchased all the above, and I'm currently building the fishroom/doing the plumbing.
For inhabitants I am thinking along these lines: a pair of common Clownfish, a Blue Flasher Wrasse, a Royal Gramma, a Yellow Tang, (6) Pajama Cardinal fish, a Lawnmower Blenny, a pair of Firefish, maybe a Naso or Hippo Tang and also maybe a long horned cowfish since the rest of the gang is pretty peaceful and I don’t think he will get attacked and nuke the tank and, since in my earlier years I had one, it wasn’t a problem and “Elsie” was one of my favorite fish.
Now, if you’ve read this far…… thanks. I’d appreciate any comments on what I wrote so far and now I am up to my questions – a bit on inhabitants and substrate.
At issue is that I want to have a Randall’s goby/ Randall’s Pistol shrimp pair but I prefer the look of a shallower sand bed and I don’t think I want, or need, a deep sand bed. Can I put in a 1” sand depth, and have a shrimp goby pair? I’m thinking that the shrimp will move some sand to make it deep enough for their burrow or is that just too shallow a bed? If that will work, I’ve read that the best for burrowers is a mix of larger and smaller pieces. So I was figuring on roughly a 50/50 mix of Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand (0.5-1.7 mm grain) and their Reef Substrate which has 1.0-2.5 mm grain with small shells/shell pieces. Will the coarser sand be too big/tough on the cucumber?
Again, thanks for taking the time to read this and I appreciate any comments you might have for me.
Jim
