Dedicated non-photosynthetic tank?

coral keeper

Active Member
Hello everyone!
After my 2 gallon FW cherry shrimp tank crashed, I was thinking of devoting a little 2 gallon tank to ONLY non-photosynthetic corals with an actinic lighting so there wouldn't be any algae growth. I know its a bit small, but a 50% water change is only 1 gallon. What do you all think?
 

mx#28

Active Member
How exactly do you plan on setting it up? Have you considered making it a stream tank?
How do you intend to feed the tank?
Keep us posted.
 

coral keeper

Active Member
Ummm... Going to add some sand, and a little bit of LR, but not too much. What is a stream tank? Just by adding phytoplankton. Will do.
 

coral keeper

Active Member
Originally Posted by Sooner_Reefer
http:///forum/post/2612823
Sounds like a cool project.
If you're getting gongorians then you should definitely get a blueberry gongorian.
Oh yeah, forgot to say that blueberry gongorians need some lighting. So it will be going in my biocube. Or I might just add some strong enough lights for the gorgonian in the 2 gall?
 

mx#28

Active Member
Originally Posted by Sooner_Reefer
http:///forum/post/2612823
Sounds like a cool project.
If you're getting gongorians then you should definitely get a blueberry gongorian.
The blueberry gorgonian (Acalycigorgia sp) is a very poor choice as it is very rarely kept successfully by even the most advanced aquarists and marine biologists. It's husbandry requirements are really not known.
 

mx#28

Active Member
Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
http:///forum/post/2612828
Oh yeah, forgot to say that blueberry gongorians need some lighting. So it will be going in my biocube. Or I might just add some strong enough lights for the gorgonian in the 2 gall?
You're thinking of PD's Muriceopsis flavida - the Purple Brush Gorgonian. Very different from the Blueberry gorg.
 

mx#28

Active Member
Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
http:///forum/post/2612814
Ummm... Going to add some sand, and a little bit of LR, but not too much. What is a stream tank? Just by adding phytoplankton. Will do.
I mean what about filtration, flow, top off, etc ???
2 gallons of water is not much. It will make it difficult to keep your water quality up and your parameters stable. Daily evaporation will create a fairly significant change in the salinity - how do you plan to compensate for that? I would suggest an auto-top-off.
Different non-photo critters rely greatly on different rates of flow for their survival and well-being. You will need to choose your animals and then likely have to do research on their required flow rates. How do you intend to set up the flow? A stream tank is one way of doing this. Googel "delbeek stream tank".
What you feed should be based on what you want to keep, so maybe figure out a list first and then consider how you'll feed them. I don't intend to sound condescending, we;ve had this talk before, but there are a great deal of variables to address.
 

coral keeper

Active Member
Originally Posted by MX#28
http:///forum/post/2612906
I mean what about filtration, flow, top off, etc ???
2 gallons of water is not much. It will make it difficult to keep your water quality up and your parameters stable. Daily evaporation will create a fairly significant change in the salinity - how do you plan to compensate for that? I would suggest an auto-top-off.
Different non-photo critters rely greatly on different rates of flow for their survival and well-being. You will need to choose your animals and then likely have to do research on their required flow rates. How do you intend to set up the flow? A stream tank is one way of doing this. Googel "delbeek stream tank".
What you feed should be based on what you want to keep, so maybe figure out a list first and then consider how you'll feed them. I don't intend to sound condescending, we;ve had this talk before, but there are a great deal of variables to address.
I don't think theres going to be any filtration. Just water changes. I'm thinking about building my own auto top off system. I'll draw a little diagram of the auto top off system and show it to you later on the day. I was thinking of just adding 1 strong pump and hooking up a lot of different diameters of tubes to the outlet of the pump and the ones that need higher flow with be getting thiner tubs pointing their way because higher pressure = stronger flow and the ones that need lower flow get wider tubes pointing their way because wider tubes = less pressure. I'll go look into what they all eat and start cultures of what they eat.
 

paintballer768

Active Member
Youre going to need to be very careful with this tank if you go through with it. Nonphotosynthetic means youre going to need to spot feed, and if you overfeed by just a little, the nitrates will soar so high.
And if ya take too much water it, it might throw it into a cycle again
 

scopus tang

Active Member
I'm curious about water quality. How will you control the water quality in this tank? Small regular water changes will not control nutrient build-up IMO, especially with the almost constant drip that some of these corals require, and frequent, repeated, large scale water changes will be almost as detrimental. How will you prevent nutrient levels from building?
 

reefforbrains

Active Member
Bad news if ya ask me. I know your excited, but the tank is just too prone for instability for such inhabitants as your intending.
Not poking at your reef-keeping abilities, it has bad news written all over it since you tech will NEVER be able to have stable tank conditions without a host of redundant equip. Auto top off would almost be manditory. Carefully measured and maintained constant feeding most likley through dosing pumps also to be in the list of manditory. On such small tank I would also say that Closed loop to displace volume would give more beifit and keep the DT space open.
Stability is what is paramount for such things as blue gorgs and carnations. They are both finiky and command stability. Even in larger tanks they can be full time jobs.
Your excitement is contagious, but I do think your barking at a project of headache and heartache. Money and effort in my oppinion at least would be better spend on a larger tank where stability would be far easier.
 
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