sammystingray
Active Member
This is one of the aquariums in my bedroom......what do you think?
Worlds ugliest tank
- Thread starter sammystingray
- Start date
sammystingray
Active Member
hahahahehe. alright, it's not actually a display tank. I keep this in the bedroom so it isn't really seen. It is my pod growing tank, and setup purposefully wrong to grow algaes and pods. There are no fish at all, and nothing that will eat my pods. I use this tank to feed worms and pods into my main reef. Sort of like the refugium I wish I had, but don't, so I run this as a pod breeder tank. I've never really mentioned this tank I don't think. The glass is completely covered with thousands and thousands of pods, and there are scary amounts of worms. This tank is so butt ugly that I decided to show it....... Of course I never clean the glass.....wouldn't make much sense to keep this tank clean. I WANT algae, and I actually TRY for slimne algae since the amphipods absolutely love it.....very obvious what they like when all of them go to the same little red patches.....I don't know exactly why I decided to show this beauty, but I thought someone might find interest in a tank that grows nothing but bugs. They get syphoned out once in awhile to feed my reef tank in the living room, and make sure the pod populations don't dwindle due to fish and pod eaters.
Of course I never clean the glass.....wouldn't make much sense to keep this tank clean. I WANT algae, and I actually TRY for slimne algae since the amphipods absolutely love it.....very obvious what they like when all of them go to the same little red patches.....I don't know exactly why I decided to show this beauty, but I thought someone might find interest in a tank that grows nothing but bugs. They get syphoned out once in awhile to feed my reef tank in the living room, and make sure the pod populations don't dwindle due to fish and pod eaters.
sammystingray
Active Member
BTW, I put my finger in the pic so anyone wondering about copepods can see how small they are compared to the much larger amphipods mixed in with them on the glass. Tiny little guys that run around the size of the period at the end of these words.
snakes'n'fish
Member
Cool sammy !! an all natural diet for reef
saltyshark
Member
Very nice Sammy...I'm very jealous Just look at all those pods!!!
Did you get your starting pod population from that LR (bottom right..I think) or else where?
Thanks,
SaltyShark
Just look at all those pods!!! Did you get your starting pod population from that LR (bottom right..I think) or else where?
Thanks,
SaltyShark
broncofish
Active Member
Very cool sammy. Who needs a refugium when you got a uglium
sammystingray
Active Member
hehehehahaha....... It truly is butt ugly, but interesting upon closer inspection. I have a good time with the ugly thing.......I just don't tell anyone about it. Sucks waking up hung over and seeing this ugly thing next to me.........I could go on, but I won't .
It truly is butt ugly, but interesting upon closer inspection. I have a good time with the ugly thing.......I just don't tell anyone about it. Sucks waking up hung over and seeing this ugly thing next to me.........I could go on, but I won't .
T
thomas712
Guest
I have got to have one of those. Maybe set one up in the living room as the main display and a beautiful reef as a refugium in the basement.
Sammy I would like to know what filtration you are running in that tank as well as substrate and lighting. please.
Thomas
Sammy I would like to know what filtration you are running in that tank as well as substrate and lighting. please.
Thomas
hairtrigger
Active Member
Ahahahaha, it is quite an ugly tank Sammy... but I guess it is like the ugly girl that grows up to be hot. It has an awesome purpose in the longrun. Let me ask you... how much success have you had breeding pods in that tank, then transfering them to other systems to seed the DSB or whatever with life? Cause this is really quite interesting. Who would've thought reef tanks were just more than pretty corals?
Let me ask you... how much success have you had breeding pods in that tank, then transfering them to other systems to seed the DSB or whatever with life? Cause this is really quite interesting. Who would've thought reef tanks were just more than pretty corals? 
sammystingray
Active Member
Hairtrigger, works very well. Even though I don't have notorious pod eaters in my reef such as a mandarin or whatever.....seems ALOT of fish and creatures like to eat pods. My reef couldn't keep up the populations, so this was my solution. The pods go nuts in this mess of a tank, and you can see there is plenty for them to eat without fear of anything preying on them. The pic there is the front glass, and I usually just scoop them all off the front glass and add them to the reef at night. If I add them during the day.....the fish go right at the amphipods. I have a microscope collecting dust, so maybe I'll look at some of the water in there to see if any planktons in the water....I usually just hope the water I add from the ugly tank will supply some food for corals and filter feeders of zooplankton.
sammystingray
Active Member
BTW the diversity of life is very small.....almost exclusively amphipods, worms, and copepods. I am toying with the idea of throwing in some brine shrimp eggs. It is working so well for growing pods, that I am kind of scared to mess with it.
sammystingray
Active Member
Bandwidth used up I guess....some may have noticed I had pics on several sites. shhhhh. here they are compressed and uploaded to this server instead.
shhhhh. here they are compressed and uploaded to this server instead.
sammystingray
Active Member
pods on glass....
