Planning my next tank

[ejaustin]

I'm planning my next tank. (Isn't everyone?) This project is several months from having any physical reality, but planning is important and dreaming is fun.

In my next tank, I want to showcase jawfish because I think they are just the neatest little guys. I'm thinking plants and macroalgae would be cool to have as well.

I'm imagining a tank that is 4' x 4' x 25". On the end near the overflows, I will put some live rock. My plan is for the live rock area to be about 18" front to back and across the width of the tank, so about 6 square feet for the live rock. I'd like to have an area in the middle of the tank that has a shallower bed, rather than doing the even-depth kind of look. On the end away from the overflows, I want the bed to be 10-12" deep with the plain at the top being roughly 18" front to back and across the width of the tank.

I'm thinking of using plants or macroalgae to stabilize the slope, just as I would do on dry land. I don't know near enough about algae to know what species will be included. I like the look of turtle grass and the shaving brush thingies. I'm thinking closer to the bottom of the slope, having some taller plants or macroalgae. I'd also like to have a variety of colors of algae. Some of the reds are quite spectacular. I haven't seen many browns in my research so far, but I'd be willing to consider some of those, too. And maybe at the top on the plain, some mermaid fans.

This will not be a photo-synthetic only kind of tank, though. As I said, I want to house a jawfish or 3. I'm weighing my options on other critters. A tilefish or two is a possibility, although not a given. (I'll have to have rubble for the jawfish anyway.) I love blennies and will probably have one or two of those. I'm considering cardinals or anthias or firefish to populate the open-water areas. I'm also thinking about seahorses and/or pipefish if I can come up with a feeding scheme that seems likely to work for the whole tank. (I'll almost certainly have a pod farm fuge and a plankton and/or brine shrimp farm fuge.) I also really like the look of copper band butterflies, but I haven't done enough research to have a feel for how they'd fit into the whole balance of things. Oh, I almost forgot. My royal gramma will move into the new tank at some point.

For inverts, I have to say I'm not big into corals. I do enjoy snails and will probably have a variety. Currently I have astraeas, nassarius, and ceriths. Will do the nassarius and ceriths, but I'm undecided about the astraeas. I'd like a few peppermint shrimp and probably a couple skunk cleaner shrimp as well. I'm not sure if any kind of stars would be included in this community. They look cool but again, I don't know enough for a feel of how they would contribute to/affect the balance of things.

At this point, I'm inviting feedback and comments. Thanks.

ej

[piercho]

Sounds similar to my plans for my next tank, except that there will be no live rock. Stony coral will be fixed to the back wall. Currently, I have a 65G lagoon with corals, clams, and plants.

Jawfish. I've tried jawfish in a deep bed of fine sand, and that does not work. In fine sand their burrows collapse. They require a heterogeneous mix of sand, gravel, and reef rubble. According to Scott Michael, in the wild pearly (yellowhead, Caribbean) jawfish have burrow spacings of at least 6". Blue-spotted (Cortez) jawfish are more aggressive and have to be spaced much farther apart than pearly jawfish. He does not give any stocking density recommendations for the other jawfish that show up in the trade. Substrate should be at least 4" deep. Jawfish may try to make a den under clams or rock placed on top of the sand. I watch one large clam slowy sink into my sandbed as a jawfish persistantly dug out the sand from under it. Having enough reinforcement in the sand - gravel and rubble - should keep this from occuring, I hope.

Tilefish. The genus Hoplolatilus (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/hcs3/index.php) tilefish are supposed to be compatable with jawfish. I was looking at including these in my tank, but decided not to as they are normally from deep environments and I will be illuminating my tank fairly brightly.

I'm going to try to find tank-bred fang blennies to include in my jawfish tank. My rational is that fang blennies are small, super-mellow, tend to swim out in the middle of the tank, and so should be a good dither fish for the jawfish.

Plants: Seagrass may be a good choice for this tank once the substrate gets dirty enough. Shoal grass, star grass, or manatee grass are easier than turtle grass to establish, IME. Mermaid's fan is an easier sand-associated algae, IME. Shaving brush can be harder, and seems to need higher nutrient levels. There are a couple of sand-associated Halimeda's and these are attractive and easy, IME. I used Florida Pets to get these Florida plants, and there are other vendors.

[ejaustin]

Thanks for the reply.

For the jawfish, I will probably go with the pearlies for the very reason you cite. I believe in a tank this size I could successfully have 2 or 3 without overcrowding them.

You're right about the substrate, of course. It can't be purely sand. I will add some of the coarser stuff (special grade, is that what it's called?) and will probably make some of my own small pieces of rock to include in the substrate to give the jawfish "walls" to put to use, without building the whole burrow for them.

I'm not sold on the tilefish. They aren't rare in the trade, but they are not all that common either. That, together with the depths they tend to prefer makes it difficult to find healthy critters and I understand they do better with more than one, which multiples the challenge.

I do want somebody who will bring some life to the water column. I have a royal gramma who will go into the jawfish tank so I need some live rock for her to be comfy and I also feel a live rock area gives me more flexibility in additional tankmates. I'm considering getting some firefish or cardinals or anthias to give some life to the water column.

As far as the vegetative matter goes, if I include some mud in the substrate, could I plant grasses earlier? I'm really thinking that I'd like to get that established first to help stabilize the contours of the substrate to some extent. (And would the mud annoy the jawfish?) I'm envisioning something grassy and on the short side on the slope from the plain to the deeper-water area. Probably something green, but I'm open to other colors as well. Then closer to the bottom of the hill, something tall and maybe red or brown... a sort of curtain effect. I'm hoping that part of the effect of that would be to impede the water flow a bit to make it slow enough for horses and pipefish to be comfy on the plain.

I also saw a picture somewhere of a red algae that, it said, like to grow on vertical surfaces. Galaxaura filamentosa, according to my notes. Some of that might look nice on the live rock. Amphiroa spp.is visually stunning, but I don't have any information about its husbandry.

When I think about how all this might come about, I envision setting up the tank, putting in and contouring the substrate, building the live rock area, and adding water. Then I plan on letting everything settle in for a while, probably 3 weeks or so past the end of the cycle and maybe longer.

Then I'd like to add the macroalgae and plants at that point. I'm thinking I may need to dose NO3 of some kind and some CO2, to fill in the gaps caused by the lack of animals at that point. Or I could plumb it together with my FOWLR system to get some animal chemistry into the planted tank's water. I'd like to spend a month or two just seeing how the green stuff does and making whatever tweaks seem necessary.

Once the green stuff begins to become established and I understand a little how to help it along, then I'll be ready for the fauna.

Does that sound like a workable plan?

ej

[piercho]

add some of the coarser stuff (special grade, is that what it's called?) I think the idea would be to get a heterogeneous mix of a range of substrate sizes, and avoid a homogeneous mix. So yes, mixing different grades of substrates should work. Caribsea (http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/products/marine/substrate/aragonite.html) sells a heterogeneous substrate called Grand Bahamas Biomes that is suppose to be suitable for burrowers, but I have not tried it.if I include some mud in the substrate, could I plant grasses earlier? Yes, I would say so. I would put the mud at the bottom, under the other substrate. Samala has also had good luck getting some sea grass to grow faster and denser by adding nutrients to the water column; you might want to go to her website (http://seanursery.com/) where she has a log about her planted tank. Star grass seems to adapt more readily to a "young" substrate, IME.would the mud annoy the jawfish? I don't think so. You might not want them digging down into it and pulling the black stuff to the top of the sand bed. I've used fiberglass window screen to separate the bottom layer of substrate before. You could also use Enkamat (http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings.categories/ssid/221) to excluded burrowers from the bottom layer.

Your plan sounds fine to me. Samala and others here are focusing on marine planted tanks, planted tank aquascaping, and planted tank nutrient dosing. They would be better able than I am to recommend plants that would meet your aquascaping plans, and talk about plant husbandry. Beyond a few sea grass and sand-associated algae, I haven't purposefully tried to cultivate that many plants.