Some of you have been asking for pictures and since Reef Frontiers doesn't have a facebook app yet I thought I would finally post some on here. I have a 46 gallon bow front with a Coralife Aqualight Pro light (2 65 wt true blue actinics, a 150 wt, 10,000 k MH, and 2 blue lunar LEDs). The euro brace in the middle of the tank casts a shadow where the MH, which sits directly over it, can't get to. I didn't like that at first and it still bothers me when I look at the tank as a whole, but it gives me the opportunity to put some corals that fluoresce under actinics in the shadow. I have black argonite sand in my 29 gallon freshwater tank and loved the look so much that I went for black sand in the 46 too. My sump is a self-modified 10 gallon tank that I added baffles to. (Intake, bubble trap, fuge, baffle, return). I have a SCWD on the back of the tank connected by garden hose; yeah, garden hose. I bought it by the foot at Lowe's and siliconed it to the connections on the SCWD (I had to run 3/4" hose from the SCWD to 1/2" hose on the return lines. You'll see what I mean in the pics). My return pump is a Mag 7 and it's doing great. I have a Remora skimmer hanging on the sump intake area with a Mag 3 attached but I haven't turned it on yet because there is nothing to skim since I just put fish in 3 days ago. I collected my rock from several places. I got some from a gal on reefcentral who was taking her tank down, some from a guy in Puyallup, a HUGE gorgeous piece covered in aptasia and gha from Barrier Reef, and a few more pieces from a guy who was selling his livestock so he could set up his tank when he moves to Arizona. I also purchased the 2 clown fish, 3 red firefish, some hermit crabs, and a scissor tail goby from him. I used about 20 gallons of his water to seed my tank too. My tank has only been up and running 3 weeks and I already have finished the brown and green algae "blooms" (it showed up on my rock and left the water crystal clear) and I'm hoping to see some coraline growth soon. My ammonia, nitrite,and nitrate are all at 0, even with a crab, a shrimp, and Norman, the tiny yellow tang I got from Barrier, passing away in the tank. I do have micro bubbles in my tank and right now, but that is the only problem I have with it at this point. I've rearranged the rocks 3 times and I guess I'm happy with it, but with such a small floor space I can't do a nice open design like those of you with 280 gals can, without sacrificing a lot of rock. Please keep in mind while you look at my pics that the tank is only 3 weeks old. Enjoy and feel free to give me pointers and suggestions on how I can make my tank better! (Sorry the pics aren't that great. I'm trying to figure out the best setting to use on my camera)
Ellylove's 46 Gallon Bow Front (VERY Pic Heavy!)
- Thread starter Ellylove
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Pics are great, but where do you come up with some of the names???
Fred & Ethel are kinda cute.
Fred & Ethel are kinda cute.
Fred and Ethel are the names of the older couple in I Love Lucy and I thought the clowns definitely had the same look on their faces as the couple in the show. Kinda crotchety. Lol!
Snufalufagus the conch looks like a snufalufagus. Did you ever watch Sesame Street? My mom also thinks he looks kinda like a Hoover vacuum.
I named the tang Norman because tangs eat nori. Norman, Nori; because you are what you eat. : )
Fred and Ethel are familiar....................I hate to say that, I used to watch that show.
Looking good glad to see it coming along
Thanks! It's nice to finally see things paying off.
How long has it been set up?
MGDMIRAGE
Shoulda been a fish!
Looks good, that center brace sure does shadow huh?
I love the snail tracks on the back lol.
I love the snail tracks on the back lol.
Looks good, that center brace sure does shadow huh?
I love the snail tracks on the back lol.
Yeah, the shadow is annoying, but the bright green sponge thing sure looks good there since it's getting mostly actinic light. It's kinda cool when you look up close to see different colorations on different rocks because of the different light.
I am very pleased with how well the snails have cleaned everything. Usually the back looks like that because the algae keeps covering up where they just cleaned. When I came downstairs this morning though, there was not a single spec of green algae on the back of the tank. I don't know who ate it all of it or if the bloom was just over, but the back glass is so clean you can see the reflections of the rocks in it. If you look at the last few full tank shots, I took those this morning so you can see how all the algae is gone and there is nothing but pods and pods and pods covering the back wall. I want a mandrin and seeing those pods swarming EVERYWHERE is tempting me to get one earlier than the 6 months I had originally planned on. I just want to make sure he has enough food, but with the way the pods are multiplying I think I'd have one fat little fish!
MGDMIRAGE
Shoulda been a fish!
Have you read up on training mandarins to eat frozen yet? May be helpful because a mandarin could wipe out a fully pod stocked 46 pretty quick. If you get it trained on frozen though it can have a balance of both and should be fine.
Mandarins are my dream fish but i haven't a system to support them
Mandarins are my dream fish but i haven't a system to support them
nsamouroux
Well-known member
A mandarin dragonet will certainly wipe out all of the copepods in that tank in fairly short order. They constantly browse the rockwork and are almost always feeding. I had one for two years that was extremely fat in my 100 gallon tank but he wiped out all of the copepods in that system within 2 months after I disconnected the refugium I had sitting above the tank on a shelf and gravity-draining down into it. I had moved the refugium to the sump area, and the 'pod population was extremely dense in the sump but they wouldn't survive the trip through the pump to get back into the display so the mandarin started to starve and I had to give him to someone else. I thought my 100g tank that had been set up for 2+ years would be more than enough to keep him fed so I never bothered to train it to eat frozen, but as soon as that above-tank refugium was taken down the pod population couldn't be replenished fast enough.
Unless you're able to see in person the mandarin eating frozen food before purchase, you're just setting yourself up for another fish death. By the time you're able to get it trained (some just can't be trained FYI) it would probably already have starved in a tank that size. You could always purchase live copepods in bulk, but you'd probably be adding a bag per week into the aquarium and who knows what sort of unwanted things would come in with them from the supplier... I loved watching the mandarin and plan on getting one, or perhaps a pair, for my new tank but they're an extremely difficult fish to keep alive if you don't plan things out ahead of time.
Unless you're able to see in person the mandarin eating frozen food before purchase, you're just setting yourself up for another fish death. By the time you're able to get it trained (some just can't be trained FYI) it would probably already have starved in a tank that size. You could always purchase live copepods in bulk, but you'd probably be adding a bag per week into the aquarium and who knows what sort of unwanted things would come in with them from the supplier... I loved watching the mandarin and plan on getting one, or perhaps a pair, for my new tank but they're an extremely difficult fish to keep alive if you don't plan things out ahead of time.
