45 Gallon Shallow Caribbean Biotope

[UCedumacasion]

Hey Guys!

I don't live in San Diego anymore but I still want to share my new tank with you guys. I think you will really like it. I'm looking forward to sharing it. I hope you like it.

I went back and forth on this tank, I wanted to do a Reef Tank but decided I wasn’t going to want to invest hardly anything into corals. Then it was on to a frag tank, this idea stayed around for about 6 months, but then I went snorkeling on a couple of local reefs and saw something special. The local animal life is crazy and all in our back yard. I can honestly say I’ve never had an appreciation for Gorgonians, Pork Fish, Sponges, and Macro Algae and now I want them to be the focal point of my tank.

I’m going to go with something different now. A Caribbean Biotope tank, there are a couple of pieces of corals from Indonesia that will slide through (for now) but I want to go 95% Caribbean Animals in this tank.

Because I feel that my Fluidized bed filter will be under used I think I’m going to have fun stocking this tank. My proximity to a couple of local fish stores will make it easy for me to get NSW for my inhabitants. The lack of many hard corals will make it easy for my neighbors to watch it over Christmas. Local animals mean that I will hopefully be able to recreate the beauty out on the reef.

It’s a stretch, and the first tank I’ve had in about 3 years but I think it’ll end up being pretty cool.



Supplies:

2 20# Bags of Caribsea Ocean Direct Sand (Yup, no false advertising there, I’m pretty sure that anyone in South Florida can tell you that, absolute concrete when placed in buckets, wood bark, etc. There’s no way that their name can be considered false advertising)

1 45 Gallon Deep Blue Tank – 36 x 24 x 12

1 Koralia K 3 (Damn right, brought this baby out of storage, still works like a charm)

1 Ecosystem Sump (Not using the Ecosystem method)

1 Mag drive 7 return pump

31# of Haitian Live Rock (I love this stuff, beautiful shapes and pretty cheap over here. Moderately scrubbed and soaked for 15-20 minutes in saltwater)

1 Recirculating Reactor (going to be a Fluidized Sand Bed Filter; these things work wonders)



















Let me know what you think. Comments and suggestions welcome!

[Kris]

I like the live rock, really nice shapes.
(Does anyone over there ship it dry over here?)

[UCedumacasion]

I like the live rock, really nice shapes.
(Does anyone over there ship it dry over here?)

It is Haitian Rock. I'm sure you can get it over there. Sometimes the rock is really dense but a lot of unique shapes and sizes

[UCedumacasion]

Here are some updated pix. It's coming along nicely.

Fish
2x Sergeant Majors (Abudefduf saxatilis)
Juvenile Spanish Hog (Bodianus rufus)
Red Lip Blenny (Ophioblennius atlanticus)
I'm done for a while on fish as the tank is really young and I didn't quarantine my Sergeant Majors because I was too excited to add them lol

Corals
Purple Flat Blade Gorgonian - Pterogorgia anceps
Purple Plume Gorgonian - pseudopterogorgia bipinnata
Plexaura flexuosa


Critters
4 Scarlet Hermit Crabs -
4 Nerite sp. Snails
1 Sand Sifting Cucumber

Blue Sponge (Species coming)
Red/Orange Sponge (species coming)
2 rhodactis sanctithomae
1 ricordia florida

[UCedumacasion]

Blurry