Want some input

[Hara]

We will be setting up an eel tank in the near future. Size has not been finalized, but most likely a 120 cube. Here is my question. I do not want to have a bunch of rock in the tank, as I want to be able to see the eels. We will have probably, a couple boulders and a slab across the top, just to give them something to hide around. As heavy a bioload that these guys produce, will I be better off with mechanical filtration, or still a sump with liverock in it.?(would be a heck of a lot of rock in the sump)

Help me toss this around a bit

 

[BillyZ]

if you kept your LR to very large singular pieces you could prehaps retain the benifit of LR filtration while minimizing the amount of hiding holes they create. Then place the rest of the LR in a sump to make up for what's missing.

Or perhaps if aquascaped correctly, the "holes" between the rocks could be kept large enough as to not be enticing to the eels.

*shrug* wish I had more eel experience to offer suggestions.

Looking forward to pictures when it's all setup and happy

 

[Hara]

thanks for the input billy..gonna do large boulders...finding them may be fun

 

[triggers]

I use a wet/dry filter in my 180 gallon. In it I have a Goldentail, Banded, Yellowhead, and snowflake moray eels. The filter works great with my eels.

In my tank I have LR, around 80 pounds, and my eels don't hide a lot, actually my goldentail is out swimming all the time. If you plan on keeping multiple eels I recommend having multiple hiding places. If not when it feeding times come you may have a lot of fighting and you may wake up one morining with one less eel. The general rule is if a fish can fit in the eel's mouth then it will be eaten, however, some eels (if a fish is too big) will rip chunks of flesh off of other fish including eels.

Now I am not saying you have to have LR, but I am saying you may want to rethink about having only one hiding place. Multiple hiding places is IMO the way to go. Remember every fish has its different personality weather it is a eel, triggerfish, angelfish, or blenny's. IMO, a good rule of thumb is: you should have 1 hiding place for every fish in your tank.

hope this helps

 

[BillyZ]

I was thinking about this... what about going the other way with the LR? instead of huge pieces which are difficult in many respects... what about breaking up pieces into much smaller pieces giving your tank a literal pile of rubble. If the pieces are small enough, say golf ball to tennis ball sized, then the holes between the rocks should be too small, and certainly too shallow to be of any real interest to an eel. This way you can have a reasonable quantity of LR to provide you your filtration while limiting the amount of large holes for the eels to hide in...

just another $.02

 

[Hara]

Thanks Billy, but I know from current experience that rubble is NOT the way to go, they burrow and move the stuff constantly and it would never look right.

 

[BillyZ]

:?

*dig* *dig*... *search*... *google*

Ah-Hah



Make your own rock! http://www.athiel.com/lib3/arago.htm
useing argonite sand (southdown/yardright/yadda/yadda) and portland cement

you can make the exact shapes you want in quite large sizes (as big as you want to make em)

 

[Hara]

that is a nice idea...may have to look into it further..