Beach Tank

[Istrom]

Hey guys, I'm planning on making a beach tank. I'm planning on having two pools of water, this would be a freshwater tank and the beach would be used for fiddler crabs, hermit crabs, snails, and other types of inverts. I made a quick picture of what it would look like at a tilted view.

Knowing that Fiddler Crabs tend to burrow, I'd have plastic chicken wire about 2 inches under the surface of the sand. For filtration, I'd probably just do an undergravel filter in general.


This tank would be fairly tall so there would be enough water, and large from front to back. I'm trying to keep species in the range of Venezuela/Colombia, or countries near there.


I need some suggestions:

What land based plants would be possibilities?

What species of inverts come from South America?


Some questions I have in general:

If I have Hatchet Tetras, will they end up beaching themselves when they jump out of the water?

What are some ways to keep all the sand in place so the beach keeps its shape, and the pools are still separate?


Thanks for reading guys. If you have any suggestions for re-designing or adjustments, don't be afraid to speak up.

 

[Mr. Nowhere]

That sounds cool I'll be following

 

[Istrom]

Update:

I'll be making a smaller Mach version of this with an old 15G that I have in my attic. Basically I'll make the shape and fill the water to a certain height, and I'll buy a fiddler crab/hermit crab as well as a couple feeder guppies and a goldfish, both feeders go in one pool, goldfish goes in the other, and the crab does whatever.

This is just to see how the interaction of the fish/inverts will be. I also need to see how the sand will hold up with burrowing crabs, fish movement, and the water in general.

If anyone has any suggestions speak up please, I'd love to hear them. I'll probably end up using some pond plants on the beach area, because I have a pond and those plants aren't submerged a lot of the time (Some of them at least)

(Obviously I won't be buying any sand just yet, that stuff is really expensive in fish tank grade, I'll probably just use some of the stuff I have left over from my Convict tank.)

 

[bettaowner]

Fiddler crabs are brackish water so that's a major change I would make. I would not add any fish as feeders.


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[loachy dance]

Petsmart has a deal with me that i can just free pickup dead fish from them. Crabs are not vulnerable to most fish diseases. Free scavenger food.

 

[Istrom]

Fiddler crabs are brackish water so that's a major change I would make. I would not add any fish as feeders.


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I know fiddler's are brackish. Also, this is just in the small experiment tank. The actual project is a larger scale than 15G. I'm just testing for now.

 

[Macdaddydaze]

I'm following

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[Mebbid]

The sand on the edges of the water isn't going to hold up most likely and you'll be constantly moving it around. How about instead you take a sheet of plastic and glue sand to it for a ramp. It should offer a more stable shore so your crabs will be able to get out without difficulty. Maybe some plastic canvas would work.

 

[Istrom]

UPDATE:

In the next week or so, I will be getting a 55G Saltwater tank (I just bought 60 pounds of salt lol), and I will be buying a LOT of sand. This will make the Mach tank easier to test with. I may end up trying it overnight before putting the sand in the 55 (I need to wash the sand off anyway, it'll be a start) and if the sand structure holds with the chicken wire, I'll know that buying sand for just the mach kit will be worth it. I'll buy the sand and set up the test version of the tank.

Suggestions for the test, or the final project? Tell me! I still need a couple more fish/inverts/land-dwellers as well, so any suggestions on those would be great!

 

[Mebbid]

The sand on the edges of the water isn't going to hold up most likely and you'll be constantly moving it around. How about instead you take a sheet of plastic and glue sand to it for a ramp. It should offer a more stable shore so your crabs will be able to get out without difficulty. Maybe some plastic canvas would work.

Not sure if you saw my last post because it happened at the same time as yours but here it is again.

I'm not aware of any fish other than a betta that would work in those pools. They look like they will be really tiny and even then I'm not sure how much damage the inverts would wreak on a betta.

 

[Istrom]

Sorry, didn't see that post.

I'm looking at multiple options for the substrate right now. Mostly, it's in the category of type of substrate. I'd be looking for large grains of sand as well as dense.

I have one idea for another fix, but it'd take a huge tank. I could make the beach wider in both directions.

Obviously that would take a lot more sand, and even more so because I would want there to be enough depth to the pools that they could hold a good amount of fish. (This would be a VERY long tank, and the beach in this tank wouldn't stretch to the back corners for shaping reasons)

 

[Barbz99]

I'm guessing that you are using sand since it's a beach tank. You can't use under gravel filters with sand bottoms.
~Zac


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[Istrom]

I'm guessing that you are using sand since it's a beach tank. You can't use under gravel filters with sand bottoms.
~Zac


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Yup, got told that yesterday at my LFS. It makes sense, so I don't know why I didn't think about that. I'll probably end up using some sort of modified backpack filter. I'd just run a tube system under the sand and just into one of the pools, and then I'd have the return on the other pool. (I'd have some tubes connecting the pools under the sand)

 

[Barbz99]

Check out the tetra 10i series, they have a really low intake and it might work well for you. You might have to use 2 or just have on large body of water instead of two witch would also make the sand placement a lot easier. It will be very difficult to get the sand in the middle to stay as a beach.


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[Barbz99]

I would do say 1/4 sand almost to the top of the tank and 3/4 water


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[Barbz99]

You might be able to get away with to sand beds on each side as well, but the one in the middle is surely going to be tricky if not impossible


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