An experiment that i have done in freshwater and really want to try in a reef

[zacheyp]

Last year i tried an expirament in freshwater. I add elodea 3 guppys and some snails to a ten gallon tank. I placed the tank in front of a window. The sun grew the elodea which fed the fish whose waste fed the snails. In worked for 8 months until the power outage. I had 3 genarations of fish. I would like to do this with a reef. I would have a bunch of live rock and a bulky cuc. My goal is to use to cuc. I would have mushrooms and zoas grown by the light outside. My stocking would be a pair of nano gobys. My biggest concerns are flow and heat. Any suggestions?

 

[Sniperhank]

Powerhead or two and a heater. They can get covered in algae and be fine, I've seen it in a LFS lol

 

[zacheyp]

its not about the look, its about no elextricity

 

[Sniperhank]

I ment that they would work. Because TBH, I have no clue how you would keep a tank at ~80 degrees and keep good enough circulation without it...unless you live in a heated wind turbine.

 

[zacheyp]

i am looking for ideas, i want to make it clear that i wont do anything to kill fish

 

[zacheyp]

has anyone ever done anything like this?

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

What is a cuc??

 

[bighabeeb]

Meh, redacted. I had a long, drawn-out response, but its probably not worth it. Sorry for interrupting with a redacted post.

 

[bighabeeb]

What is a cuc??

Clean Up Crew

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

And ur clean up crew would consist of what?

 

[zacheyp]

snails hermits and maybee shrimp. As stated before i have done this in fw before but sw seems a bit more challenging

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

Wow man than I dent know that thnx for the info

 

[Leighton79]

Sounds ill advised so say the least to me.

Circulation, no electric = not happening

How are you going to remove pollutants without filtration which uses electric?

Shrimp and other inverts will simply not tolerate high nitrate and you will have that by the bucketload.

 

[bighabeeb]

Sounds ill advised so say the least to me.

Circulation, no electric = not happening

How are you going to remove pollutants without filtration which uses electric?

Shrimp and other inverts will simply not tolerate high nitrate and you will have that by the bucketload.

Couldn't agree more. Part of the diatribe which I redacted included the following metaphor.

What you're proposing is a small scale version of trying to keep antelope and lions in your backyard. Given a large enough yard, you would be successful in the short term. eventually, however, you'd run out of either grass or antelopes, resulting in the death of the lions.

My suggestion, and you can take it or leave it, is that you get a normal tank up and running as has been discussed in MANY other threads now. Start slow, and use traditional methods. Don't try to rewrite the "how to reef" book, especially right out of the box and especially your first time out. Methods used in reef keeping are generally accepted for a reason: its not to be a pain in the butt, it's because they give you the best possible chance for success. Even doing everything in your power: utilizing every possible technology and every possible "best practice", there is still a TREMENDOUS amount of room for failure. What you are proposing in this thread, while fascinating, increases that chance of failure dramatically.

Again, don't rewrite the book. Get your tank. Fill it with live rock. Get filtration and skimming and lighting up and running. Slowly add fish. Battle off algae blooms and nasty hitchhikers, and then start adding corals. It's not rocket science, but it's a well established "order of operations" for a reason.

 

[MikeYQM]

Will not work. Not long term at least.

SW fish, as part of ocean water are used to, and demand stable parameters. Water quality seldom deviates due to the incredible volume of water in which they live.

Fresh fish are far more adaptable to varied conditions as fresh bodies of water are smaller and are often more contained.

 

[ccCapt]

Last year i tried an expirament in freshwater. I add elodea 3 guppys and some snails to a ten gallon tank. I placed the tank in front of a window. The sun grew the elodea which fed the fish whose waste fed the snails. In worked for 8 months until the power outage. I had 3 genarations of fish. I would like to do this with a reef. I would have a bunch of live rock and a bulky cuc. My goal is to use to cuc. I would have mushrooms and zoas grown by the light outside. My stocking would be a pair of nano gobys. My biggest concerns are flow and heat. Any suggestions?

Well to start off, you have the sequence of events wrong.
The sunlight fed the elodea.
The fish fed off the elodea.
The fish waste supplied nitrogen which also help feed the elodea.
The snails lived off the algae in the tank which was fueled by the high nitrogen and sunlight.
Being this was a "non-powered" setup, what did the power outage have to do with everything dying? Guppies can live in water temps as low as 55.

For many reasons, something like that will not work in saltwater.

 

[zacheyp]

during the power outage my house got to 36 degrees