Suggestions for Starting up my SW Collection

[Herps and fish]

Hi guys! I have posted something very similar to this in the FW section, and soon in the reptiles section. New here, but certainly not to the exotic hobby! I've kept animals since I was 2 years old and don't plan to stop any time soon.

I'm currently at college right now, and once I am completed with school and have a steady business going (planning on starting a law firm), I want to have a big boom in my collection. I currently have a pufferfish and a pair of leopard geckos living with me, and a rabbit/dog/3 cats living back at home. However, before this I had TONS of animals - birds, monitors, snakes, racks upon racks of FW aquariums, a few reef tanks, a shark tank, and eventually I had to slim it down to my leopard geckos and then the puffer tank I set up last Christmas for myself, as money got tight and my parents didn't want to care for all of them. So don't flame me for wanting to get a bunch of animals at once, lol.

I am looking for suggestions of animals to add to my collection once I have the money and space - mostly cool-sounding tanks, biotopes, some cool fish (FW and salt) - everything. I had a huge list planned out, but eventually I toned it down a bit so that it would be a bit more simple. I'll list those for you guys, and I have pictures of what I would like them to resemble if anyone wants to see those.

First is a 12 foot intex pool - Moriarty did one of these on Reefcentral that I am modeling it after, mine will just be a little bigger. It will be a FOWLR, and my stock will be different than his. I am planning to house 4 triggers, 10 tangs, 10 angels (large and small), a harlequin tusk, 2 butterflys, a foxface, a puffer, a moorish idol, and a bunch of random smaller fish. I am planning to stock this at a medium/low level and slowly adding on more cool fish I can find - no sharks or rays for this pool, but we'll get to those

The next one will be a simple tank for a peacock mantis, I'm planning on double what I've been told and going with a 40 breeder. I might try a few corals and maybe a cool damsel.

Next is an 1,800 gallon (the size isn't set in stone, and the dimensions are off I believe) that is planned to house a zebra shark (yes, an ACTUAL zebra shark!!). These are among my favorite sharks, and I am planning on giving mine 8 feet wide and 16 feet long and 3 feet deep of tank space, along with minimal rocks, to explore. This will be a view from the top of the tank, and there will be a few other fish in here but this is mostly for the shark. I may consider an intex pool versus a plywood build as it will likely be a lot stronger and will probably save space.

Next is a 210 that is set to house a giant pacific octopus. Nothing special here. Oh, don't worry - I've been doing TONS of reading on keeping octopuses on sites like Tonmo, so some good stuff. I've also kept sharks before for anyone wondering.

Next is a 29 gallon biocube set to house a few fish and a mixed reef. I'm going to add a skimmer, a retrofit LED kit, and a few other things.

Next is a 40 gallon hexagon that will house a pair of seahorses and a few other mild-tempered fish.

Next comes my favorite dimension tank, the 75 gallon (my freshwater section is planned to have around 6 of them I believe). There's going to be lots of LPS corals in here, and stock will be a few simple easy to care for fish.

For my favorite sharks, eppies, I'm either going to go with a half cylinder or a full cylinder that is 1,200 gallons, or 3.5 feet deep and 8 feet across (if it is a full cylinder, but this would be incredibly expensive). I may keep them just in an intex pool or even a stock tank until I can afford something like this. I'm planning on 2 breeding pairs of eppies, with some lookdowns, monos, and chromis schooling above them.

Eventually, I would like to have a stingray pool made. This would either be indoors as an Intex pool (would probably start as this) and then move into an 11,000 gallon exhibit-style tank. It's going to be 20 feet long, 40 feet wide, and I believe 2 feet deep (maybe 2.5 or 3, I have it drawn out somewhere) with an island in the middle. I've got lots of family in construction and I'm not bad either, so I think I can do it for relatively cheap (much cheaper than having someone else build it). It's going to house mostly rays (southerns, americans, cownoses, and a guitarfish) along with benthic sharks and a few basic fish for fillers.

On top of that, I am planning 2 shark tanks for my office - I will start by housing everybody in Intex pools at my house until they are big enough/healthy enough and the tanks are completed (this is assuming I have a sucessful law firm, lol). One will be a coldwater with I think 3 leopard sharks and a swell shark along with a few baitfish, and the other will be a tropical one with a nurse shark, a few blacktip reefs, a few whitetip reefs, maybe some bonnetheads, some sort of medium-sized grouper, lots of schooling fish for dithers, a few benthic sharks, and a few large morays as well as a massive stingray if I can get it. I'm aiming for around 7,500 gallons with this one - a massive tank!

Any suggestions? There are a few other fish I am looking to add to my tanks eventually - one of these is the porcupine puffer, and I may add it into the 7,500 gallon when (if) it's up. I am open to all ideas!

 

[HookedOnFishh]

Is your house a mansion? Because the tanks your asking are huge!!! And each set up about 2,000 or more. On the list you asked for many many tanks which will end anyone bankrupt in the end, unless you have deep pockets. How about QT tanks you NEED THEM if you want that amount of fish successfully. If your running a full time law firm there's no way you could mange the tanks and work.

*I'm not trying to be rude but that list is huge you may want to shorten it down to a solid 3 tanks you like the most and keep and that.

** Make sure you have QT tanks to!!


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[Herps and fish]

Is your house a mansion? Because the tanks your asking are huge!!! And each set up about 2,000 or more. On the list you asked for many many tanks which will end anyone bankrupt in the end, unless you have deep pockets. How about QT tanks you NEED THEM if you want that amount of fish successfully. If your running a full time law firm there's no way you could mange the tanks and work.

*I'm not trying to be rude but that list is huge you may want to shorten it down to a solid 3 tanks you like the most and keep and that.

** Make sure you have QT tanks to!!


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Yeah, I've though about this. I feel like the zebra shark could easily be kept in a large tank at my office, and doesn't need any kind of special tank for itself. So that's an 1,800 gallon tank that doesn't need to be set up. The 2 office shark tanks won't come until the law firm has proven to be successful for a few years. The 12 foot Intex pool will definitely be one of the tanks I keep at my house, as on the RC thread it said it was VERY low maintenance, almost like a FW tank. The 40 breeder won't be any kind of "reef", just a normal saltwater tank with 1 or 2 basic corals thrown in (softies probably, nothing high-maintenance). The octopus will likely be a decent amount of work, but I'm prepared for this. The BioCube will definitely be some work as it is a reef, but once again I'm prepared for this to be a lot of work. I'm going to have it completely automated, along with the octopus tank, just for simplicity. I'm thinking I'll ditch the seahorse tank as it's slowly becoming more boring. The 75 gallon reef can go too just because FOWLRs are more my thing. That 1,200 gallon cylinder, the stock can easily be combined into the 11,000 gallon build. The office tanks, there can be an intern for that, or even someone with a part-time job to care for them. And the 11,000 gallon build - an outdoor build isn't making too much sense to me - at the same time, that's a LOT of evaporation that's going to happen. I might go with a specially-designed above-ground pool, a few liners, and place it in a wooden shed built to the side of the house and then heavily insulated. That would certainly be cheaper - not cheap, but still cheaper.

Also - the QT tanks are definitely an important thing!!! I'm thinking about just slowly adding fish into a few divided larger tanks, like 180's and 210's.

 

[keegster803]

You should get a 1-5 gallon nano reef for your desk. To prove to every client that you can do almost the impossible?


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[Herps and fish]

You should get a 1-5 gallon nano reef for your desk. To prove to every client that you can do almost the impossible?


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Lol those are so hard to do, more maintenance than the 12 foot pool probably

I'm actually thinking about the one on Melev's Reef for a starting point. Seems like he had pretty good success using it for a dwarf seahorse tank/goby tank/frag growout tank

 

[keegster803]

Lol those are so hard to do, more maintenance than the 12 foot pool probably



I'm actually thinking about the one on Melev's Reef for a starting point. Seems like he had pretty good success using it for a dwarf seahorse tank/goby tank/frag growout tank

Yeah I had one set up, and it crashed. But I'm rebuilding it again. They are definitely not easy. But look amazing when setup right


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[Herps and fish]

Yeah I had one set up, and it crashed. But I'm rebuilding it again. They are definitely not easy. But look amazing when setup right


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Nice, keep us posted. Any fish?

 

[keegster803]

It was a 5 gallon, fluval spec V. It's got one sole survivor, a hermit crab. But it housed only inverts and corals


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[Herps and fish]

It was a 5 gallon, fluval spec V. It's got one sole survivor, a hermit crab. But it housed only inverts and corals


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Sweet. We bought a Fluval Spec V for my grandma for christmas, she loves it (we just set it up with a few plants and a betta). Nice little tanks they just need to make them in like a 30 gallon size though. They'd be so much easier then.

 

[keegster803]

Sweet. We bought a Fluval Spec V for my grandma for christmas, she loves it (we just set it up with a few plants and a betta). Nice little tanks they just need to make them in like a 30 gallon size though. They'd be so much easier then.

Yeah, I really do love fluval's products. And I have a thread for that 5 gallon that I made a while ago. I'm actually posting some pics of the tank tonight when I finally get back from being at my grandparents house for the holidays.


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[HookedOnFishh]

Sounds like you planned it so well... That means your prepared for it then. lol having a bio cube in your house then like a shark tank and Octopus tank! Do you have exact filtration your using? Because then your all prepared!


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[Herps and fish]

Sounds like you planned it so well... That means your prepared for it then. lol having a bio cube in your house then like a shark tank and Octopus tank! Do you have exact filtration your using? Because then your all prepared!


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The bio cube will have upgraded filtration, probably going to buy media baskets and set up a fuge and some purigen, etc. Probably adding a skimmer (well one or the other). Really the only tank I haven't figured out filtration for is the stingray tank, lol. That's 11,000 gallons I need to filter, I may downsize it but that's about where it's going to stay and with sharks and all, that's a BIG skimmer.
The other tanks are probably going to be run on DIY skimmers as well as sumps.

 

[Herps and fish]

The new plans for the stingray/small shark tank are a custom above-ground pool (will likely cost around 5 or 6 grand) that's 25 feet wide and 16 feet long and 3 feet deep - or 6,500 gallons (ish) - it's an oval tank. Still gives tons of space for inhabitants so no problems there.
So what about stocking? Well, the main reason this tank is being built is for the bigger/more active rays - a school of cownoses and a pair of southerns. On top of those, there's going to be a guitarfish and an atlantic ray just for fun. Sharks will be very basic - 4 epaulette sharks (either 2:2 or 1:3), 3 smoothhounds (0:0:3), a banded bamboo shark, a banded houndshark, 2 white spotted bamboo sharks (either 1:1 or 0:0:2), a coral cat shark, a zebra bullhead shark, and a short tailed nurse shark - okay so maybe a big list but relatively easy-to-find/cheap sharks (the bigger guys ie nurse, zebra, sharpnose, bonnethead, blacktip reef will reside in a 7,500 gallon located in my office, possibly a 10,000). I'm gonna throw in some dithers/random cool looking fish like spadefish, random damsels, chubs, monos, lookdowns, bannerfish, squirrelfish, and chromis (likely pairs or schools of each). For a cuc (probably won't survive but still) I'm going to keep crabs, snails, and starfish - starfish for the glass, crabs for physical large waste, and snails for the sand/glass (well walls). I may consider either no cownoses or like 3 or 4 and moving them into a 10,000 gallon at my office (lol if it even happens). If I also move the southerns (or just one) into that tank, that means I can pretty much halve the volume of the 6,600 gallon giving me around 3,500 gallons that I need. Which is a LOT simpler than 11,000 lol.

 

[Herps and fish]

I've been sourcing out some fish for the large tank in my office. It's going to be a 10,000 gallon tank, approximately.

For sharks, there will definitely be bonnetheads. Also there will definitely be sharpnoses - the smallest ORV shark. Dogfish are in the works too as they don't really do much. The only other ORV I trust in this tank is the finetooth shark AKA mini-bull. Take that back, blacktip reefs may work but I don't like the idea of them, just because everything else is an Atlantic shark so one type of Pacific shark doesn't make much sense now does it? For a benthic shark, I'm either going to go with a tawny nurse shark or a few short tailed nurse sharks, as they're not as piggish and large.

Rays there will be a guitarfish (maybe, undecided yet) along with a few southern rays and possibly cownose rays too.

Moving on to some other fish. I would like some sort of med/large grouper like a black or gag grouper. A green moray would be cool too but they might be able to eat some of the smaller sharks, so they might not be the best idea. Some barracudas will be in the tank, as will jack crevalle, and probably an indo pacific tarpon or two (only because of the insane size of atlantic tarpon). I am also trying to find a red drum for sale but so far I have found nothing.

To finish it off, I found someone who sells hogfish (the big pink ones you spear fish for) for like $30 so I'll get a few of those, and a school of spadefish too. There are tons of other cool schooling fish too, like lookdowns, grunts, ladyfish, pigfish, pinfish, pompano, mackerel, snapper, sheepshead, tripletails, and possibly even bonito that can be acquired for practically nothing (almost all are considered legal to use as bait and therefore legal to collect) that can be stocked and restocked as dithers. Any inverts would have a zero chance of survival in here so I'm not even going to bother with them.

 

[HookedOnFishh]

Keep with bigger fish smaller fish like schools of damels and Chromis will get chomped


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[Herps and fish]

Keep with bigger fish smaller fish like schools of damels and Chromis will get chomped


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Yeah, thats the main reason I went with cheap fish (usually under 5 dollars). They're easily found, easily cared for, easily restocked, and provide something more than just the sharks to look at

 

[Pseudomugil]

Lol where's the sawfish on that list?

 

[PB_Smith]

So if you are still in school and need to graduate, then I assume do an internship at a decent law firm to build a reputation. Then maybe make partner or break away and start your own firm. By then you should be able to afford to do all this.


so this plan is what, 10-20 years down the road?
I think you got plenty of time to work out the details.






JK

 

[HookedOnFishh]

Yeah, thats the main reason I went with cheap fish (usually under 5 dollars). They're easily found, easily cared for, easily restocked, and provide something more than just the sharks to look at

(Double Quote!)
Just you don't want it to be easy to get restocked for fish because these fish are taking out of the ocean. Make sure the fish won't get eaten!!


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[Herps and fish]

So if you are still in school and need to graduate, then I assume do an internship at a decent law firm to build a reputation. Then maybe make partner or break away and start your own firm. By then you should be able to afford to do all this.


so this plan is what, 10-20 years down the road?
I think you got plenty of time to work out the details.






JK

Excellent advice and this is what I plan to do soon. It's far up the road, but maybe 5 to 7 years, POSSIBLY 10. I'm about 1/4th of the way into school.

But either way I do have lots of time to work out details. I can start picking up equipment now too... if I get surplus money (so I really can't get anything now).

Found DIY skimmer plans for a 8" by 5' (I think) protein skimmer that, without the pump, is like $200 to build, plus around $175 for a Mag Drive for it. Super cheap and that thing holds like 60 gallons of water so that's a BIG skimmer.