What are your thoughts?
- Thread starter Justin0329
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
MacDracor
Aquarium Advice Addict
Some very nice fish in there. Please tell me there is a sump that is loaded with rock rubble or bioballs, or some other form of biofiltration. The rocks you have in there right now are not enough. Not "a few lbs" not enough, but like "10% what you need" not enough. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
Justin0329 said:
Nice tank!! You have a little tiny foxface!!! He's adorable!! What's the long shark-looking fish near the bottom? Need a more close-up pic.
You can add rock later, just don't add a ton of live rock all at once or you could cause a mini-cycle and kill some fish. You can add base rock (scrub it first) and you should be fine. The 1 1/2-2 # LR is a guideline, not a rule. There are fish-only tanks with NO LR, and thats fine. Its all in what you like. The BB will grow on any surface, the sand, the rocks you do have, the filter (or sump), whatever surfaces there are. As long as you completely cycled the tank, you should be fine. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way to keep a tank!!
Nice job on the tank so far!
Cichlid-dude
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2011
- Messages
- 1,565
I completely agree you dont have to have any live rock if you dont want to. Ive seen many fish only tanks with no live rock, just fake decor. Do what you like with your tank. Is that a bamboo cat shark in there? Cool tank i like it.
MacDracor
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am simply saying that without knowing what other form of filtration there is, that's my first thought.
bettaowner
Aquarium Advice Addict
Is that a shark I see? Cat shark right?
Justin0329
Aquarium Advice Freak
Thank you all. It is a cat shark. It was purchased as a coral banded cat shark but I'm thinking its more of a bamboo. As far as filtration, I do have a 55 gal sump with lots of LR (100+ lbs) as well as protein Skimmer and such. I'm trying to leave as much open space in the DT so the shark has plenty of swimming space. The sand however is really fine (to prevent scratching of the sharks belly) so it clouds the tank quite a bit whenever I siphon it during pwc.
MacDracor
Aquarium Advice Addict
Good to know! That's the info I was missing! Assuming your water tests come back good, then that sounds great! I'm not 100% sure of the max size of that shark, but it may eventually need a bigger tank. Still, you're doing WAY better than most people who buy them! I dream of a tank big enough for a sandy flat area for a shark, and a reef for all the other goodies.
If you do want to add rocks while leaving as much open swimming area as possible, you could build a PVC frame and drill or glue rocks to it. That would give you vertical rockwork without compromising sand bed. But all in all, it sounds like you are actually working hard to meet the requirements of your pet, which is great to see! More pictures? I love those sharks!
If you do want to add rocks while leaving as much open swimming area as possible, you could build a PVC frame and drill or glue rocks to it. That would give you vertical rockwork without compromising sand bed. But all in all, it sounds like you are actually working hard to meet the requirements of your pet, which is great to see! More pictures? I love those sharks!
Justin0329
Aquarium Advice Freak
MacDracor said:
I will definitely post more picture as soon as possible. As far as rock work, that is my plan. I'm going to start from the sides and work vertical and across the sides. If all works right, ill have a back wall of rock but it will be suspended about 6" above the sand. This will give more surface area of rock to add corals and hiding for the other fish without compromising sandy surface area for the shark. It will be a slow process but it will happen.
