Tony
Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
So I have the Craigslist 180 reef-ready brought in, cleaned up, painted black, stand cleaned up, power fixed up, wet/dry sump built. Basically all ready to go.
To the point that the grow-out tank fish that will be added are huddling in the fish room talking over survival strategies, while the veterans in the 110 are talking over their favorite juvie hap recipes. Good times....
Anyway, the tank will be set up tomorrow and I will post pics when we're done.
I've thought of just about everything, but cannot figure out one detail. I was reading Koning's Back to Nature earlier tonight and he mentions darker sand being better for colors and general demeanor, especially with higher lighting.
In terms of lighting, I have two 48" double strip lights on the 110 (4 tubes total... yeah, a lot for that, but it's stupid tall). I was going to use these, each starting at one end and overlapping in the center 2' of the 6' tank. Being 24" wide, the lighting shouldn't be too intense, especially the ends of the tanks, where the rock features will be. I also will keep a couple of the giant pieces of anubias, which have grown into the rocks.
Anyway, I have about 2 1/2 big bags of natural colored/pool-filter colored sand (white-beige) and 1 1/2 bags of black sand. I also have about 20# of crushed coral that I was going to put in the sump to buffer the water while allowing for digging in the sand.
Should I add the black sand now and get some more black sand to fill in a bit or stick with the original plan and go with the tan/whitish sand? Mixed? How about the crushed coral? Throw that in too?
For now, the tank will be mixed haps/mbuna/(one lonely frontosa and his tropheus friend). Once some folks grow out, the tank will eventually go all large predatory haps.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading (if you're still there).
To the point that the grow-out tank fish that will be added are huddling in the fish room talking over survival strategies, while the veterans in the 110 are talking over their favorite juvie hap recipes. Good times....
Anyway, the tank will be set up tomorrow and I will post pics when we're done.
I've thought of just about everything, but cannot figure out one detail. I was reading Koning's Back to Nature earlier tonight and he mentions darker sand being better for colors and general demeanor, especially with higher lighting.
In terms of lighting, I have two 48" double strip lights on the 110 (4 tubes total... yeah, a lot for that, but it's stupid tall). I was going to use these, each starting at one end and overlapping in the center 2' of the 6' tank. Being 24" wide, the lighting shouldn't be too intense, especially the ends of the tanks, where the rock features will be. I also will keep a couple of the giant pieces of anubias, which have grown into the rocks.
Anyway, I have about 2 1/2 big bags of natural colored/pool-filter colored sand (white-beige) and 1 1/2 bags of black sand. I also have about 20# of crushed coral that I was going to put in the sump to buffer the water while allowing for digging in the sand.
Should I add the black sand now and get some more black sand to fill in a bit or stick with the original plan and go with the tan/whitish sand? Mixed? How about the crushed coral? Throw that in too?
For now, the tank will be mixed haps/mbuna/(one lonely frontosa and his tropheus friend). Once some folks grow out, the tank will eventually go all large predatory haps.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading (if you're still there).
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