Few questions on Bamboo Sharks.

[Paul11]

Hi, first off, let me say I am an experienced fish keeper. I've only recently got into marines and looking to expand my horizons.

I've researched a lot into Bamboo Sharks. I'll be getting a tank big enough to house one within the next few weeks (8' x 4'). There's a few questions I still have that people seem to be giving me different answers, so I just need final confirmation.


1) Live rock - Obviously I know the importance of it, but is there some kind of general rule of x amount of rock per gallon or anything? Places around here always seem to want to sell more than actually needed. I will be using a sump, so how much rock roughly will be needed? I've heard so many different answers.

2) Filteration - As a general rule of thumb I normally use about 4/5x the tanks capacity. I can't seem to find any information on flow rate etc for Bamboo Sharks? Also the same with a Protein Skimmer.


I've been searching around on here and the net for info for about 2/3 weeks now. My research is complete apart from these questions.

Thanks to anyone willing to give a new guy some pointers here.


Paul

 

[Zoodiver]

Live rock isn't needed at all if you have enough surface area for proper biological filtration going on. I'd do minimal with a shark tank.

With sharks, you need a lot of mechanical filtration to help pull chunks/debris out before they break down and feeding into the nitrate cycle. A big protein skimmer will help with that... but again, not needed if you account for what it will be doing with another type of filter.

 

[Paul11]

Thanks for the reply.

I have 2 fluval 405's which could be used on the tank. I also have 3 5000L p/h powerheads which will be used. I've also got about 12kg of live rock at the moment.

Would you say thats adequate or is more required? I'll also invest in a skimmer as big as needed.

 

[Zoodiver]

Should be plenty for what you are trying to do.