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Tank in a Tank
- Thread starter Tanyoberu
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Finally, Someone!! Monster Brackish! YES!!Tanyoberu said:
Barriers huh? Ever though of using a series of mangrove trees ..? You might have a hard time finding some well-growing brackish plants..
foilage eh? Might be tough to find!! Too bad Mollies eat Algae, or I would reccomend a 'hair algae' display on the top of your cavernous corner. You could just display some very intense light over the top of your rock structure, with 24/7 lighting, and get some very LONG, Gnarly green hair algae growing like a small forest. Don't forget the mangrove trees either!
Other than Mollies, you have lots of choices for brackish fish! Knight or Dragon Gobies, Orange Chromide Cichlids, Silvertip Sharks, Monos, Scats, Archers, 4-eyed anableps, mudskippers, Celebes rainbowfish, Butis Butis, Nandus Nandus, and even some Cichlids can live in a light brackish, such as Kribs and Uros.
Have a strong current, with a very thin substrate, blowing across the bottom of the tank. Have a 'circular' water flow in the tank, but have it so the end of the circular motion is where you plan to keep the mollie corner. So, if the mollie corner is the top left of the tank, you will want the majority of your current blowiing from the top-right, downward..
Good Luck! Post Pics! Keep us updated!
Miles
I just hurt my brain trying to draw this thing. I got all sorts of weird shapes and angles that will never work in 3d. I knew I should have paid attention in my mechanical drawing class! Anyway, I'll have some rough diagrams up soon and I'm going to try my hands at using my son's playdough set. I'll put it in an empty 10gal to share the idea with you all. That's for this weekend.
About the fish selection. I do plan on having a tank where the salinity will be around 1.017 - 1.020, so when acquiring fish, I'm looking for species that can live comfortably in that salinity. I've read the dogface puffer can live in that range. But I'm not locked on any one species of fish yet. Most important to me is creating this utopia.
I'm getting more and more excited about this, but I want to do it RIGHT!!! I had this vigor to make plexi-caves for my mbunas. It looked like stacks of upside-down plastic cups in the back of the tank and it worked GREAT while they were juveniles. Soon enough one fish claimed all the cave-cups as his and the other fish had no place to hide... bah, they died. But I'm a man now and I won't jump into this thing blind. And I thank all of you for your advice so far.
About the fish selection. I do plan on having a tank where the salinity will be around 1.017 - 1.020, so when acquiring fish, I'm looking for species that can live comfortably in that salinity. I've read the dogface puffer can live in that range. But I'm not locked on any one species of fish yet. Most important to me is creating this utopia.
I'm getting more and more excited about this, but I want to do it RIGHT!!! I had this vigor to make plexi-caves for my mbunas. It looked like stacks of upside-down plastic cups in the back of the tank and it worked GREAT while they were juveniles. Soon enough one fish claimed all the cave-cups as his and the other fish had no place to hide... bah, they died. But I'm a man now and I won't jump into this thing blind. And I thank all of you for your advice so far.
Tanyoberu said:
Plant life will be hard to come by at that salinity.. Wonder if you keep it at .020 if you could keep some saltwater vegetation? Either way, the Mollies will probably eat it.
For filteration you could have a wet dry sump and have the return hose branch off into 2 separate hoses. The smaller one could pump water into the section with the mollies and the water would just flow over the barrier, and the larger hose could pump water into the main part of the tank.
I can see that concept with the filtration. I guess I'll have to see about SW plants now. I can experiment with those in my current brackish tank. And if nothing is written I can find which ones my greedy scats will eat and which they'll leave alone.
If all else fails, I have my trusty plastics waiting to be used again.
If all else fails, I have my trusty plastics waiting to be used again.
You could get some plexiglass with holes drilled in and obscure where it is with some plants. That way the bigger fish can't push their way through. Another option that is less pretty but more waterflow is to use a plastic mesh and silicone sealent it onto the sides of the tank. Or since if is near the top, you could get a small hanging filter for that section. Like a whisper or a penguin. Good luck, post pics.
