Deep Reef Tank

[AnthonyRobinson666]

I am thinking of converting my rio 400 into a marine tank.

I would add a skimmer, add live rock and sand. I also plan on removing the internal filter and filter with an external canister.

Would I get away with keeping the original twin flourescent lights if I concentrated on having a deep water reef tank?

I would not put in any hard corals or bright light requiring inverts.

Can any one recommend fish/inverts for this setup if it is possible.

Cheers!

 

[steelhealr]

Anthony....can you be more specific about what you mean by a 'deep water tank'? If you are implying that the tank will be FOWLR, then, lighting is not critical. More specifics for us. Thanks and SH

 

[Aquascaper]

If you mean to simulate a reef environment that would be found at lower depths then you will require more specific lighting conditions, mainly at the blue end of the spectrum, to enable you to provide the correct habitat.
You will also be limited to what species of fish and inverts (inc. corals) you can keep in those conditions and will possible have a job finding suppliers as they will not be as popular as the 'common' marine fish.
The deeper down you go the less photosynthetic things become and therefore feeding regimes become very strict, sometimes expensive and will have negative impacts on water quality making it a very demanding tank.
If you are wanting the 'normal' types of fish then it's pretty pointless to try and create a 'deep reef' biotope as the inhabitants would be wrong and all you are creating is a 'normal' reef.

HTH

 

[AnthonyRobinson666]

I was thinking of having fish such as small hawkfish and cardinal fish. I would be interested in keeping tubeworms, gorgonians, cucumbers and sponges.

I think I would be looking at one white T8 and one blue T8 tube.??

I would not be keeping any photosynthetic coral.

Do you think this is achievable?

Ant.

 

[Aquascaper]

I keep Sponges & Gorgonians and have had Tube worms in the past - they are all very demanding to feed as they require lots of liquid foods which plays merry hell with the water quality. It's challenging and you will need to have a good grasp of water husbandry to maintain a healthy tank, if you're upto the challenge get researching first and find out as much as possible about the inverts you want to keep.

I personally wouldn't recommend adding any sponge, gorgonian or fan worm/tube worm until your tank is at least 6 months old, this will give you time to get the water husbandry down and also for the tank to mature and settle.

HTH

 

[AnthonyRobinson666]

Thanks for the advice.

I guess what I want is a nice looking tank without the photosynthetic corals.

any ideas?