Deepwater tank: revised and needs your help

[skylsdale]

I'm taking a step away from the sun-drenched shallow reefs that most of us try to replicate in our tanks and trying more of a deepwater reef environment. I'm thinking of something along the lines of an outward facing reef slope or the base of a slope.

Lighting is definitely a factor here. The few resources I have found recommend 2-3 tubes (I assume VHO) with an emphasis on actinic. This is fine, especially since the corals I plan on keeping are gorgonians, tubastrea, sponges, etc. But in some of my research I have seen that non-photosynthetic corals don't do well in tanks, and don't seem to live unless placed under a decent amount of lighting. Anyone had experience with these corals or this type of situation? Would even photosynthetic corals (lowlight softies or certain species of gorgonian) do alright in this type of environment, even if fed?

The tank will be at least 120g, maybe 155g or 180g--we'll have to see what happes with that. It will be run skimmerless, with at least one pound per gallon of liverock. The large refugium will hold around a 5-6" DSB as well as macro for nutrient export. Hopefully this will also serve as breeding ground for copepods, mysis, etc. as most of the livestock(corals and fish) in the tank will feed on this. I also plan on feeding some sort of zoo- or phytoplankton food, possibly growing my own cultures.

As far as fish, I'm planning on a small school (4-5) psuedanthias squamipinnis. I would also like a small harem of flasher wrasse. As far as other fish, more research will decide that.

Well, that's what I have planned so far. As you can imagine, information on this type of thing is extremely limited and scarce, so any comments or experience you may have is greatly appreciated.

[ March 19, 2002: Message edited by: skylsdale ]</p>

 

[SeaFoodLover]

I like the idea as well, and have looked at Perfecto's 150 Tubs, as well as Oceanic's semi-custom tanks...just remeber deep tanks are hard to clean and placing live rock etc is a pain. I'm 6 feet tall and the few times I worked on a friends 150 Tub, my face was almost in the water. I think that TRA I has some deep water tanks in it.

L8tr
SFL

 

[skylsdale]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

I think that TRA I has some deep water tanks in it.

What's TRA? I would love to see some tanks as examples. For now, I'm using references from actual shots taken in the ocean, like these: http://www.daveread.com/tripreports/cozumel/february2000/gallery.html

[ March 19, 2002: Message edited by: skylsdale ]</p>

 

[skylsdale]

Anyone?

 

[skylsdale]

Anyone else?

 

[Chucker]

skylsdale,
"TRA" usually refers to Delbeek & Sprung's The Reef Aquarium books. As for suggestions on more specific microhabitats, Scott Michael's Reef Fishes provides some very nice summaries of what fish can be found together in each setting.

 

[jamesw]

Skylsdale:

I have some photos from Deepwater Reefs in Fiji which I took last year while diving there.

The photos even show the habitat of the Sunburst Anthias and show some of the anthias in their natural habitat.

I think you'll be surprised to see that all of the corals in these photos are "hard corals" like Eric mentioned in his post.

I have the photos at home, I'll try to post them tonight. If I forget, please remind me.

Cheers
James

 

[jamesw]

As promised:

and

These shots were taken in 100' of water on a reef slope near Savusavu Fiji Islands. I used artficial lighting in the form of a 100w video light to get these shots - it was pretty dim down there - I would say about equal to 2 40w NO lamps.

The coral present in these photos are:

Plating Montipora
Porites
Mycedium
Favia/Favites

Also present are sponges and crustose corraline algaes.

I hope that is of some assistance!

Cheers
James Wiseman

[ March 20, 2002: Message edited by: jamesw ]</p>

 

[skylsdale]

James, those look great! Thanks for posting the pics for me. The lighting from the camera may be a little deceptive, but it looks fairly bright in the background of the first pic...not at all as dark as I thought it would be, but you said that it was pretty dim. I thought I was pretty much doomed in the types of coral I would be able to sustain in this tank, but things might not be as bad as I thought. I really wanted to try some plating Montipora, but had always seen them in brightly lit aquaria--your pictures are very encouraging. Some other corals I am considering are:

Favites
Nemenzophyllia
Gorgonians/seafans
Tubastrea
Various sponges

That's about it. I'll pick and choose from those and see what does well. I would like to stick to a minimum genera of corals and let them really take hold of the tank and grow. Throw in a few anthias...

One thing I am REALLY struggling with is light for this tank. You said it was about the intensity of two 40W NO bulbs. Would you recommend this for a tank? I'm thinking a couple VHO actinics with maybe an NO 10k or 20k. I would like a definite blue cast, but not a blacklight effect, if you know what I mean. I'm just not sure what to do... Any suggestions you can give on this would be great. Actually being there gives you a bit of an advantage, and I would love any further experience you could pass along.

[ March 20, 2002: Message edited by: skylsdale ]</p>

 

[skylsdale]

Thanks James, that would be great!

I was really surprised at the list of corals Eric gave me, and I think it will actually make it a little easier to put this tank together having more to choose from. I'm looking forward to the photos!

Checker, thanks for the reference.

I've been on the boards for a while, and never had a reference to TRA...go figure. I've had a chance to skim Reef Fishes Vol. 1 and what little Scott Michael has to say on this type of environment. Also, I've seen that Tullock has actual chapters on replicating Indo-Pacific environments--even a deepwater one! I don't have access to that book around here, but I plan on ordering both of these books within the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the feedback so far...I really appreciate it!

 

[jamesw]

It is NOT bright down there. What you are seeing in the photograph is from the video/camera light. Look at the shadow underneath the Porites...it's dark.

If you really want to mimic the lighting down at 60-100 feet I would use two NO lamps 1 6,500K and one around 7,100 (bluish). If you want, you would go with VHO...it wouldn't hurt.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[skylsdale]

Wow...I didn't notice all the shadows in the picture--I was basing it off the light on TOP of the porites. There's a lot more of the camera's light than I thought.

Thanks for the lighting suggestion. I think it depends on which tank I end up with: the 120 or 180 as to what kind of lighting I go with. It know corals at those depths do great in the ocean, but it will be interesting to see how it works out in an actual tank with correspondingly low light levels. I will be putting more emphasis on feedings--I'm interested to see how much of a factor that plays in growth.

 

[skylsdale]

Sorry to bump this up yet again, but I wanted to give people one last chance to take a look at it.

Jamesw, based on what it was like down there, how would you suggest configuring a lighting system? I'm thinking of trying to replicate something between 60-100ft, but as I've never been down there, I'm not sure what to expect. Like I said before, I'm thinking 2 VHO's and 1 NO, but I'm open to any ideas on combo's, lighting sources, etc.

Again, thanks for checking this out!