FishWife1
01/03/2007, 12:52 PM
Hi,
I've just gotten a job maintaining customer tanks (and store tanks) for a LFS in our area. I'll be working on 10 tanks outside the shop and a couple of small ones inside. Perfect job for a tank loving retiree like me.
Anyway, it's not just maintenance, it also includes design and set up. There is a tank in a local hospital that is in the works and I get to stock it - yippeee! Buying stuff without spending my own $$.
I thought I would come on the board and run my ideas by you guys and ask for any suggestions from you.
Here are the specs: 180 gal but odd dimensions, approx. 5' long, 21" deep, and 35" high. I will definitely need a step ladder for this one. It's full of Marshall Island rock and is nicely 'scaped. It looks like about a 2-3" fine grain sand bed. the lighting is 2x250W halides and 2 VHO actinics so I won't be working with any intense light loving critters.
The people who constructed the stand didn't put doors on and the whole unit backs up to a built in TV wall so the filtration is a Freedom Filter/skimmer which sits in the tank. All of the equipment has to go up in the canopy. The output from the skimmer is ~700 gph. They currently have 2 MJ 1200s in the back to added circulation but it isn't enough. My new boss told me if I can come up with a better solution he will get it. I was thinking one of those new magnet pumps - put it on the opposite end of the tank from the skimmer output so they push water at each other, and remove the ugly MJs.
The current stock is: 1 Yellow Tang, 3 PJ Cardinals, 1 Dottyback, 1 Hawk, 1 Ocellaris, a cleaner shrimp, and 1 Yellowtail Damsel.
I was thinking a small school (5 or so) of Chromis to get a nice back and forth and a CB Butterfly (if we can get one to eat in the store first), a couple of fire shrimp, either a Tiger Tail Cuke or a black sea slug for sand clean up. Maybe a Mandarin when the tank matures enough.
As far as corals go, I think mostly softies, 'shrooms, and zoanthids. I want easy maintenance since I won't be there every day.
So, what do you think? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Laurie
I've just gotten a job maintaining customer tanks (and store tanks) for a LFS in our area. I'll be working on 10 tanks outside the shop and a couple of small ones inside. Perfect job for a tank loving retiree like me.
Anyway, it's not just maintenance, it also includes design and set up. There is a tank in a local hospital that is in the works and I get to stock it - yippeee! Buying stuff without spending my own $$.
I thought I would come on the board and run my ideas by you guys and ask for any suggestions from you.
Here are the specs: 180 gal but odd dimensions, approx. 5' long, 21" deep, and 35" high. I will definitely need a step ladder for this one. It's full of Marshall Island rock and is nicely 'scaped. It looks like about a 2-3" fine grain sand bed. the lighting is 2x250W halides and 2 VHO actinics so I won't be working with any intense light loving critters.
The people who constructed the stand didn't put doors on and the whole unit backs up to a built in TV wall so the filtration is a Freedom Filter/skimmer which sits in the tank. All of the equipment has to go up in the canopy. The output from the skimmer is ~700 gph. They currently have 2 MJ 1200s in the back to added circulation but it isn't enough. My new boss told me if I can come up with a better solution he will get it. I was thinking one of those new magnet pumps - put it on the opposite end of the tank from the skimmer output so they push water at each other, and remove the ugly MJs.
The current stock is: 1 Yellow Tang, 3 PJ Cardinals, 1 Dottyback, 1 Hawk, 1 Ocellaris, a cleaner shrimp, and 1 Yellowtail Damsel.
I was thinking a small school (5 or so) of Chromis to get a nice back and forth and a CB Butterfly (if we can get one to eat in the store first), a couple of fire shrimp, either a Tiger Tail Cuke or a black sea slug for sand clean up. Maybe a Mandarin when the tank matures enough.
As far as corals go, I think mostly softies, 'shrooms, and zoanthids. I want easy maintenance since I won't be there every day.
So, what do you think? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Laurie