No-reef-at-all keeping. Doable, or am I dreaming?

[John Rimbauer]

I've been hearing rumblings at work lately that I'm going to be relocated, which means leaving the co-op planted freshwater tank behind in the office I have now. Not to worry though, the other 2 fish-keepers in the office will continue running it, and the wee nursery tank next to it.

When I relocate, I'm thinking of going for a marine tank talking point. Here's where the no reef bit comes in. I'd quite like to have a small tank, with some hardy soft corals and a pair of brittle stars in it. No fish, anemones or SPS, but I might eventually splash out on a cleaner shrimp coz I like the invertebrates.

Which leads to my question - do any of the salties see huge problems with this idea? I'm up on a couple of scores - as the area will be air-conned, temp won't be an issue in summer. One of the industrial processes at work produces pure, neutral, demineralised water, so topping off won't be an issue. I have easy access to west coast seas, and a harbour, so NSW water changes should be easy as.

My concerns are pretty much:

1. Can I do it? Is it possible to keep just the softies and brittle stars?

2. What sort of tank size would anyone recommend? Anything over 2ft will make this problematic.

3. Feeding - with no other livestock in the tank, will brittle stars need a specialised food regime?

3a. Skimming - given a light bioload, can I skimp on the skimming - either an HOB, or just do more frequent water changes?

4. Lights - I'm used to using T5 HO, will this be overkill on such a tank?

I'm looking forward to seeing if this idea gets shot down, or if it's a (relatively easy) possibility.

[suphew]

Yep this is completely doable

1) yes

2) as big as you can, stability is the key, but if your limit is 2 foot then it's 2 foot.

3) yes you will still need to feed the brittle star, and beware most of them grow quite large (1-1.5 foot arm span)

3a) of course, if you don't mind regular large water changes

4) you can't have too much light.

[John Rimbauer]

Thanks suphew.

Could you elaborate on what you'd term regular large water changes? I'm currently doing about a 40% change per week on the fresh water tank at work, about 40L of water. If I translate that time and effort onto a 2ft tank, it doesn't seem too bad.

And brittle stars grow that large? I've not seen one that big in an established tank, either I'm meeting the wrong reef keepers, or they're slipping ciggies and coffee in to stunt their growth. I've seen enough posts about having them as a clean up crew that I presumed they topped out at sort of dinner plate sized. That'll teach me to presume eh?

[reef]

only issue is that small tanks are problematic.

Very hard to keep good water conditions.

[dude]

im very interested in this topic and just wanted to know, if he had a small hang on back maybe a dymax xp-30 or a deltec would that help with keeping water conditions stable?

[reef]

A skimmer will help., however the tank is too small.

Small tanks get so dirty quickly and heat up during summer.

[livingart]

im very interested in this topic and just wanted to know, if he had a small hang on back maybe a dymax xp-30 or a deltec would that help with keeping water conditions stable?

yes that woulfd help

can you manage to fit in a 2ft cube?

[spoon]

with using a skimmer any pump you use will also contribute to heat

[John Rimbauer]

I haven't seen my new work area yet, so it's hard to say what area will be available for a tank to go in. That means that I'm guessing a bit. My current office has a 3ft freshwater, and so far the killer has been getting the water in to do water changes. 2 x 20L containers give me 40L change per week, and the tank runs sweet as. Carrying them around full is the hassle.

So again, the question is going to be around water changes. If I stick with a max of 40L per week water changes, I'm not sure where that gets me with overall system size. What sort of ratios are going to work? If I go 3ft, it's about a 30% change. 2ft, about 50%. I'm not sure where to draw that line for a marine tank, hopefully some of the resident gurus will have opinions on it.