Nah2O_go February 8, 2020 Share February 8, 2020 Hey everyone! Just looking to see if anyone has ever had a tank with a dedicated spot or whole tank for garden eels! I’ve read a lot but would love to hear anyone’s experience. I know they require a lot of feeding, and a DSB around 8 inches among other things. My tank won’t be housing any LPS or SPS, so I can afford it to be a bit “dirtier” but I plan on handling that high feeding volume with a large algae scrubber and skimmer. I’m at the point in the hobby where I’m looking for a bit more in regards to specializing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingOfAll_Tyrants February 8, 2020 Share February 8, 2020 I've been interested in this topic for a long time. I'm sure you've seen this, but this is good reading: https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/7/fish2 Key points are the depth and composition of the sandbed (as you mentioned), keeping at least three of them and better 6-10 (they are colonial fish) with 1 square foot of contiguous open sand bed per fish (ergo 3-5 square feet), and with nonagressive tank mates Honestly, it sounds like they're much like jawfish, though a bit harder (YH jawfish are very easy to keep) Someday maybe i'll do a tank like this. They generally live at least a few dozens of yards from the coral reef proper, generally around 15m and deeper, in a sandy areas, in colonies of hundreds. (seen them several times in the wild in such conditions). I'd try to make a biotope tank for them. An easy one would be 75 gallon tank which automatically provides 6 square feet of space. Beyond the eels, other things that live nearby them are some deeper water seagrass, caulerpa, or halimeda species. Trachyphylia and similar LPS can be found in such locations, and allegedly prefer sand over rock. Given the eel's feeding and filtration requirements, low light (if you don't have the trachy LPS, you could go with very very low light) and NPS corals would be nice, I think. Fitting with our sandbed area biotope, we could put a rock or two on our sandbed for them. Or if we wanted to be more ambitious, a rock wall (maybe even a floating rockwork wall) where you could keep NPS hard corals, gorgonians. Longnose hawkfish would be at home among the gorgonians. Heck, many kinds of dwarf angels would be at home in this rock wall. (adding the rockwall, angels, and especially NPS make this an advanced tank, IMO). Anyway, maybe someday I'll make an advanced open water or mesophotic sandy reef slope bottom biotope. In the meantime, i owe R2R biotope articles, and will write this up more formally one of these days...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nah2O_go February 8, 2020 Author Share February 8, 2020 Yes! I’ve read that article and I loved how comprehensive it was! I have a 180, and I thought that I would dedicate a 3 foot section on one side of the tank as their “spot” with a rock wall as almost a drop off. I want to do gorgonians, macro algae and lots of varying inverts. As far as fish, id stick to easy going calm species. My worry is the DSB. I never used them, I jumped right from dolomite to a shallow sand bed and never did a tank with a plenum or anything. I don’t know if the usual process of including lots of sand sifting inverts would be good for the eels? I picture them being bothered by inverts that want to stir the sand bed .Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 9, 2020 Share February 9, 2020 Sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing this tank if you get it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nah2O_go February 9, 2020 Author Share February 9, 2020 So my vision is along the lines of this.....but another bag of 40 lb sand and another 2 boxes of rock Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nah2O_go February 9, 2020 Author Share February 9, 2020 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 9, 2020 Share February 9, 2020 (edited) Are you going to put the deep sand on just one side? I'm assuming a DSB with animals that go all the way through it, doesn't have the anaerobic bacteria that an undisturbed DSB does. Edited February 9, 2020 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nah2O_go February 10, 2020 Author Share February 10, 2020 I can’t find much info on that online but I’ve looked. Seems as though they burrow once and then that’s it. I’d love to make a rock “wall” in the middle of the tank to create a drop off effect, but I’m just going to play around with it for a while and see if I can pull it off. If not, I can’t say I didn’t try! The dry rock I got from amazon came in huuuuge 15 lb pieces so it may actually work without becoming unstable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite February 10, 2020 Share February 10, 2020 5 hours ago, Nah2O_go said: I can’t find much info on that online but I’ve looked. Seems as though they burrow once and then that’s it. I’d love to make a rock “wall” in the middle of the tank to create a drop off effect, but I’m just going to play around with it for a while and see if I can pull it off. If not, I can’t say I didn’t try! The dry rock I got from amazon came in huuuuge 15 lb pieces so it may actually work without becoming unstable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Maybe try using acrylic rods through the rock. I just epoxy rocks together, but that probably won't work for holding a rock wall together. Then there are the holes sand will go through that you might have to fill in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingOfAll_Tyrants February 12, 2020 Share February 12, 2020 On 2/8/2020 at 6:20 PM, Nah2O_go said: Yes! I’ve read that article and I loved how comprehensive it was! I have a 180, and I thought that I would dedicate a 3 foot section on one side of the tank as their “spot” with a rock wall as almost a drop off. I want to do gorgonians, macro algae and lots of varying inverts. As far as fish, id stick to easy going calm species. My worry is the DSB. I never used them, I jumped right from dolomite to a shallow sand bed and never did a tank with a plenum or anything. I don’t know if the usual process of including lots of sand sifting inverts would be good for the eels? I picture them being bothered by inverts that want to stir the sand bed . Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Cool. Yeah, IMO I'd recommend sand sifting inverts. for a tank of that size, a Conch of some sort and a good number of nassarius snails from reef builders or salty bottom. Also, IMO, a rock wall on the back would be best for your setup. (a floating rock wall would be even better, but it would be harder to set up) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bues0022 February 13, 2020 Share February 13, 2020 When water and water movement gets involved, I'd think that sand on the right will spread over the entire bottom - even with a rock "wall" between sand and no sand half. I think you might be best served with a drop-off tank, and fill the drop completely with sand. OR, take the tank you have shown there, and add a divider and silicone it in place. That way you sand stays put on the one side. Everything I've read about them pointed towards sand, sand, and more sand. Erring on the side of even deeper sand. Take a ruler and mark out 8" - that's really deep. I'd bet you're at half of that right now. It would definitely be an exciting project. I've thought about these little guys more than twice - but just haven't had the time, money, or willing spouse to go along with the project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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