sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ok I have to tell this story first, because I found it hilarious. Many years ago, my pops puts in a rubbermaid stock tank (horse watering trough?) into the ground as a outdoor pond, I think it's a 300 gallon size, it's pretty damn big, on the order of my arms outstretched. Well originally he put a couple koi he had in a 55g tank in there, these things were probably the size of an adult male's forearm, fairly decent size. One day it happened, raccoon went fishing, as he found the body of the fish in the corner of the yard head chewed on then the rest thrown away (wasteful little buggers, and they say humans are wasteful!) anyways, he decides to keep cheap ass goldfish the feeders. He put so much damn money building a halfassed waterfall, spent hundreds of bucks on a pump and filter (overpriced IMO), but anyways, not too many weeks ago he goes outside and what does he see. A heron, fairly large coastal bird, in the pond having himself a little lunch! Well this pissed him off because the bird ate all the fish, even if they were cheap feeders, so he drains the tank and decides to get rid of it. Of course I tell him, don't you dare throw that away, I want it! etc... well last weekend he finally pulls it out of the ground and last night at dinner (Mom's b-day) he says as he was pulling it out what does he see? The damn heron flying over head looking for another meal!
Ok so the story isn't that funny, more of you had to be there/related to the man. So I have this thick walled stock tank, fairly good size, as I mentioned I'm guessing it's the 300g size, it's closer to a circle than an oval that the 150g ones are. So I'm wondering what the hell to do with it. Now this is by no means a project that's going to get done any time soon, I'm thinking my summer break at the earliest I'll get started (plus my fish room is dirty as all F***ing hell as it is so I'd like to clean that up first).
Here's a few ideas I came across
Sump - Original idea, more volume = more stable... but my main tank is 100g, with a 50g sump (probably 30g of water in it), while this would increase my volume by 300% I doubt I have wild fluctuations with salinity/etc as it is, so the only thing this will do is increase the amount of water I need to use for water changes for them to have any use. So ditched the sump idea
Frag - Growout (nah... lets not even go there)
Refugium (quasi or real) - this is something that does fancy me, maybe a remote sandbed (however this would take a TON of sand.. probably literally!), with macro-algae, live rock, a ton of cucumbers, and other sandsifting animals. I figure put this on my back porch, so the whole thing is sunlit, no need for energy on lights for macro, perhaps have my tank, go to the "sump" where the skimmer is, then the sump into this via a surge if I'm feeling frisky. Or instead of macro-algea put in seagrass, perhaps a couple mangroves, etc. However the issue with water changes is the same as the sump, but perhaps as a refugium/nutrient export water changes wouldn't need to be as frequent.
Lagoon style reef- Similar to a refugium except with fish and other stuff. Only problems with this is corals don't look so good from the top sometimes, you can't really appreciate their beauty. Sure they look good with a top down box, but there'd be agitation and the like. Plus the color of the rubbermaid leaves something to be desired, and you almost have to have sand in it, or find a white version of Krylon fusion paint. Of course I'll have to make sure I have that red poofy algae under control
So any other ideas? suggestions? Am I crazy? I don't want to get into too many specifics, just kind of brain storming right now.
Ok so the story isn't that funny, more of you had to be there/related to the man. So I have this thick walled stock tank, fairly good size, as I mentioned I'm guessing it's the 300g size, it's closer to a circle than an oval that the 150g ones are. So I'm wondering what the hell to do with it. Now this is by no means a project that's going to get done any time soon, I'm thinking my summer break at the earliest I'll get started (plus my fish room is dirty as all F***ing hell as it is so I'd like to clean that up first).
Here's a few ideas I came across
Sump - Original idea, more volume = more stable... but my main tank is 100g, with a 50g sump (probably 30g of water in it), while this would increase my volume by 300% I doubt I have wild fluctuations with salinity/etc as it is, so the only thing this will do is increase the amount of water I need to use for water changes for them to have any use. So ditched the sump idea
Frag - Growout (nah... lets not even go there)
Refugium (quasi or real) - this is something that does fancy me, maybe a remote sandbed (however this would take a TON of sand.. probably literally!), with macro-algae, live rock, a ton of cucumbers, and other sandsifting animals. I figure put this on my back porch, so the whole thing is sunlit, no need for energy on lights for macro, perhaps have my tank, go to the "sump" where the skimmer is, then the sump into this via a surge if I'm feeling frisky. Or instead of macro-algea put in seagrass, perhaps a couple mangroves, etc. However the issue with water changes is the same as the sump, but perhaps as a refugium/nutrient export water changes wouldn't need to be as frequent.
Lagoon style reef- Similar to a refugium except with fish and other stuff. Only problems with this is corals don't look so good from the top sometimes, you can't really appreciate their beauty. Sure they look good with a top down box, but there'd be agitation and the like. Plus the color of the rubbermaid leaves something to be desired, and you almost have to have sand in it, or find a white version of Krylon fusion paint. Of course I'll have to make sure I have that red poofy algae under control
So any other ideas? suggestions? Am I crazy?
I don't want to get into too many specifics, just kind of brain storming right now.
