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Anna & Pablo's 55g

Yesterday, I added a sumpless ATO from XP Aqua to the tank. It’s a really clever gadget that not only keeps the water level but also skims the surface. Since we started adding Selcon to the fish food, the surface has been nasty - this thing cleared it up immediately.
 
Nasty surface, yup that is one of the big problems with not having an overflow. You just need something to pull that top layer of oily crap off and deal with it, often people overflow to sump which is what deals with it.
 
Re-scaped to make a habitat for four garden eels we’re getting from @Kremis. My wife found a way to keep everything while clearing 1/3 of the tank for a deep sand bed. Just need to add a ton of sand!

Before
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After
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Re-scaped to make a habitat for four garden eels we’re getting from @Kremis. My wife found a way to keep everything while clearing 1/3 of the tank for a deep sand bed. Just need to add a ton of sand!

Before
3a2efd705874cf9640fdd40a5e54e1b3.plist


After
b1feb392b2fb46eae1d8b531033fe934.plist

That is an awesome tank, I must say!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You may be able to use some flat rocks to make a ‘sand box’ and have a barrier to keep the sand to one side. If that becomes an issue
 
This is gonna be a cool tank with the new eel addition. Do you think you’ll add some sand stirring CUC like nas snails and conchs, or do the eels keep their sandbox neat
 
This is gonna be a cool tank with the new eel addition. Do you think you’ll add some sand stirring CUC like nas snails and conchs, or do the eels keep their sandbox neat

Good question. I have a conch and a lot of hermits already. I don’t know whether the new sand will go through an ugly stage or not. I’m sure the eels will keep the area around their burrows clean, but who knows...
 
Very cool! I am wondering if adding the sand (more surface area for bacteria) will signifigantly drop no3 & po4 in the coming days weeks months?
 
Picked up the garden eels from @Kremis yesterday: thank you!

Unfortunately one of the four didn’t survive the night. It was spooked in the new tank and refused to burrow in the sand. It tired itself out so we put it in an acclimation box overnight but it passed away.

The other three burrowed right away and are starting to do their thing - catch bits of food from the current.

It’s so strange to see little fish heads sticking out of the sand!

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Dosed 50 lbs of live sand which caused a significant increase in specific cloudiness. The garden of the garden eels is ready with 7” of substrate.

The rainbow BTA decided to split during all the commotion even though we didn’t move her. Into THREE.

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Kudos to your wife -- what a great idea! I love it!
 
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