Reeftanker3295's Refugium / Eel tank build

[Reeftanker3295]

Will do . I think maybe this christmas ill get a big tank for all this stuff. Regular rock will do the same thing as live rock, correct? Im thinking of just getting lots of small pieces of rock from the sound or the ocean and using them for a big tank. Because they are small i will be able to get alot of surface area from a bunch of small rocks for bacteria colonization and it wont weigh as much, and since i will gather them from the ocean they will be already cured, sound like a good idea?

[Reeftanker3295]

O and if any of you are wondering what the starfish eat, look closely at the barnacles... You'll notice they are not in their shell anymore, the starfish suck them all out and i throw a big chunk in there once a while haha

[Reeftanker3295]

Stupid SOB crab! That same stupid crab that i took out of my biocube and put in my 10 gallon is on the kill again! I came downstairs to reset the internet and saw that my white macro is on the ground, torn in half, then i see the stinkin crab on a rock, eating it!!! What crab eats corals and macros instead of regular food?! GRRR. Hes banished to my HOB filter along with that unknown snail, ill choose what to do with him tomorrow morning...

[Blurple90]

How big will the American eel get? Are they a smaller species? Any problems between him and the other livestock? Ive been wanting an eel but dont have the room for another large tank.

[Reeftanker3295]

Blurple, He will eventually get much larger, but they live for a pretty long time, and can get close to 20 years old. They get probably 3-5 feet in length but ive had mine for a year now and hes only grown a couple of inches. No problems with him and the fish or any other critters in the tank. I caught mine myself though, they arent usually sold unless being used as bait haha. They are fairly easy to maintain, they eat anything, smell food the second it hits the water and finish all their food. Mine only comes out at night and occasionally during the afternoon and morning now that it has rocks and sand to hide in but he's cool to have. If you want one that you will always see get one and then put it in a tank with only a couple small rocks and a shallow sand bed.. Like 1 inch or less or else he will hide under the sand all day. Keep in mind you also dont need to keep them in saltwater. These eels migrate up saltwater rivers into freshwater as adults and stay there for their whole life. I catch them about 3 feet long in my stream in my backyard, probably 100s of miles from the ocean traveling through rivers. I had mine in freshwater until i decided to make a refugium and knew he'd like it so i acclimated him over 3-4 hours to saltwater and hes doing great.

[Reeftanker3295]

Just went to an island and collected about 4 species of new algaes. I also got 2 baby gobies from the side of my dock which i thought was kind of wierd... Ill post pictures later.

[J-LUIS]

So all of this is from the ocean of NY?

[Reeftanker3295]

The ocean and inlets but mostly right now its from the long island sound which is the same except dirtier.. haha

[Reeftanker3295]

Here are the pictures of the things i collected today and more pictures of the eel and fish:

The kingfish, if you look at other pictures you can see that hes gotten darker in color and at night he has much more color as well so hes very healthy

My eel


FTS, and yes i know it is very crowded but it will be transferred into a new 55 gallon within the next couple of weeks

The little tiny gobies that will probably go in once i find out what they eat

[quader94]

have you tried feeding the goby some baby brine?

[bb0029]

Originally Posted by Reeftanker3295

The ocean and inlets but mostly right now its from the long island sound which is the same except dirtier.. haha

Well at least you won't have to worry about water quality lol.

[Reeftanker3295]

Originally Posted by bb0029

Well at least you won't have to worry about water quality lol.

That is very true all of these animals love it in my tanks even if i dont do a water change for a very long time and they are so overstocked, the kingfish looks alot better than he did when i first caught him. Tim i think if these dont survive ill catch larger ones tomorrow, i saw some that are like the size of my kingfish maybe a tiny bit bigger on the mud just only caught these today we'll see what happens, tomorrow ill put them in the 10 gallon and they will probably find something to eat in there, its just like their habitat, they were on barnacles and mussels and thats where ill be putting them so theyll probably be fine.

[Fat Tony]

Man that is a huge Codium... I have been wanting some from my Caribbean biotope tank,but most of the suppliers are out... whenever you need to prune it (or collect some more) let me know... I would like to get some..

[Reeftanker3295]

haha Tony il take a picture for you next time i go to the beach, that was the smallest piece i could find! theres a section COVERED in it.

[Reeftanker3295]

By the way i found out that its very easy to collect eel grass so i uprooted 2 plants today and they are planted in my mantis tank for now since it has a bigger lid that opens for them to stick out the top (they are about 25 inches high) and a nice 3 inch sand bed until i get the 55 set up they will stay in there. Ill take lots of pictures next time i go collecting! By the way this took about 15 minutes to get all of these.