Recent content by devinf

I noticed you plan to keep an octopus. I would suggest keeping him in a tank by himself. They can be quite mischevious. A good preventative measure to take is to cover the top of the aquarium and some of the sides with astroturf - when he finds his way out of the tank (and he will), they...

It is wonderful to be able to collect your own rock, sand and livestock. We do it often at the aquarium (just two weeks ago we scored 5 rainbow mantis shrimp and a couple of nice sized starfish), But you MUST check with local authorities. Many of the coastal areas are protected and you would...

They are not natural inhabitants of the ecosystem. They can and will impact the other lifeforms. Competing for food sources, possibly destroying food sources for other species, inter-breeding and diluting the gene pool of otherwise healthy fish populations (see another post here on North...

I've always assumed that a starter tank should be at leat 40-50 gallons. Anything smaller and you are tackling a more advanced system (i.e. your water quality control will have to be dead on as will your lighting, filtration, etc.). If you do start with something small I would keep it as a...

It should work. I don't know of any set formula to determine the size of your sumps (anyonw?), but 10G should be just fine for your 55. Devin

I didn't see how often you keep the light on in your tank... Besides adding the suggested snails or type of algae eater (both good additions!), you might want to make sure that your lights are on no longer than 10-12 hours a day. By cutting back on the amount of available light you'll do quite...

The debate over UGFs will never end :) If anything, they are an excellent and cheap start for a beginner. If you're looking to get your feet wet in keeping fish, it might be the way to go. That way you can get started in the never-ending learning process. Eventually, you'll get to a point where...

I don't know about stars, but they do make bio-balls. Could be very similar. They are an excellent addition to any biological filtration system you have. They are used heavily in marine systems, and I'm sure would be equally successful in freshwater. They are an excellent breeding ground for...

At the aquarium where I volunteer we keep a swell shark that was collected off the coast in Caalifornia. It shares tank space with a horn shark and a few starfishes and that's about it. As for $30 of food a day... not sure about that. We feed the shark a few large pieces of sardine every day or...

5 watss per gallon is a good start, but if you're gonna keep corals and inverts, I'd reccommend you aim for 7-10 per gallon. It'd be a wise choice to look into metal halide for your lights. Devin

You can use fresh whole sardines, squid and other bits of high quality seafood. Just chop them up and feed once a day or every other day (depending on types of fish). Another option is you can make gelatin cubes if you want to have pre-made stuff on hand. They're also a handy way to introduce...

If you added any type of coral sand then you might have some problems. It's designed for marine aquariums. Devin

It should be placed as the last stage in your system, so after the wet/dry. Devin

30 gallons is a bit small. If you can, try for at least 40 or 50 (bigger tanks mean more stable tanks). And as others have said, the lighting is VERY important. The tank will also need vigorous filtration and circulation. A good suggestion is 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon of tank capacity...

She could always add in a algae scrubber to make up for extra nitrates :) Those are neat little devices I've just started looking into. Devin