4x2x2 bullies tank

[94Roarge]

Welcome, I hope you enjoy my journey with this, any 2 cents are most welcome!

So in the morning I am picking up a 4x2x2, sump with sump holder, stand, hood and plumbing for $200Au (I'm from Australia)

I plan on having a deep sand bed, some cavey live rock, a nem dominated tank with aggressive fish in it.

This was all sparked by a fish that came in to my work under the name of "Red Grouper" which turned out to be, as there was no scientific name and I had to research it, Labracinus cyclophthalmus aka "Red Dottyback" or "Dampiera Grouper" as best as I could tell.

Either way, I fell in love.

I have already bought it and a colleague has it in their QT while the tank sets up.

Other tank mates I have in mind so far are
Domino damsels x4 or 5
Forsters Hawkfish x1
Hardwicke Wrasse x1
Amphiprion akindynos clown x2

That's it so far.

 

[94Roarge]

Tune in for more

 

[MaiReef]

Sounds good. Good luck.
May want to read current info on DSB. They work well for a while, but then seem to crash the tank.

 

[94Roarge]

Sounds good. Good luck.
May want to read current info on DSB. They work well for a while, but then seem to crash the tank.

I have slowly been making my way through Ron Shimek's articles and have read up his DSB stuff on his website. So I'm working on it [emoji14] I have a modertely deep ben in my current tank also. I'll do my best! Thanks

 

[94Roarge]

Tank and stand picked up, sump and hood picking up tomorrow.
Now to figure out where I want it to sit in the room [emoji14]

 

[4FordFamily]

That's a nice setup! I like the overflow box it's pretty unique never seen one like that!

 

[94Roarge]

That's a nice setup! I like the overflow box it's pretty unique never seen one like that!

Thanks! The guy I got it off made everything himself about a year ago apparenly, which is pretty neat!

 

[94Roarge]

Almost there! Water arrives in the morning, and I'll run it through the day, pick some live rock up when I finish work, and start it up [emoji14]

For media I will be moving my marine pure block from my other tank over, fully seeded

 

[94Roarge]

A work collegue has been quarrantining the dottyback for me while I have been setting up, but I will now be having a goatfish coming with it when he gives it back. He ordered the goat and it came in too small for his massive pred system, so I get to grow it up buuuuuuuuuuuut. He also ended up getting a 30cm panther grouper and so I may have to add the fish sooner than I would really like :/

But I will make do.

I am going to be buying all of my sand in one go as a deal, 8 20lb bags in one go [emoji14]

I have added the "Green Wolf Eel" dottyback to my fish wish list, that and/or an engineer goby

 

[94Roarge]

We have water!

 

[94Roarge]

Return is up and running, I have been thinking about how I am going to set it up order wise, and decided to get my 80kg ish of live sand (160lb?) And then buy a bulk box of live rock to build a little bit in there and play around with. I will be using a fully seeded marine pure block from my other tank to start up the media side of things, and it already has some caulerpa growing on it. Plus I have a little bunch of chaeto sitting ready also. Once I have set up the rockwork a bit I can start to buy some more atractive pieces of rockwork.

 

[94Roarge]

Oh and I added a single big shrimp to the tank with a nice piece of rock to have SOMETHING going apart from the return [emoji14]

 

[94Roarge]

So I have made up an egg crate liner for the bottom, which will ideally hold my rockwork in place firmly instead of simple glass (plus it buffers between the two! Win win right?) And the count down for samd is getting closer.

And suggestions/questions so far?
Constructive criticism is most welcome!

Oh and here is the shrimp

 

[94Roarge]

The two 30x30 sheets together are way too much to fit the 2ft wide tank (makes sense?) So back to the chopping board :/

 

[94Roarge]

Soooooooo plans for fish stocking changed all in one day.

The 12cm dottyback got eaten by a 30cm panther grouper and I found a new fish I didn't think were a thing here in Australia.

The egg crate lining is installed and you can now meet my new friend:
Halophryne diemensis, the Banded Frogfish. He/she is approximately 20cm long and is a world of attitude!

 

[94Roarge]

The shrimp survives night #1

 

[Maritimer]

We would call that a toadfish here in the U.S. ... and it's a pretty cool one!

I've seen some of ours grow to over two pounds, and threaten to drown a gull that grabbed one from a dock . . . Excellent choice for a "bullies" tank!

~Bruce

 

[94Roarge]

We would call that a toadfish here in the U.S. ... and it's a pretty cool one!

I've seen some of ours grow to over two pounds, and threaten to drown a gull that grabbed one from a dock . . . Excellent choice for a "bullies" tank!

~Bruce

Thanks! I thought it looked like the supposed "toadfish" you guys have. I didn't realise they existed over here, so I'm pretty stoked :3 when I tried to usher it to face a different direction for the photos, it attacked my tweezers [emoji14] and then to feed it today I pretty much just pushed a lance fish around against it's face and eventually it snatched it down [emoji14]

 

[94Roarge]

Oh and for sizes, it gets to approx 10-11"

 

[94Roarge]

New tank mate!

Paracirrhites forsteri aka Forsters Hawkfish! This guy has been at my work longer than I have, and is now on to a bigger home! He did look bigger at work though :S

And shrimpy is still alive and well, for now [emoji14]

The left hand corner has the Hawkfish in it, and the Frogfish is under the middle rock for size reference.
The hawk should get to around 9 inches long.