Nano "pest" tank

[kmanuele]

Hi all,

First I'd like to say I usually keep freshwater tanks so I'm new to this side of the hobby.

I'm very interested in microorganisms, including all the inverts and stuff that are traditionally considered pests. Flatworms, polychaetes, apistas, planaria, copepods, snails, ostrocods, even hair algae and cyanobacteria are all interesting to me.

I want to set up a nano tank with the aim of maximizing biodiversity and creating an interesting ecosystem, but I don't want to bother with expensive fish and corals. I was thinking of putting some live rock, sand, and macro algae in a low tech 20 gal set up, and just sorta see what happens.

Basically, if I end up with a variety of algae, small invertebrates, maybe some hardy soft corals and apista-like anemones that all coexist in a semi stable equilibrium I'll be more than happy.

Do you guys think this approach would work, or would I get an algae bloom that just kills everything?
Any ideas for organisms I could introduce easily and cheaply, even if they're small/ugly/weird looking? Bonus points if they can form reproductive populations.

Thanks all

 

[MnFish1]

Hi all,

First I'd like to say I usually keep freshwater tanks so I'm new to this side of the hobby.

I'm very interested in microorganisms, including all the inverts and stuff that are traditionally considered pests. Flatworms, polychaetes, apistas, planaria, copepods, snails, ostrocods, even hair algae and cyanobacteria are all interesting to me.

I want to set up a nano tank with the aim of maximizing biodiversity and creating an interesting ecosystem, but I don't want to bother with expensive fish and corals. I was thinking of putting some live rock, sand, and macro algae in a low tech 20 gal set up, and just sorta see what happens.

Basically, if I end up with a variety of algae, small invertebrates, maybe some hardy soft corals and apista-like anemones that all coexist in a semi stable equilibrium I'll be more than happy.

Do you guys think this approach would work, or would I get an algae bloom that just kills everything?
Any ideas for organisms I could introduce easily and cheaply, even if they're small/ugly/weird looking? Bonus points if they can form reproductive populations.

Thanks all

Its interesting - IMHO you will get an algae bloom that kills everything. Mainly because - if you're really going to keep it 'low tech' - you're not testing nutrients, etc etc - and you're going to have to be feeding, etc etc. Part of it will depend on lighting - and other filtration - but the other issue is - even 'pests' - live in a relatively clean ocean. So - if you keep a dirty aquarium - the organisms you get will be those that survive in the conditions you provide. I do not think you will have an overly 'diverse' system. (But keep up the thread so everyone can see how it goes!!!). Good Luck

 

[Pedal Dangit]

I'm very interested in microorganisms, including all the inverts and stuff that are traditionally considered pests. Flatworms, polychaetes, apistas, planaria, copepods, snails, ostrocods, even hair algae and cyanobacteria are all interesting to me.

that's basically my tank. I can check most of those boxes although I wouldn't consider snails and pods pests.

However, a few things on your list I would advise not putting in purposely (like aiptasia) but if they show up I would not freak out about it. You can have a fine tank IMO with just cheap "give away" type corals and macro algae and you don't have to dip or quarantine anything if your just going on the super cheap. If you look around for local reef clubs on FB, a lot of times you can find people just giving away Kenya tree, GSP, and macro algae. snails and hermits are cheap. You could totally do this with a small 20 gal. but I would do a "all in one" type set up with surface skimming. good luck.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I have a pest jar which I deliberately seeded with aiptasia, majanos, and blue clove polyps. The cloves happened to be infested with grape caulerpa, which is the only organism that really overwhelmed the build. I had to ultimately nuke it with vibrant, as the caulerpa resisted manual control. Unfortunately, this also took out the clove polyps.

I don't keep a heater in the jar; its temperature is regulated by ambient house temperature and the greenhouse effect, as it's got a closed glass lid. None of the pest anemones have taken over the tank, as I only feed a few pellets to the maxi-mini that I stuck in the jar. This light feeding has really been key to controlling the numbers and spread of the pests.

I also haven't done a water change in three months now. I'm going to have to do that in the next few days, though, as I've just placed a new coral frag in there.

 

[MaxTremors]

Its interesting - IMHO you will get an algae bloom that kills everything. Mainly because - if you're really going to keep it 'low tech' - you're not testing nutrients, etc etc - and you're going to have to be feeding, etc etc. Part of it will depend on lighting - and other filtration - but the other issue is - even 'pests' - live in a relatively clean ocean. So - if you keep a dirty aquarium - the organisms you get will be those that survive in the conditions you provide. I do not think you will have an overly 'diverse' system. (But keep up the thread so everyone can see how it goes!!!). Good Luck

I disagree about the algae bloom that will kill everything. It’s not difficult to keep a low tech tank without testing. I agree that they’ll need at least somewhat adequate lighting and will need to do maintenance like you would on any other tank. But it’s not something destined or even likely to fail if maintenance is kept up with and they have the basics in terms of equipment (some lighting, flow, a heater, and some quality live rock is really all you need).

In order to get a truly bio diverse community of microfauna, you’re going to have to get little bits of live rock and/or macroalgae from multiple sources. I would start out with 10lbs of gulf live rock, and then source little pieces of rubble from as many places as you can. Do keep in mind that once you start adding pests, you’re going to have issues down the line if you decide you want to try corals or a more traditional reef tank. For me a reef tank isn’t a reef tank without all of the microfauna from quality live rock, there’s really just a few general pests and coral specific pests I avoid, but it makes a tank so much more interesting. So if you avoid a few of the pests on your list (namely aiptasia and planaria/flatworms), you’ll have more options down the road should you decide you want to try corals (because they’re just as, if not more, interesting as all the inverts and microfauna).

Anyway tl;dr, I say go for it.

 

[blaxsun]

Paging Dr. Moreau...

 

[SlugSnorter]

Hi all,

First I'd like to say I usually keep freshwater tanks so I'm new to this side of the hobby.

I'm very interested in microorganisms, including all the inverts and stuff that are traditionally considered pests. Flatworms, polychaetes, apistas, planaria, copepods, snails, ostrocods, even hair algae and cyanobacteria are all interesting to me.

I want to set up a nano tank with the aim of maximizing biodiversity and creating an interesting ecosystem, but I don't want to bother with expensive fish and corals. I was thinking of putting some live rock, sand, and macro algae in a low tech 20 gal set up, and just sorta see what happens.

Basically, if I end up with a variety of algae, small invertebrates, maybe some hardy soft corals and apista-like anemones that all coexist in a semi stable equilibrium I'll be more than happy.

Do you guys think this approach would work, or would I get an algae bloom that just kills everything?
Any ideas for organisms I could introduce easily and cheaply, even if they're small/ugly/weird looking? Bonus points if they can form reproductive populations.

Thanks all

lots of copepods and snails are not pests at all. many people have snails in their cleaning crew. And many use starters to get helpful pods in their tank