BSJF tank!

Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Had to sell my tank and BSJF about 6 months ago when we moved to Boston. Just bought a new tank (finally) and looking to gear it towards a BSJF. Its an innovative marine micro 30 gallon.

Just put in a 5-6 inch sand bed of special grade reef sand http://www.marinedepot.com/CaribSea...Reef_Aquariums-CaribSea-CS0020-FISSDS-vi.html.

All rocks are anchored to egg crate at the bottom with acrylic rods. Tank has a cover. Leaning away from building a little home out of PVC as my last one never used it, this is a pretty decent sand bed, and I love watching them build with rubble rock.

Any suggestions before I add water and theres not much I can change?

 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
yeah maybe a little more rock and you'll need some rubble for him/her! Will this just be a tank for 1 BSJF?
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
I kept reading that they like an open sand bed... took this from http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/bluespot-club/23684-what-you-need-know-about-bluespots.html... says that "Another thing we know is that they are typically found residing on flat stretches of the ocean floor in large colonies and have a 360 degree view of their surroundings. They may feel uncomfortable in our tanks having a wall of rock blocking part of their view."

So I tried to keep everything relatively open. My only concern here is that I won't have enough biological filtration and could have problems with my parameters. Im hoping that with enough time (stocking very slowly) and possibly adding a sump (if necessary) I can get around this. What do you guys think? On my last tank I was hesitant to start carbon dosing (for fear of not getting ratios right) so I starting using prodibio (not quite the same thing) but I did have great parameters, maybe that could help down the line.

I will have rubble rock galore for this guy!!

I didn't think it would be possible to have more than 1 in a tank this small (30 gallons initially but this has been reduced due to the deep sand bed). So my plan is to have 1 BSJF (added first) and maybe two clowns added later. Though it would be an adventure to have two! Iv read that both should be introduced at the same time so I guess if I do go that route I would need to decided before adding any fish. 90% sure Ill just have one.
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
You need not form a wall of rock, but you can add more to the tank.

In my opinion, sumps are not a good place for LR, since that turns the sump into one big dirt trap, and nitrate factory. In the tank, you can use various methods to blow out what accumulated in the LR. This is much more difficult to do in a sump.

In a 30 gal tank, you can very likely keep things under control with your filtration system and water changes. I doubt you'll need carbon dosing or prodibio.

The clowns are ok, but my personal choices would be other fish. It seems everyone wants that pair of clowns today.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Things are finally moving!!! This little guy arrived a couple of days ago and is in my QT tank. He seems to be doing well, he built a little burrow, still hiding I'm sure he'll come around soon enough. Hard to get a good picture. Cant wait to add him to the DT. He'll be the first fish in my display tank, I wanted to make sure it was fully cycled and ready to go. I added more sand and live rock about a month ago to be sure he'd be comfortable and a TON of rubble rock. It is definitely looking like the ultimate BSJF den, just need to add the BSJF to be complete!

Even though he's the first fish going in this tank and Iv had great luck with divers den... still felt the need to QT. At the very least Ill get him accustomed to associating me with the turkey baster and food. If necessary it'll be much easier to medicate though I am not planning to do so, like I said divers den is pretty good.

Excited! divers den has had a BSJF every night lately, it seems so I watched for a few weeks and waited for one that was super yellow rather the the brown/orange.

 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Off to a nice start. IMO a major factor for long term success will be the tank temp. These fish are collected from cooler Pacific waters. Many of the BSJF that have been lost were placed in mixed reef tanks running at normal mixed reef temps.

I probably wouldn't run a BSJF tank any warmer than 74 degrees and ideally I'd probably keep in the 70-72 range.

Not a lot of live rock as noted previously but this should not be a problem if the tank isn't fully stocked. For your next fish maybe consider a Catalina goby, it's one of the local fish in my area and would do nicely in a cool tank setup for the BSJF.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Thanks for the advice! Yes, tank will definitely be run around 70! I would love a catalina goby and yes that would be such a great tank mate for him. Just a bit worried about the temp for them, I read they really need to be in 50s -60's degrees. Thoughts?

What a cool tank that would be, so colorful!

and Yes more pictures on the way, once he comes out of his shell a little bit. Ill be adding some LPS corals this weekend too, figure I should do it now so I won't disturb the jawfish too much his first couple weeks in DT.
 
Travis

Travis

Administrator
Staff member
RS STAFF
Great progress and obviously you've been thoughtful and measured in your approach... cheers to that! Curious, in maintaining the tank at 70 degrees... chiller or you just going to keep the house cool? :snow:
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
The waters around Catalina island get to around 70 in August. For sure, the rest of the year the waters are cooler but I think one would do find around 70.
 
Billerbong

Billerbong

Member
Interesting, I will look into getting one, such gorgeous fish. Thanks for the info!

Well Iv only had the tank for a few months in Boston which happens to coincide with a crazy crazy winter! So its not too hard keeping the tank cool without a chiller for the moment. That might change come spring/summer at which point Ill get a chiller. This will be my first summer in Boston as well so now sure what to except in terms of cost for keeping the house cool, but Ill get a chiller if tank temp starts creeping up.

Bostonians thoughts on this? I keep hearing that its harder to keep temperature low in winter time with the heat running but so far so good.
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
Great tank mate in the catalina goby! I do think you'll need a chiller though just because I can't see you cooling your house THAT much to offset the heat from the lights/equipment. Good thing is the tank isn't huge......i'd start off with a fan to see how that controls the temp.
 
Snelly40

Snelly40

Well-Known Member
hey guys, quick bsjf question, not trying to hijack but i see varying opinions on water temps, i'd still like to have corals and warm water fish and didnt know if a tank around 76 degrees was ok for the bsjf, he'll be the first fish added and i''ll make the adjustments but was thinking 76 is on the cooler side compared to 80 yet still leaves me coral and fish options down the road...
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Snelly40 said:
hey guys, quick bsjf question, not trying to hijack but i see varying opinions on water temps, i'd still like to have corals and warm water fish and didnt know if a tank around 76 degrees was ok for the bsjf, he'll be the first fish added and i''ll make the adjustments but was thinking 76 is on the cooler side compared to 80 yet still leaves me coral and fish options down the road...
Click to expand...

Snelly -- you can do 76 degrees, although a little lower would be better. The area where these fish come from has water temperatures that change seasonally and there is a thermocline in the water column (thermocline = a change in water temperature where the surface water is warmer than the water at 30 feet or even at 60 feet. The deeper you go the colder the water is.). As a bottom dwelling fish, the fish won't be in the warmer waters of the surface. They will instead be used to the coolder waters at depth. Most of the literature states they are found at depths from 5-25 meters (16-82 feet), juveniles are usually found in shallow waters and adults in deeper waters (more here on post 21 & 22).

Therefore, the cooler you can keep the tank the better.

You can try to target corals that prefer cooler water - like the deep water corals. There are some really nice deep water acros and other corals that you can get a hold of that would do well in cooler tanks. What you want to avoid are corals that come from lagoons and patch reefs, which are used to warmer waters. Reach out to wrangy about deep water acros (if this interests you) he mentioned looking into those corals for his new zeo tank.

Other critters you can get in a cooler tanks include the:
Mexican Turbo Snail: 72-78° F (Turbo fluctuosa)
Margarita Snail: 72-78° F (Margarites pupillus)
Chestnut Cowrie: 64-72° F (Cypraea spp.)
Pincushion Urchin: 72-78° F (Lytechinus variegatus)
Abalone, Aquacultured 61-79° F (Haliotis sp.)
Catalina Goby: 60-77° F (Lythrypnus dalli)
Zebra Catalina Goby: 68-75° F (Lythrypnus zebra)
Mexican Barnacle Blenny: 72-78° F (Acanthemblemaria macrospilus)
Panamic Barnacle Blenny: 72-78° F (Acanthemblemaria hancocki)

If you take the time to search, you will find there are a few cooler water corals, mobile inverts, and fish that can be in a cooler water tank with the bsjf. They aren't as easy to find as those for tropical tanks, but they are available from time to time.
 
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