Office Tanks

[mikeclarke]

Hi there,

I have a 6' long 100gal mixed reef tank with a 4' 50gal sump in my basement. I love it.

My wife has suggested that I could set up a tank in her office. What would you do? I want to have something that is big enough to be fun yet doesn't take up a lot of floor space. Do I need to have a sump in order to have coral? If so, I'd prefer to have the sump below the tank in the stand if possible. I'm not going to be able to visit the tank daily so her or her staff would be in charge of feeding etc. I want to make things fairly fool proof (in cases of power loss, etc) and make things simple for a non-fish nerd to figure out.

My wife would love to have coral in the office tank and since a lot of children will see this tank I think I'd want to make sure it is bright and have some of the fish that they would recognize from "Finding Nemo".

TIA,

Mike

[ponokareefer]

I've had an office tank in my office for years now. I just did an upgrade in order to make things better than my 2nd setup. Here are a few lessons I have learned:

1. kids and some adults will not only touch the glass, but bang on it. My new setup is on a 4 foot stand so that little kids can't touch it. My last system had a big jut out so that little kids couldn't touch it. You will need to do something. Also put up a sign so people know not to touch the glass. Make it fun though. I use to put up a picture with Nemo on it.

2. You will need to try to make it as silent as possible. Herbie or beannie animal overflows are the best but need to be "tuned" in. This takes time and patience. The employees there will grow to hate the system if you don't.

3. An overflow and sump are great things as it makes it look much more professional as you can hide most equipment out of sight.

4. You are going to want to have a canopy. This will avoid people putting stuff in, avoid customers putting their hands in and fish jumping out on customers. This will also protect the employees from their eyes getting burned out from light glare. The canopy will limit some of your lighting choices, but it is essential in a work environment.

5. You are going to have to have the sump and electrical completely covered. If this is in a cabinet, make sure it can be locked so that kids can't get in and fiddle around with stuff and potentially hurt themselves. The last thing the company wants is a law suite over the tank being in there.

6. If you can get the system close to plumbing(drain and tap), make that a priority. There is nothing worse than lugging water through the office, which is what I have to do.

7. Automatic fish feeders are your friends. This doesn't give them the best food, but when you aren't there 7 days a week, small bits of okay food throughout the day is decent. This will also avoid the employees having to feed the tank. I find most non-reefers love to over feed, which becomes a nightmare.

8. Consider going with softies(leathers, mushrooms, etc.). Non-reefers love them, they are fairly fool proof, provide great color and usually grow very well. This is the direction I have gone with my tank for simplicity. You don't have to worry as much about dosing or reactors.

[ponokareefer]

You are limited in which Finding Nemo fish you are going to be able to get. The clownfish is a great choice, but a regal tang is not appropriate for that size of system, a yellow tang is okay, a royal gramma is a great choice, a puffer fish is a very bad choice, a seahorse is a very bad choice and a shrimp is a good choice. I don't recall what other fish were in there. My customers only seem to remember Nemo and Dori for the most part.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Have to agree with Ponokareefer's recommendations.

Look at doing a RR cube (2' cube is nice & gives you 60g display)with a semi-cube sump.

Some brightly coloured toadstools (yellow & green, instead of tans), some photosynthetic gorgs, some bright mushrooms and zoas, and maybe a Duncan or neon green finger leather would give you a fairly nice mix of easy to keep, hardy corals.

I would stay away from sps and even some lps because with a public tank, you never know if someone is going to contaminate the water by sticking in their hands or dropping something in.

A pair of clowns, a pair of Bangaii or blue-eyed cardinals, a yellow wrasse for movement & colour, and maybe a flame or long nose hawkfish would be among the fish I would consider for a low-maintenance office tank. If you are going with a cube or smaller tank, then a small Kole or Tomini tang would be the only tang you should even consider (other species tend to be too big and swim too much). If you don't keep a tang, you can add some nice macroalgae like prolifera or halimenia to give it a more natural look.

Good luck. Sounds like a fun project. BTW, who's paying for this office tank & what's your budget? Questions you need answers to before you go nuts.

Anthony