Red Sea Aquavase
 

So I went down to the states yesterday, as my sister has some bridal shopping to do. I figured I'd join the trip and keep her fiance entertained, rather than sitting in a car.

We ended up going to Petco to check out the place. I now know why they call that place Death-co. Nice big tangs, in 5g tanks, full of ick. Made my heart almost stop.

Anyhoo, on the way out, we noticed the clearance table.

We found a Red Sea Aquavase. Reg $29.99, on sale for $10 bucks. Reason, no lamp. Still a steal at $10 bucks for the small 3/4g tank, and also the HOB filter. (The one we got was all clear)

http://www.petco.com/assets/product_...077388223B.jpg

He's always wanted a small tank for his apartment, and almost always wanted a red scarlet hermit crab. He can't keep his eyes of the one in my tank, seeing that was the first livestock I had.

Questions: His apartment is fairly warm year round. Do you think he'll need a heater?

Lighting? What to use? If anything he'll some sand, a peice of LR, and the hermit, one snail, and maybe some xenia from my tank. Thought about DIY LED, but he's not the DIY type of guy. Thought about the similar lighting that comes with the tank, its $24.99 and is 7w. Is that enough?

You know, when a store has poor animal keeping practices, I boycott them. :neutral:

Its nice to have an opinion and all but I dont think that was what he was asking.....


Anyway if I was setting up the tank I would hook up a little LED light, use the little filter that came with it and forget about the heater, I would keep the tank temperate, have a orange footed/margarita snail, some sand, some live rock, some worms, a little goby(I cant for the life of me remember the name of the temperate goby Im thinking of, its bright neon red with nean blue vertical stripes....) and alot of nice readily available hermit crabs do well in temperate conditions alot of pretty critters do well in temperate conditions.....

A Catalina Goby?

So you think room temp should be good enough? We're gonna leave it with some sand/LR for about 1-2 weeks in his apartment, and see what the temp runs at. He's got a highrise in downtown, and I know it bakes in the summertime, however he is getting a A/C this summer.

I don't think that we even thought about having any salt water fish, as I figured it would be way to small for one. You think a goby would be okay? I'll see what he thinks, if he's happy with a crab or two, we'll leave it like that.

He called me up and asked about one of those small $10 dollar ikea lamps, but I figured those would just grow algea in the tank. Maybe I'll see if I can rig up some LED for him.

lol, yeah thats the one....
Thanks

If he has a heat regulated place no heater would be fine in my mind if you kept it kinda temperate, using temperate species such as the catilina goby which is a very small fish,(think freshwater neon goby size but not as large when adults) margarita /orangefoot snail, and various others, alot of readily available corals thrive in temperate conditions as well...

Very cool. Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/mari...1P660X_med.jpg

Btw, thats a cool lookin' fish. Some info: A cold water marine aquarium is ideal as these are not a "tropical" fish. They are "coldwater" fish, which means they will thrive best in temperatures in the 50°s and 60°s F (with the highest temperatures being 74° F).

So went to his apartment last night to setup the little beast. Looks great. We ended up just using a small ikea lamp he has for now.

I end up spending tons of time in my room, and since my 38g is downstairs, I figure I may start one of my own aquavase. I'll probably give him the light from mine, and make my own LED lighting. We'll see how things go. We'll probably keep the same things in our tank, to see the difference in growth from the regular 7w (or possibly 13w) compared to my LED's.