Garden Eel Tank - Updated
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Topic: Garden Eel Tank - Updated
Posted By: jdinchak
Subject: Garden Eel Tank - Updated
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:25pm
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Our 55 gallon garden eel tank: Garden eels have been a passion of mine ever since discovering them on a diving trip in the Caymans. I had thought keeping them in a home aquarium would be impossible but was excited to discover that my assumption was not entirely true. We started our saltwater adventure with a 55 gallon reef tank. We enjoyed the salt water tank and its inhabitants so much that dreams quickly formed regarding more and larger tanks. A garden eel tank was in the back of my mind but I still thought they would be impossible to keep. Fortunately, we attended the UT reef fest this past fall and Scott Michael’s talk about unusual salt water animals to keep. Garden eels were mentioned. We spoke to him after the show about a garden eel tank and were thrilled to discover they might not be as difficult as expected. We bought a used 55 gallon tank and the process started. We looked up everything we could about keeping garden eels but were disappointed by the small amount of information available. We discovered that sand depth and size is extremely important. Gardens eels like sand depths anywhere between 4-8 inches. Sand too fine will not form a stable burrow but sand too rough will damage their sensitive skins. We decided to go with a size 1 sand and filled half the tank to a 6 inch depth. We put some live rock on the shallow sand side of the tank to help with filtration.  A used 55g tank we picked up and did some work to.  115 pounds of sand later  A nearly full tank!  Time to Cycle!!! Our research indicated that the eels would only eat water borne foods that were about at head height. The eels would not make any effort to eat foods off the sand or out of their reach. So we needed a way to keep the food circulating throughout the tank at eel height. We decided a spray bar would serve the purpose. We used tubing, pvc pipe, and an old maxi jet for the construction. We mounted it halfway up the side of the tank at what we thought would be eel head height. We also decided to run an additional maxi jet pump to increase circulation down the length of the tank. For filtering we are using a HOB filter with carbon that is changed monthly along with weekly water changes. We started the tank on a budget and are looking to add a skimmer and possible auto-feeder in the future. We went cheap with lighting and decided to use regular fresh water lighting T8s. We came to this decision because garden eels are found around 60ft depths and are not used to bright lighting. Some of our research indicated that too bright lighting could be distressful to the eels.  Our loot - 3 Hassi Garden Eels from LiveAquaria! Like Xmas in Feb.  The waiting is the hardest part. I hate waiting for acclimation, but it is so important ------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Replies:
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:25pm
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We decided to order our eels online from Live Aquaria. The eels frequently go in and out of stock. Just prior to our tank finally being cycled, the eels went out of stock. We ended up having to wait several additional weeks before we were able to order our eels. We decided to start with 3 eels so as not to crowd them too much. Some information we had gave up to 6 inches between the burrows. The day they arrived was full of excitement. This was our first experience with online fish retailers. We carefully followed the instructions and opened the boxes in a dark room. When we were finally able to bring them into the light to take a look we were really surprised by how thin they were (the width of pencils). We were expecting much fatter animals. They were so small, it was hard to even see them in the bottom of the bags. They seemed quite healthy and active moving around the bags and attempting to escape. One of the keys to garden eels is making sure you are starting with a healthy animal since they are rarely found to recover from any illness or injury.  They were anxious to be anywhere but in the bag. Looking back, I am not sure who had the most distressing first days, us or the eels. We acclimated the eels (which the eels did not enjoy, they were anxious to be out of the bags.) Unfortunately, upon introduction to the tank, we found that garden eels are terrible swimmers. The pumps and filters kept knocking them into the tank walls and rocks. We were terrified they would get injured. We read that they typically do not recover well if injured. We ended up turning off all the pumps for the day and were discouraged when they managed to explore everywhere except the sand. After leaving them overnight, one finally made a burrow. The other two were still floating around randomly. We were forced to turn on one filter to at least get some water circulation, but the remaining eels did not appreciate the increased water movement. By the end of the 2nd day 2 had created burrows and the third was in the sand by the 3rd day. Their first burrows were spread far apart in the tank, one even burrowed under the live rocks in the shallow part of the tank.   They weren't very good swimmers, like watching a newborn calf.  |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:26pm
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We started our feeding attempts with mysis, but it was too large and tended to scare them. We then switched to frozen brine shrimp which they quickly acclimated to eating. There was some concern with the location one had picked as to whether the current would bring it enough food. Within the 1st month it had moved burrows two times to locations with better water movement for food. They are now eating a diet of arctipods, brine shrimp, and a fish food frozen mix and seem quite healthy. They are fed once daily with small amounts at a time. The tank has several hermit crabs to help eat old food. The spray bar and maxi jets work well to keep the food floating long enough for the eels to eat their fill. They are quite active during the day searching the waters for food. As they have gotten more comfortable they emerge higher from their holes. Once the lights turn off they quickly retreat into their burrow for the night and will even cover the hole with a bit a sand. They are a bit skittish when shadows darken the tank as people walk by but they will usually quickly come back out. Like all fish, they have different personalities and behaviors. One is very brave and is always the first to come out when there is new stuff going on and one is very skittish and will retreat at any movement. One is a piggy and will stretch to his maximum to eat any food morsel. There is one that prefers larger chunks of food and one that prefers extremely tiny foods. We have really been enjoying our garden eels. They are fun to watch and can be pretty active during the day. Their bodies move with the currents like they are dancing. They also spend time cleaning out their burrows and we will just suddenly see puffs of sand in the water.     A video of our Eels feeding. |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 15 2010 at 11:43pm
| Come see the Garden Eels for your self at the 2010 WMAS Reef Tour!!! |
Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:25am
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Those are awesome! I enjoyed reading of your success and hope it continues.
Mike -------------  |
Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 10:43am
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This is probably one of the coolest things I've seen on this board! I will be stopping by your place on the reef tour. I love it! ------------- None at the moment Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 11:38am
Sounds like you may be the hot spot of this years RT.
I'm curious about tank maintenance. You mentioned some Hermit Crabs which roam around finding uneaten food.
You also mention a HOB filter with AC(Activated Carbon). How much and often do you change it?
I'm wondering about water changes. Amount and frequency?
The "size 1" sand you used. Could you please explain or give the brand and name?
You said you let the tank cycle. How long from setup to adding Eels and where did the LR come from? Did you add any LS?
How long have the Eels been in the tank and how did you acclimate them?
Its great that they have accepted frozen foods. Do you add Garlic Oil to the food?
Also, already there is algae growing on the spraybar. What about algae control? Any snails?
Sorry for all the questions. I cannot attend the RT and yet I am just too curious.  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Shane H
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 11:40am
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will be stopping by your place on the reef tour. x2
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Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 11:59am
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Dang that is awesome. I may have to leave my own house to come over.
Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: dca22anderson
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:21pm
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That is sweetness! Good job on your build! ------------- Dave Anderson Saratoga Springs, UT |
Posted By: Merk
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:28pm
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Okay that is cool. I might have to copy you. ------------- Downtown Salt Lake City 801-809-2367 |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:35pm
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I can talk to my wife and see about extending our hours if RT hosts wanted to make a trip over. We have seen some amazing tanks on display and are hoping to check some out as well (our dream would be to have a 180 and I have seen some fantastic ones out there). As far as your questions You also mention a HOB filter with AC(Activated Carbon). How much
and often do you change it?
When we bought our 55g reef tank it came with a HOB filter that we never used, we kept it just in case we ever wanted to use it and it worked out well. We change the AC about every 3-4 weeks. We wanted to go budget on this initially and I am sure we will add a protein skimmer when $$$ allows. I'm wondering about water changes. Amount and frequency?
We change the water about every 2-3 weeks, typically about 10% The "size 1" sand you used. Could you please explain or give the
brand and name?
You said you let the tank cycle. How long from setup to adding Eels
and where did the LR come from? Did you add any LS?
Honestly the sand was one of our biggest debates. My wife had done almost all of the research on the Garden Eels (they are her passion) and worried that if it was too fine they wouldn't like it and same with too course. We watched a lot of youtube garden eel videos to get the best idea of sand and the guys at the Aquarium (SLC LFS) were helpful in showing us the different types and sizes. Size 1 is what they had it labeled as (the one we went with). The tank cycled about 2 months (we were out of town at one point and then later the availability of the Eels was tough to find). We did use water from our reef tank to jump start the cycle. The LR came from the Aquarium store as well. No LS How long have the Eels been in the tank and how did you acclimate
them?
Eels have been in the tank now 2 months, my wife acclimated them with a slow drip-line. Its great that they have accepted frozen foods. Do you add Garlic
Oil to the food?
No garlic, we were lucky they were such good eaters. The challenge with feeding is that when you approach the tank they hide, so you have to wait for them to resurface (I did this by sitting in a chair next to the tank) and then slowly add food. Once the food is in the tank they lose their shyness. Also, already there is algae growing on the spraybar. What about
algae control? Any snails?
I do need to clean the spray bar, we could add more snails and hermits too. At first we didn't want to starve any of them if we added too many. Would also like to note that this entire project started because of the Reef-Fest in November. Scott Micheal (great speaker) was very gracious to talk to us after wards and gave us a lot of good advice (as well as the confidence needed) to get started. Thanks WMAS for making that happen!!! |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 12:37pm
That's great to hear. Dang, if only Scott Michael would come back to the club.... say later this summer
 Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
jdinchak wrote:Posted By: Corey Price
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 1:15pm
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I love the idea! I'll have to see this one.
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Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 16 2010 at 9:13pm
That is sooo cool. Thanks for answering my questions in such detail. It's funny how small those Eels are. All the pics I've seen make them look much larger. The sand looks pretty small. I wonder if Oolitic sand is similar. It's round and soft. That deep sand is excellent fitration.
If I were still in the valley, I'd definitely come by.------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: scubaparrot
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 9:27pm
Yes, we were quite surprised too by how small they actually are. We probably could have added a couple of more eels if we had realized but better safe than sorry in the end. Eel battles to the death for space would not have been pretty.  I am not familiar with Oolitic sand to know if it is similar or not. It is a pretty small grain but is bigger than what I know of as "sugar" sand, the super fine stuff. I am glad that others have found our experience interesting, we have really enjoyed them so far.
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Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: April 17 2010 at 9:30pm
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I love this thread. That is so cool to see how successful you have been so far. Do you think you may add more eels later? ------------- 150 gallon Reef Millcreek Utah |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 2:33am
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CaribSea "Sugarfine" is Oolitic sand. Utah Oolitic sand was perfect for my Blue Spot Ribbontail Ray. That tank with Ray, Batfish and suspended reef was the hit of the 2006 RT.
The sand you used reminds me of the type CaribSea sells called "Carribean Pink"
Below is a pic of Oolitic sand. You may find it interesting to read more about this sand and Utah Rock here: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 - http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244
 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 8:43am
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Pretty amazing creatures. ------------- 125g 90g 2x33g 34g What stores do I recommend? Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 ) Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 ) Member of GCFB |
Posted By: Jake Pehrson
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 9:26pm
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Awesome. I used to have a garden eel tank (but it was only a ten gallon). I have 8 eels in it, so I am sure you can get a much bigger population if you want to.
I'll be sure to stop by on the reef tour. ------------- Jake Pehrson Murray http://coralplanet.com" rel="nofollow - coralplanet.com http://utahbeeranch.com" rel="nofollow - :) |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 18 2010 at 11:06pm
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We are considering adding more. We are just concerned how the existing eels would accept newcomers. I don't know how territorial they can be. Mark - Thanks for the info about the sand, I will definitely check it out. |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: April 23 2010 at 11:55pm
| Thx for the great comments and support! Come join us on the reef tour if you can make it! |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: January 05 2011 at 12:11am
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Update: We have been busy with our garden eel tank, we are in the
process of upgrading our lighting to a PC style system. We will mount
it on the ceiling so we will not overwhelm the eels. We added a piece
of vida rock (synthetic ceramic rock made in UT for reef tanks in custom
shapes) so we can add more coral and give hiding spots to the newest
additions to the tank. We have added 4 more garden eels (today) and 2
pipefish. We will be adding soft corals soon. The eels have done well, they have been eating well and going about daily life. We have had them 10 months without any issues. We finally started feeding them some live brine shrimp as a way to mix up their food and we have never seen them so excited. We are working on a system to add more live foods so they can feed at their own leisure as well as their standard feeding times. We will be adding new pictures shortly - Stay tuned!!! |
Posted By: Luckedout
Date Posted: January 05 2011 at 10:33am
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Would love to see an updated picture! I was planning on going to see this tank at reef fest, but ran out of time. What a neat idea
------------- -Ben 90g Mixed reef www.body-balancechiropractic.com |
Posted By: jwoo
Date Posted: January 05 2011 at 1:42pm
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Saw this tank at the reef tour. Amazing tank and well executed! Lets see some updated pictures! ------------- None at the moment Soon: 72 Gallon Bowfront |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: January 05 2011 at 9:20pm
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Well against my wife's wishes I will post a few pictures. She will be working on taking more throughout the week (as well as cleaning it up) and after we get some coral in there. But I wanted to get some pic's in there. Just don't judge the quality! The acclimating has gone well, the eels were burrowed in usually by the time the next eel was taken out of the bag and netted. Last time it took a day or so. We bought 4 eels for a total of 7 and have been able to locate 6 of them. One of them is a bit confused and has it's tail sticking out of the hole but is at least wagging it so is in good shape. We are pretty sure the 7th one will turn up, they hid for a bit the first time. The pipefish are fascinated with the eels and are constantly nose and nose. The eels have no fear and are not hiding from them. This is a good sign. The free PC's we got (my cousins old unit that was on a 110 that was way too wide for this tank which is why you see the ghetto hang job) have really changed the color from the T8's, they have done an amazing job.  Full tank shot with lights and new rock, you can see the eels but they are tiny. If you look carefully you can see half a cat.  The pipefish is making friends. |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: January 30 2011 at 10:12pm
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Some video I took of our tank upgrades, not sure you can see all the garden eels at the same time but different views, we are working on getting more corals. One pipefish likes to hide, the other is out and about. The hairy corals are being rescued out of our main tank that has a hair algae issue, not anything this tank is dealing with. |
Posted By: jmw
Date Posted: January 30 2011 at 10:18pm
| that is cool!!! |
Posted By: Mrs.Tcfab
Date Posted: January 31 2011 at 3:52pm
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They are really cool and cute!
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Posted By: Luckedout
Date Posted: January 31 2011 at 4:47pm
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What a cool tank!
------------- -Ben 90g Mixed reef www.body-balancechiropractic.com |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 27 2011 at 11:33am
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I am really glad you mentioned this thread to me. I would have never found it and am blown away by it. I remember seeing these guys at the London Aquarium and thinking how awesome they were. I even took a picture of their tank (which really didn't turn out). Inspiring thread! ------------- Defending Reefscape Champion (I Think) |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: July 27 2011 at 2:18pm
| Thanks - I can't wait for the painting. We added an awesome anemone and clownfish from Kludge (member) and some wonderful looking toad corals. I will have to update. |
Posted By: Tanuki
Date Posted: July 27 2011 at 2:25pm
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Please do.
------------- Defending Reefscape Champion (I Think) |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:08pm
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So after over two years of having this tank up we decided it needed a refresh. We had planned on building our 180g and then moving all of our livestock into that and it left us this our original 55g tank. We liked that it was viewable from three sides and was a nice centerpiece in the room. Our eels had become braver and we felt they could handle the extra movement. We started the tank move on Friday night, we had a few pieces of livestock to move and then we were going to start tearing the tank down. What was planned of just 2 hours of work became 6 that night. We were able to tear down and clean all equipment and break down the tank and take it out side to be cleaned. When moving the tank we felt water coming out from the underside and were concerned about a leak. So we left it outside full for the night and checked it in the morning. No water was missing and the ground was dry. On Saturday we worked a long 10 hours to get the tank set back up, tear down the eels tank, move them and reset. This definitely had its challenges. Bacot is cleaning the rock we had hope to reuse of aiptasia and bubble algae. We were able to save a few pieces  After getting squirted in the eye by bubble algae a 3rd time I decided to use eye protection.  Acclimating my Niger into our 180  Time to scrub  Weird not seeing a tank there after 3 years.  We brought the clean tank back in to be set up.  I had a vision for what I was looking for aquascape wise, we were able to do this in 10 minutes and I LOVE IT. Bacot is filling it back up with the 30 gallons of live water we saved.  Equipment is back on and now it is time to let the sand settle. This took the most amount of patience  We waited about two hours and then headed to our basement to start taking some sand out as well as break that tank down. Our main concern was the health and safety of our Garden Eels. Since this is a burrowing animal we had no idea how to remove them without hurting them. Unfortunately there is no forum posts on moving garden eels (well until now). We decided to very slowly and lightly sift through the sand until we found something. The first popped up by accident and since they are bad swimmers we were able to catch him with the net easily. One down, we were doing well. Bacot decided that the careful sifting was the best. Problem we had at this point we the water was getting really murky.  You can make out a green stick to the left of Bacot's hand.  This eel we accidentally found. It startled both Bacot and the eel. She didn't know it was in her hand until she could feel its slime coat and the eel had no idea what was going on. Her surprise combined with its surprise led to Bacot getting bitten by the eel. Luckily it has such a small head and really not much for teeth. Bacot was freaked yet proud to have been bitten by a garden eel. Not too many can say that. We continued until we had all 3 safely in a bucket.  Our two clowns that were in the tank and a cleaner shrimp. Was impressive that the clowns were still hard to net in an empty (but hazy) tank  The aftermath of no tank  After that we took about 3g of the sand and used it for live sand on our new tank and took another 3g and cleaned it. The sand was pretty clean as it was. We very carefully added it to our new eel tank to avoid more clouding. We had had it clear up a bit by this time. Once acclimated everything seemed pretty happy. One tip we got from a past speaker (the one who worked at the Long Beach Aquarium) was that their Garden Eel exhibit did better with deeper sand (16", not something we could do here) and real or fake grass to give the eels a protected feeling). This is turtle grass from petsmart. It is modular so you can cut what you want.  We also thickened the sand bed, it is at about 6" now. Still cloudy but we were impressed. Had to wait overnight for it to clear completely.  I am so happy with how the tank turned out. It is so peaceful, I love the turtle grass and the white sand and the negative space. I watched it all day. I felt at peace watching so we have named it the Garden Eel Zen Tank.       Our shrimp was happy  We put our filefish in because we weren't sure if it was nipping at coral and we felt it would belong at this tank, plus it doesn't make any sudden movements.  We do plan to add corals and maybe a clam to this, but we will do it slowly and we will be very careful what corals we do add. Needs to stick with Zen theme. We just purchased 5 additional garden eels and hopefully LiveAquaria ships those soon. We will add a diamond goby (had one in the other tank until it jumped, it was great with the eels) and eventually we will add 3 small tank raised Cardinals. The original eel tank was created on a budget and we used the hang on back filter we had for free, we used lesser powerheads, we had just ok lights and we also only had a fluval for additional filtration. While the bioload was never much in that tank I am pleased that this tank will have carbon and phos reactors, an aqua C skimmer and much better t5 lights. Was nice to be able to reuse what we had. I will add more pictures once the new additions have arrived and are more comfortable. Thanks! ------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Posted By: sabeypets
Date Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:41pm
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Cool! That's a sweet looking set up. The old tank was one of my favorites on the reef tour. Thanks for the up date! ------------- Shaun American Fork "Would you leave a dead cat in your kitchen till tommorow?" Builderofdreams |
Posted By: ajkochev
Date Posted: June 18 2012 at 10:00pm
| I was just thinking about this tank today and what became of it. It was started around the time I got my 3 gallon up and going. |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: June 18 2012 at 10:13pm
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Thanks - we are very happy with how it turned out. I can't wait to see it with more garden eels in it.
------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: June 29 2012 at 12:05pm
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Finally after some teasing from LiveAquaria (I love them but their inventory tracking system is a bit crazy) I got an awesome package today on my doorstep. I have 5 new Garden Eels light acclimating and swimming happily in their bags. I can't wait to get them into our tank!!! Pictures to follow in a bit.
------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: August 26 2012 at 4:22pm
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We are up to 11 Garden Eels. I had a great opportunity to shop in Los Angeles and was able to hand pick my last 3 Garden Eels. They are all doing fantastic. The tank is looking great though our Diamond Goby is making a mess of the sand. I will work on pictures soon (hard to get all of them out and relaxed enough to take a picture) but I had this great video of a rather stupid one who has left his tale stick out exposed. We have tried to coax it into moving it but it just remains. ------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: June 01 2013 at 10:28pm
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Father in-law got a go pro 3, we had some fun. ------------- 180G Mixed Reef Tank 170G Dart Frog Tank |
Posted By: rize2
Date Posted: June 01 2013 at 10:45pm
| Thats awesome! Thanks for sharing |
Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: June 02 2013 at 9:41am
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That was cool! Great choice of music too.
Mike ------------- |
Posted By: colesnwbds
Date Posted: September 16 2014 at 2:34pm
| Very Cool |