30 gallon tank

[woody390]

I have got my 30 gallon corner unit cycling at the moment and I am trying to decide for definite what to stock it with. I have 2 clowns and 2 cleaner shrimp in a 20 gallon at the moment. I have about a 10 gallon sump running on it my tank with bio balls a miracle mud refugium and i will have a protein skimmer. in the tank i have about 2 inch of sand with 25 pounds of live rock. I understand I will need around another 5 pounds of live rock would I need anymore live sand though?

I am hoping to turn this tank into a reef tank and and transfer my clowns and cleaners to a new home but at the moment I am looking at what else would go in there with the clowns well. The fish I like that seem to be ok in a 30 gallon tank are coral beauty, six line wrasse, scooter Benny and firefish that I have seen so far. I am however guessing this stock list will be too much to have all of it, so would anyone have any recommendations as to if any of those fish would not be compatible with each other etc or any other ideas for interesting or colorful fish For a 30 gallon?

The next issue is a clean up crew would a conch alone be enough to keep a sandbed clean or would I need other things too? If I were to get the coral beauty would I need much of a clean up crew for the rocks as it would want to eat the algae?

My next step will be to look at corals I like the look of toadstools and torch corals but I must admit I don't know much about corals at all. What would be good starter corals that don't need too much light? I currently am yet to buy the bulbs for the tank but don't want to have to spend hundreds for the corals to survive.

Many thanks in advance to those who reply

 

[Andrew McFadden]

For the corals it depends on your light output meaning are you running T5 light fixtures and just need bulbs or do you need everything?

As far as the fish go I think id stick with a type of wrasse and coral beauty. Imo blennys are a little harder to keep alive on new tanks.

 

[woody390]

I've got the t5 fixtures just got to get the bulbs would I get away with adding the coral beauty once the tanks a bit more established with the wrasse and the clowns?

 

[Beengirl]

I think for a 30g, 5-6 fish would be about the max. A conch will keep your sand bed clean, but you'll need other snails to clean the rocks and glass because the conch stays only on the sand.

 

[woody390]

Could I have that many in a 30 gallon? If I got an angle would I still need cuc for the rocks and glass as the angle would eat the algae?

 

[Beengirl]

When I say 5-6 fish, I don't mean 5-6 big fish. Lol. I have a dwarf angel in my 30g, and I still have snails. I do feed my angel seaweed just about everyday too. I have a dwarf angel, clown goby, 1 clown, 1 Firefish, 1 orange striped cardinal. As you can see, most of mine are for nano tanks and don't get very big.

 

[woody390]

Yeah as far as I'm aware none of the fish I am looking at grow too big either. All about 3 to 4 inches. Do you keep corals in your tank?

 

[Beengirl]

I have a 55g reef and a 30g FOWLR. I have about 25 or so corals in the reef, most are pretty small still.

 

[woody390]

How long do I need to have the tank up and running before I can start looking at corals?

 

[Rosseg]

People will tell u different things, I had ideal Mg and Ca within a month, and Copepods on my glass so I got some then, and all are thriving.