Bye, bye biocube...upgrade time!!

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Sand dollar

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
645
Location
North Carolina
I haven't been on the forums lately but have still been plugging away with my little tank. Today I made the leap to upgrade and I couldn't be more excited!! I just finished setting up and adding sand & water to a new JBJ 45 gallon! Is it bad I'm staring and watching/waiting for the water clear??? I plan to move everything over from my biocube 14, then moving all of my RFAs to the biocube. I know it will be a slow process, but I'm so excited it's getting started! Here's the new tank all murky and the final shot of my biocube reef...








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Thanks!! I've been researching and planning stocking options...wrasses, cardinals, chromis, dragonets, gobies, clowns, oh my!!


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I'm looking at possible fish for the new tank and would love input if you have experience with any of these. I'm obviously not planning to stock all of theses, but want to narrow down to my top choices that will fit this tank. I really want it to be a peaceful tank but also want some activity. I have a possum wrasse and royal gramma in hypo now for ich?. They are doing well and don't have spots but I know hypo can be tricky to keep stable so I hope I am able to pull them through. I want to include them in the stock list to consider for compatibility in hopes I am successful and even if imnot would consider them both again.

Consideration list:
Marine beta - live aquaria says peaceful and reef safe -but 50 gallons and I'm at 45...ok?
I'd like a small school - would prefer blue chromis (3) but know masked goby would be less bioload (3-5)
Blue puffer - so cool looking but says caution with reef...experience with inverts and coral?
Yellow spotted sand sifting goby - I eventually want a clam, will this fish irritate it with sand?
Leopard wrasse - hear they can be difficulty
Coral beauty angel- live aquaria say 70 gallons and caution with reef...but have seen/heard others have them in a 30-40 "successfully"
Manderin dragonet - I can seed the tank with pods from my rock flower tank and let them populate over the next 8 weeks while it is fishless (from the ich)
Firefish- I lost mine to the ich and miss it :( not sure if I would go red or purple...or helfrichi if I could find a good price
Pajama cardinal(s)
Fairy wrasse or flasher wrasse
And depending on what I stock possibly a pair of clowns very last...always wanted to have a pair host a nem but not totally sold on getting a nem for this tank, so we'll see!

Thanks for sharing your experience and advice!





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I'm looking at possible fish for the new tank and would love input if you have experience with any of these. I'm obviously not planning to stock all of theses, but want to narrow down to my top choices that will fit this tank. I really want it to be a peaceful tank but also want some activity. I have a possum wrasse and royal gramma in hypo now for ich?. They are doing well and don't have spots but I know hypo can be tricky to keep stable so I hope I am able to pull them through. I want to include them in the stock list to consider for compatibility in hopes I am successful and even if imnot would consider them both again.

Consideration list:
Marine beta - live aquaria says peaceful and reef safe -but 50 gallons and I'm at 45...ok?
I'd like a small school - would prefer blue chromis (3) but know masked goby would be less bioload (3-5)
Blue puffer - so cool looking but says caution with reef...experience with inverts and coral?
Yellow spotted sand sifting goby - I eventually want a clam, will this fish irritate it with sand?
Leopard wrasse - hear they can be difficulty
Coral beauty angel- live aquaria say 70 gallons and caution with reef...but have seen/heard others have them in a 30-40 "successfully"
Manderin dragonet - I can seed the tank with pods from my rock flower tank and let them populate over the next 8 weeks while it is fishless (from the ich)
Firefish- I lost mine to the ich and miss it :( not sure if I would go red or purple...or helfrichi if I could find a good price
Pajama cardinal(s)
Fairy wrasse or flasher wrasse
And depending on what I stock possibly a pair of clowns very last...always wanted to have a pair host a nem but not totally sold on getting a nem for this tank, so we'll see!

Thanks for sharing your experience and advise!





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Marine betta should be fine in that tank as it is pretty wide an they are fairly sluggish. But they are predators.

Would skip the puffer and the dwarf angel if your having a full reef, the prob of nipping at coral goes up with the small quarters of the tank and dwarf Angels like to swim.
Puffers are know invert eaters, that's how the keep their beak filed
Could do a trio of fire fish if ya wanted but I wouldn't do anything to small bodied with a marine betta.

Any type of school would do close to maxing out your stock also, depending on the species.

Dragonet should be fine once the tank gets settled in nicely, beautiful fish.
 
Skip the dragonet. It is hard to get the pod population in even this sized tank to support them. I was only able to do it in the 55 reef for over a year.
I love my marine beta. They hide for most of the time, but are really great to watch them intimidate you when you come near the tank.
Also, skip the puffer and dwarf angel like stated. Both can nip...and I'd love to give up the coral beauty in my reef after it went postal on my clam and pocillopora.
 
Thanks for the feedback! Will the beta eat sexy shrimp too?

I was thinking that for the puffer and angel but just wanted to be sure because they are so pretty.

What do you think total for a 45? I know the smaller fish have less bioload so it "depends". But let's say wrasse, chromis, basslett, firefish, goby, and maybe clown sizes.. What's the max combo?


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I have an ornate leopard wrasse in my 40 and he's doing great. I saw him eat at the store though and I have lots of pods for her. The big thing with leopards is they're horrible shippers. If you can find one that's eating go for it. Mines the hardiest fish I've ever seen now lol


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I have an ornate leopard wrasse in my 40 and he's doing great. I saw him eat at the store though and I have lots of pods for her. The big thing with leopards is they're horrible shippers. If you can find one that's eating go for it. Mines the hardiest fish I've ever seen now lol


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Cool bribo! is he active or does he hide a lot? They are gorgeous, I want a balance of beauty and activity.


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Cool bribo! is he active or does he hide a lot? They are gorgeous, I want a balance of beauty and activity.


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Now she's out all day long. Usually hunting for pods on the rocks or begging for food if I walk by


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Now she's out all day long. Usually hunting for pods on the rocks or begging for food if I walk by


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I saw one yesterday that looked fat and happy, but I can't get any fish yet until I'm sure the ich has died off, another 5-6 weeks I think. I think this one will definitely be on my list of must haves.


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Just make sure she's eating before you buy her and the mouth looks alright


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Still have to get 15 lbs of rock but am going to do it slowly so there is not a lot of die off at one time and the bacteria has time to catch up. It will also give me time to play with aquascape.

Zoas, shrooms, hammer, cabbage leather, cup coral, lobo, gorgs, monti



Top down



Free blue tubes! Hope they grow out fast to cover that ugly putty.



Acans



Blastos and baby cinnamon grandis palys



Sun coral, knobby gorg



Tube anemone








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Looks great sand dollar! It's so nice to move into a bigger tank!


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What gorg is that in the back? Yellow and blue polyps...that'd be a NPS guy wouldn't it?


It is NPS, it's a yellow finger gorg. The polyps are actually white must just be the shade and lighting. I've had it in my biocube since last May. It struggled in the cube because I didn't have a good shaded spot for it so would get algae growth and I would have to scrub it almost weekly to get it off so polyps could open. Unfortunately it lost a few stems with that process along the way. It seems to like this new spot in the shade and has had open polyps consistently since going in. I had a red gorg and tiny blueberry that didn't make it. I don't think I'll go for anymore nps other then my sun and this yellow finger. They are cool but just too hard to keep.


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You not lying your plugging away looks awesome , now you got room for all those baby nems ,
have you thought of maybe a Mc Cosker's Flasher wrasse it would bring in more color to a awesome looking tank , for some reason I been becoming a big wrasse junkie already have 6 , I love my engineer goby in my reef they are very laid back , and when they grow bigger they look like a miniature eel , they also have a great personality always greeting me as I walk in the room ,
may even like the dark blue reef chromis they make a very nice addition in small schools ,
a long nose hawk fish would be another choice beautiful fish ,
keep up the good work as now you have tons of room to play again (y)
 
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