i'd like to eventually upgrade to a power compact strip and throw a good skimmer on there
If your really serious, about an anemone or keeping a reef, get either
MH supplemented with Actinics of your stlye (
VHO/
CF) or the coralife double strip with two 55W bulbs. The former will let you keep almost anything considering you will be adding a great amount of light on a small depth so peneration of light is be pretty good. The latter might limit you to certain types of
sps/clams but i'm not even sure if your want them. Get the
MH to be safe.
i'm eventually gonna get some live rock. now should i wait until i get the good lighting in hopes of growing some cool stuff? i love the deep purple coraline algae.
Look for
LR with lots and lots of hitchhiker (the good ones). If you have
NO lghts, those should be enough to sustain the algae growth. I'm not to partial on coarline because I have read posts where people have spents years, literally years growing coraline and nothing working. But supposedly, bluer spectrum lights are a definite plus. Even if you do lose your coraline, if your
ca/
alk is in check, you could always seed it with a new piece of
lr. All my live rock had color on it but I eventually lost most of it because I used IO and my
ca was never high enough. oh yea, lost of water movement helps.
i know i have to wait for better lighting before i get an anenome. what kinda bio-load does an anenome produce? how big will a magnificent anenome get? is there a better choice for a false percula host?
heres a link to the anemone
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=631
its says 10 inches in an aquarium so that is a sizable amount in a 15 gallon. i think anemone don't add to much to the bio-load. the only way they would be the owner's falut. If he/she gave it too big a chunk of food, only to have the food be spit out and rot behind a piece of
LR at night. An easier one to pair would actually be a bubble tip but those actually be bigger. Clownfish are a strange type because you might actually spend hundreds on dollars to have a clownfish/anemone pair only to have the clown fish host a powerhead.
You could try a hairy mushroom coral. If if gets to big, you could
frag it and give to to a friend or
lfs for money. But heres the most important info. You MUST let your tank mature AT LEAST 6 months. You need all the good bacteria to evolve within the tank for your invert to survive well.
i'm gonna have a Marineland Emperor 280 wet/dry powerfilter as well as a good quality protien skimmer on a 15 gallon.
Ditch the Emporer. The bio-wheel is going to make nitrates levels too high of levels to keep sensitive inverts, especially anemones. I have an Aquaclear powerfilter and I absolutly love it. My nitrates are always in a sensible range. If you get a protein skimmer, I would suggest adding a sump to your tank and put the skimmer there. I have the CSS65 and the pump is huge in my 15 gallon. And if you get a skimmer, get the CSS65. I will never buy a different brand. The skimmate will make you lose your stomach every time you smell it.
would a pair of false perculas, 3 small yellow-tailed damsels, an anenome, and a cleaning crew be overstocked?
Yes. the damsels will have territroy issues and 3 in a 15 WILL become a problem. I would get a pair of clowns, and a blenny (I adore thier personality), and MAYBE a small goby of sort. I might ditch either of the last two if you get an anemone to lower the bio-load. This is all assuming you have the skimmer installed. Two clownfish and an anemone won't be to bad of an idea because if makes the 3 of them the centerpeice of the tank. Theres no damsel of goby swimming around to distract the sybiotic pairing. thats just my idea though.
i will be able to do 30% water changes each week.
At first, when you just have fish, 15%-20%
WC every other are enough because they won't have problems with higher nitrates. Save yourself the time and money on salt if you can. But when you get hard inverts, weekly
WC are a definite plus.
One question for you though. What exactly is your form of filtration on the tank currently? It doesn't seem like you have
LR and maybe just a lower end filter. I hope you did let you tank cycle somehow for the clown.