Tank Beautification - What Should I add?

[Vanphyre]

Here is the latest pic of my 46g saltwater tank. Everybody is doing well. I'm looking for pointers on what to add to make this look spectacular now that I have everything down as far as maintaining water quality and so forth. I have a couple Zoos and a Frogspawn that my Clownfish thinks is an Anemone.

Any advice on what to add and where to add it? I see so many awesome tank pics out there, and would like a nice little reef of my own. I'd like some more corals on the rocks, and maybe something to put on the sand bed? The back wall is covered in Coralline. Wish I had room and setup for a sump to hide that Mag3 pump, but oh well. Can live with it.

Current Inhabitants are a Perc Clown, Blue Spotted Watchman Goby, Six-Line Wrasse, Tiger Pistol Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, and misc crabs and snails.

 

[flanque]

You could try some of the following:

- Coral beauty angel
- Bicolor angel
- Flame angel
- Red faced blenny
- Blue/green chromis
- Fijian damsel

Not all of these would mix so make sure you check that out too.

 

[blazeyreef]

I wouldnt get the angels as they tend to nibble on corals...

 

[flanque]

That's debatable. I kept corals in the past and have corilamorphs now and none of my angels nipped at them. Friends had a huge 8 foot tank packed with corals and multiple angels and these corals flourished.

 

[roka64]

I'm not a reefer, but I like branching corals, if that would fit with your inhabitants.

 

[melosu58]

How about a blue or orange licknia star as they will brighten your tank up. Here is some pics of mine. If you decide to get one check with us first on adding to your tank. There is some acclimation things you need to do.

 

[Vanphyre]

How about a blue or orange licknia star as they will brighten your tank up. Here is some pics of mine. If you decide to get one check with us first on adding to your tank. There is some acclimation things you need to do.

Those Linkia Stars are awesome! I would love to add one to my tank. Also, is that a Brain coral on your sandbed? Something like that would be nice also.l

I'm basically looking for one or two more fish max, and more / larger corals to add some pizzaz. And now the Linkia star, my pet store doesn't carry them I will have to look around.

 

[lando]

I agree about the angels...they are listed as "not reef compatible" or "use caution" for a reason. Some do have sucess with Centropyge sp. but is always a crap shoot, and IMHO, just not worth the risk. You do have lots of great options open to you...

fish: Roayal gramma, purple firefish, reef chromis

inverts: fire shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, scarlet reef hermits

corals: orange sun polys (requires frequent target feeding), long tent. torch coral, xenia, hammer coral, super-colored zoas, mushrooms.

 

[Fluff]

Plate corals are fairly hardy and come in a variety of colors (orange, pink, green). I love the look of them on the sandbed. I agree some branching corals will looks nice. They will help fill in the tank as they grow fast. Kenya tree or maybe a colt coral. They grow pretty fast.

 

[Vanphyre]

Very good advice there. I'm going to look into the Plate corals and the branching ones (have seen these in several pics online). They have a nice look to them.

I'd love to add a Purple Firefish, very expensive but will be well worth it. I feel I can buy something a little pricier and be able to keep it healthy.

Can I add more shrimp you think? I have the Pistol and Peppermint in there, don't want to crowd them. The Fire Shrimp look really sweet.

So many options, I'll let you know when I'm done researching all these and decide what to do. I'll prob go slowly, I don't want to add more than one fish at a time. The corals are just pricey, so that's why those will go slow.

 

[Fluff]

I think you'd be fine with either fire shrimp or a pair of cleaners. Fun shrimp to have.

 

[ntswift]

I agree that another shrimp wouldnt be a problem. I have three in my 50 gal and they all keep to them selves on their side of the tank. I only have a problem with one but he will be leaving soon. I would be careful with the angels as well. Some people have good luck with them where as others (me) don't. I had a bicolor and a flame. The flame only nipped a little bit from time to time but I didnt have him very long. (ich) The bicolor was just nipping anything and everything. I tore my tank apart 4 or 5 times trying to catch him and almost killed one of my clams because a rock fell on it when I was trying to catch him. So now I only stick with definate reef safe fish. Like everyone said though it is a crapshoot! As far as corals go, brains are really sweet for the sand bed, along with the plate corals. Maybe some green star polyps. (The ones that look like grass flowing) Check out the yellow figi leather too. That will definately brighten up your tank. Be careful of the frogspawn though because they can have some pretty long sweeper tenticles from what I hear and can sting/kill things in its path. HTH

 

[Innovator]

What's the total wattage on your lights?

 

[Vanphyre]

Total Wattage is 156 watts. 4 bulbs x 39 watts each. (using the T5 Nova Extreme light setup, with parabolic reflector).

Didn't know that about the Frogspawn! It's been in there for awhile now, and no deaths. I wonder if the clown is immune like with anemones? He is in the thing constantly.
I feel your pain about trying to catch those fish. I had the same issue removing damsels a while back, I think I crushed a couple nassarius snails under the rocks. Will need to buy more soon.

Been looking at all the corals that were mentioned and it's going to be hard to decide what to do first. Lots of nice choices! Is there a good place to order them online? I have used saltwaterfish.com for fish and inverts before, but they are out of stock of most of the corals.

For my next fish addition, I'm leaning heavily towards the Purple Firefish.

 

[melosu58]

you was asking about my brain coral and I have two of them. They will brighten up a tank also. Here are mine just to show you

 

[ntswift]

Try www.frags.org - They might have some stuff in your area. You could also try Liveaquaria.com. Saltwaterfish.com rarely has corals in from what I've noticed. I like their prices but their selection is limited.