Tank idea

[Hobgob]

So I have this hex lying around and I though I could turn it into a nice saltwater tank. It is 19inch tall each panel is 8inch wide and is 14inch panel to panel. I worked it out to roughly 18 gallons but I did it in my head so ya... I was thinking of trying to stack life rock or something of the sort in the center of it.

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on filtration and etc. I have never done a saltwater tank before so I want to make sure I do it right. I know the tank is small and if it doesn't have a lot of options I'm ok with not doing it. It's either I keep my krib tank or set this saltwater tank up.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated thank you everyone

 

[begginersluck]

Not an easy ank to start with but would be great if you pulled it off.

Go for a decent external filter but as you mention Live Rock will be your main showcase!

You could do away with the filter and add a good amount of cured live rock and have a hang on skimmer.

Live sand is good too!

What do you plan on doing? Reef? Fish only?

 

[Hobgob]

Not sure what would my option be? I was thinking of a school of cardinals and maybe a dwarf lion if he fits. I'm looking at more fish. I might not go with the lion. Maybe a cleaner wrasse. I will write some ideas down and list them. If I do a reef can I stick my coral on the live rock? Also what type of lights would I need? If I go fish only do some fish need corals or can I just go with fake ones? It would probably be easier to just avoid them although I do love frogspawns...

 

[obscurereef]

Sorry to say that those fish aren't going to work. You could get 3 cardinals, but those would be the only fish in there. Cleaner wrasses are difficult to keep, usually best to find one that is trained to eat frozen food, but a great alternative would be a cleaner shrimp. They do the same job and when you put your hand in the tank he'll try to clean it! 18 gallons isn't enough for a dwarf lion, 30 gallons is the min. Plus there's always the possibility that the lion could eat the cardinals if it's able to. Cardinals are nocturnal and don't move much so they are easy targets.

Online stores w/ quick stats/info:
Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

Buy Saltwater Fish & Coral - Marine Fish, Live Coral, Salt Water Aquarium Fish, and Tropical Fish from BlueZooAquatics

No fish needs a certain coral and if you have a FOWLR (fish only w/ live rock) you don't need any type of special light. If you're getting corals then you will need a light that can grow corals. You'd need a shorter light than people with say a 20 long. That means less money. Frogspawns are awesome. They are LPS corals (large polyp stony). I'd recommend starting with soft corals, like hardy zoas and mushrooms. Then get LPS and maybe even SPS if you have enough light and good water parameters (montiporas are the easiest SPS corals).

Lastly getting a filter twice your tank size would be ideal. Aquaclear is a great filter company so I recommend those, but really anything will work. You don't need a protein skimmer, just keep up on water changes (10% weekly is good). Finally, RESEARCH! Don't buy anything until you do and make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. It's very addicting and expensive and a whole different world than FW. Best of luck!

 

[Hobgob]

I'm thinking something like a
X? Cardinals
x1 Royal gramma
x1 flame angel.
-----------------
X1 dwarf lion
X1 cleaner wrasse does a carpenter do the same thing?
Some type of goby
-------------------
x1 bicolor dotty back
x1 coral beauty angel
Blenny goby or firefish?

What do you think?

 

[Hobgob]

-----------------
X1 dwarf lion
X1 cleaner wrasse does a carpenter do the same thing?
Some type of goby
-------------------
This is out of the option then lol

 

[obscurereef]

Royal grammas and Flame angels need 30 gallons. Carpenter wrasses are completely different. I have a McCoskers Flasher Wrasse in my 70 which is very similar and they are beautifully colored fish, but do require a min. tank size of 50 gallons. Gobies would work and the dwarf lion like I said would not work.

You'll only really be able to get something from the nano section.
Nano Fish

 

[Hobgob]

I am probably just going to do a fowlr then. That way I should be able to use my led lighting and get into corals with a bigger tank.

But so far it looks like I'm not going to have a nice center piece fish...

 

[Hobgob]

Royal grammas and Flame angels need 30 gallons. Carpenter wrasses are completely different. I have a McCoskers Flasher Wrasse in my 70 which is very similar and they are beautifully colored fish, but do require a min. tank size of 50 gallons. Gobies would work and the dwarf lion like I said would not work.

You'll only really be able to get something from the nano section.
Nano Fish

Funny I was using that site but didn't know clicking on the picture would give me info on it. I want the yellow strip cling fish but care is rather difficult apparently...
What would you stock in the tank?

 

[obscurereef]

I don't know anyone with that fish as they are really hard to keep. I found one video on youtube and the guy (has amazing tank and everything is thriving) said it disappeared months later or something strange. I think they are close to the care requirements of striped shrimpfish and pipefish and seahorses. Probably best in a species specific tank.

 

[obscurereef]

You could get a few different types of gobies (not the same species if they aren't paired). Say a watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair (awesome symbiotic relationship), hi fin red banded goby, and neon blue goby (just naming ones I like, you could get whatever goby as most don't grow big). You could get one false percula clown and a firefish (love both fish). I have a purple firefish and the colors are so much greater than that of the red ones IMO. And a cleaner shrimp if you want.

 

[Hobgob]

Can I have a clown in my tank? I could use him as a center piece then a goby and some firefish?
Do gobys, blennys, and jawheads just scout across them ground? I don't know to much about them. I assume each species of blenny would be different but they must have a general behavior...

 

[obscurereef]

You should only have one firefish since they need to be a mated pair or else they will fight and plus 3 3" fish are too much for your tank. Blennies (except for the barnacle blenny) get too big they usually get to 5". Jawfish need 5" of sand which means less water which means less fish. I mean you can do a deep sand bed, but not worth it for that fish. I mean they are docile and don't come out much, mostly in their burrow then dart for food when they can).

 

[Hobgob]

So I couldn't do a clown firefish and a goby?

 

[obscurereef]

No those fish are fine. It was the jawfish and blenny that wouldn't work out.

 

[Hobgob]

That's awesome could I put all 3 in?

 

[Hobgob]

Also are all gobys easy to take care of or are each more sensitive?

 

[Hobgob]

Scratch putting three in. There is not enough surface area... Now I need to decide between the three. Could I also have a cuc or is that a no?
Also once I get the cured live rock will I still need to cycle the tank and could I use the media from my freshwater tanks to seed the new tank or is that a big no no?

What do you think would look best? I think it will really depend on what my lfs has in stock...

 

[obscurereef]

The surface area doesn't really matter. It's how much of a bioload there will be. If you just wanted 2 fish, I'd suggest the firefish instead of the clownfish. And most gobies have an easy to moderate care level. Just know the carolina goby lives in coldwater systems so before you fall in love with it's brilliant colors, don't get it! 3 fish should be fine as long as you add them slowly and after your cycle is complete. Yes a CUC would be good to have for eating the excess food and waste and eating fish or inverts that have died before they fully decayed. Often, fish will hide and starve then die and you won't be able to take them out, so it's good to have a CUC that takes care of it before the decomposing waste eventually turns into nitrates. Reefcleaners.com is a good website for ordering and reading about some basic CUC members.

Yes even with LR you will still need to cycle it. If you have a lot of cured rock you probably won't need another source of ammonia and it could cycle quicker than it would with another method of cycling. If not, say you have some LR and base rock or all base rock, you need another source of ammonia so you could put a table shrimp in a net in your tank and let it rot or dose pure ammonia.

Freshwater bacteria is different from saltwater bacteria so that won't work..don't add it.

 

[Hobgob]

If I can do three I'm good with that. Would they be able to have territories or are they not like that? Thanks for the info on the carolina goby. I was thinking of it lol. But if I can get three of them that would be awesome! As long as there will be enough oxygen in the tank and have what they need.
And LR produces ammo? Or I did I just miss read that? I could just dose ammo but if shrimp will work I can just do that. As long as it will work