Which would you suggest? (BTW...Hello!!)

[kellieandjason]

First off let me say hello! I am quite to have found a this!

I have a few questions. 1st let me tell you a few things I have a 29 gal with a jbj pc. about 28 pounds of lr. Sorry I cant remember what the sand was called something like argonalive. mixed with crushed shells. Set up on the 12th. It started its cycle about a wk ago and finished about 3-4days later. I would like to have some fish and a few soft corals (undecided about hard) but will get to that in a second.
no2= <.3
no3= <12.5 but not quite to 0 am doing another water change tomorrow(ro water from our home ro - does that make a difference in quality?)
ammonia= 0
ph= 8
kh= 10
sg= 1.021-1.022
I keep it about 79*

First question and I know you will all just cringe at another lighting question. I have been researching and reading and just cannot get it. Anyway, on a pc is the wattage stated actual? (mine says 65watts) and is that per 'side' of the bulb or combined? One is a actinic and the other is a daylight. would you recommed I switch to a 50/50?

second question is I bought 2 astracea(sp?) snails a ew days ago and they died by the next morning. any ideas? I acclimated them the same way as the fish (about 45m andevery 15 add tank water, then take them out and place in tank) lfs said maybe it could be the sg is too low

Third, I bought a percula clownfish & he acted ok for about 2 days, except for not eating...but I read that fish will do that sometimes. Then on day 3 I woke up and went to turn on the light and (me being really new and haven't quite figured out how to get a stubborn fish to eat) turned off the power head to try to feed him. He swam very fast up and down 2 x's and then he had what looked to be a seizure. Then acted fine again. Over the course of the day he developed a spot on his 'nose' and started to lose color. we called the lfs and asked they said to bring him in the next day. We did and they tested our water and asked us all the common questions, and said it all sounded great. So they kept him overnight and we went back sun. He looked great. Most of his color was back. Oh I should add sat morn before we took him in he had burrowed under a lr and was laying on his side. They 'swabbed' him and said they seen no parasites or problems. Do you think this was stress? They wanted to keep him another day or so to make sure he is eating good before sending him home again. Any ideas on this?

fourth, here is what I would eventually like to get
a few fish that swim around ( I love to watch - it is so relaxing after running after 2 small kids all day) maybe a few that don't ? I know of some that were said to be easy - mod to keep that I like. Which would you take (keeping in mind one has to be my percula - this is one of my dream fish And in what order. Any other ideas if my list is just totally a no go?

Royal gramma
yellow tail damsel
percula clown
black & white percula clown ( i really like them also)
coral beauty angel (or the flame angel)

Also I would like to (towards fall -late fall) like to get a few soft corals...maybe something else... any ideas for a newbie with my lighting?(prefer ones that have some color to them?)

My cleaning crew any tweaking?
- I do not have any yet
cleaner shrimp (peppermint?)
Sally lightfoot Crab
hermits
astracea snails


Sorry this was so long. And thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to offer!

Kellie

 

[reefrunner69]

Anyway, on a pc is the wattage stated actual? (mine says 65watts) and is that per 'side' of the bulb or combined? One is a actinic and the other is a daylight. would you recommed I switch to a 50/50?

Each lamp (bulb) is 65 watts. As for swithing to 50/50, it would accomplish nothing, you already have a 50/50 set up, 1 bulb is daylight, the other is actinic

second question is I bought 2 astracea(sp?) snails a ew days ago and they died by the next morning. any ideas? I acclimated them the same way as the fish (about 45m andevery 15 add tank water, then take them out and place in tank) lfs said maybe it could be the sg is too low

From the readings you posted, it appears your tank is still cycling, the snails are particularly sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, my first thought would be the nitrite got them. Your SG is very low for mobile inverts like snails and shrimp etc...I recommend you bring it up to approx 1.025 @ 80-82*F. These inverts are also very sensitive to changes in salinity, I would recommend you acclimate them over the course of several hours via a drip acclimation, you can read about that >>here<<.

Third, I bought a percula clownfish & he acted ok for about 2 days, except for not eating...but I read that fish will do that sometimes. Then on day 3 I woke up and went to turn on the light and (me being really new and haven't quite figured out how to get a stubborn fish to eat) turned off the power head to try to feed him. He swam very fast up and down 2 x's and then he had what looked to be a seizure. Then acted fine again. Over the course of the day he developed a spot on his 'nose' and started to lose color. we called the lfs and asked they said to bring him in the next day. We did and they tested our water and asked us all the common questions, and said it all sounded great. So they kept him overnight and we went back sun. He looked great. Most of his color was back. Oh I should add sat morn before we took him in he had burrowed under a lr and was laying on his side. They 'swabbed' him and said they seen no parasites or problems. Do you think this was stress? They wanted to keep him another day or so to make sure he is eating good before sending him home again. Any ideas on this?

First let me say, the service at your LFS sounds very good, if the advice is not quite stellar, you gotta take the good with the bad sometimes. I would attribute the clowns behavior to the nitrite levels, and typical clown behavior. The lighter area could be one of several things, but stress would be at the top of the list.

fourth, here is what I would eventually like to get
a few fish that swim around ( I love to watch - it is so relaxing after running after 2 small kids all day) maybe a few that don't ? I know of some that were said to be easy - mod to keep that I like. Which would you take (keeping in mind one has to be my percula - this is one of my dream fish And in what order. Any other ideas if my list is just totally a no go?

OK, I would skip the damsel and I would be very leary of trying the second type of clown. If you want two clowns, I would recommend getting a small perc to go with the one you have, make sure it is small and one of the smaller in the group at the LFS.
As for the order,
1) clown (s)
2) Gramma
3) angel

As for the clean up crew, I would look into a few more different types of snails and I personally do not like sally lightfoots.

 

[kellieandjason]

Thanks Kevin for explaining, and your time!!

Would that many fish be too much for my aquarium? I don't want them to end up suffering/dying. The only fish that we had decided HAS to be in there is the clown. (Like I said it is my dream fish ) and the kids litke nemo too. So anyway if that is too many fish, which would you recommend?
Kellie

 

[Salt4Us]

We have a 29, we have a TR percula and a scooter blenny and recently a blue damsel which was moved from our sons 5 gallon so he'd have more room, we have also done soft corals in our tank. We used to have 2 scooter blennies and two clowns, but one of the scooters died(mystery) and one clown got eaten by our giant cup mushroom.

We are in the process of doing a 40 gallon long and had fallen in love with the royal gramma and love the beauty angel and also the flame angel, but decided against the angels due to they like to eat some corals. The royal is cool but can become territorial. We ended up taking the royal gramma back due to it being too territorial.

Good luck on your tank, all I'd suggest is do as much reading on the fish as you can and check their personalities, if they are reef safe which is what it sounds like you want to do and how big they will get, and what they like to eat. I've found a lot of the sites online that sell fish will give you some of this information. www.liveaquaria.com has a pretty good description on size of tank and size of fish and personalities. I haven't bought any fish from them but the info seems to be pretty good. JMO