How many is too many?

[LynnCeeBee]

I believe I understand the limited capabilities of having fish in my 10g tank. However, I know me. As a relative virgin to reefkeeping, I know I should start slow, i.e., sticking to mushrooms and the easier soft corals and such. That still leaves a wide open door though, and I don't want to get carried away. With fish, there is a rough ball park guideline of inches to gallons....is there any such thing for putting in mushrooms and corals? I mean, aside from knowing how large each species can get, and which species is "neighborly" or not?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Not too much a guideline, but like you said, there are restrictions in terms of size. Mushrooms especially you'll want to keep away from most other corals. If you like them, try sticking with an all soft coral nano reef. Zoos, leathers, mushrooms, etc. If you add in an LPS coral or so, make sure it has plenty of room around it and that you add some activated carbon to your filter.

HTH

 

[LynnCeeBee]

This does help, thank you. Activated carbon? ...and here I thought I was doing well to replace it with LR rubble. What's the reason for the activated carbon? (Please excuse my ongoing questions; I'm infamous among my friends for all my questions.)

 

[Devilishturtles]

Haha, no problems. The activated carbon helps rid the tank of any chemical warfare existing between the corals. LPS corals are infamous for the noxious chemicals, as are mushrooms. This is why lots of people dislike LPS corals in a tank mixed with other kinds of coral (be it soft, hard, etc) If you protein skim (not really needed on a nano reef) and keep up with water changes, it should be less of an issue, but IMO activated carbon doesn't hurt.

 

[beachbumin]

I have a 29 gallon with a 20 gallon sump refugium and keep 25+ corals(mushroom, zoas, ricordas,and leathers) and a clam. I do weekly water changes and occasionally add lugels and calcium and I let the refugium do the rest. Staying on top of the PWC is the best thing you can do for the tank. HTH

 

[Lance M.]

beachbumin- You shouldn't really add Lugol's or any other form of Iodine unless you have a test kits that shows you have a deficiency, but your weekly pwc will replace the Iodine alone. Same thing with the Ca, pwc should be enough since you just have mushrooms, zoas, and leathers.

A little bag of carbon, replaced every week, would be helpful, like Devilishturtles said.

Another thing with mushrooms, with a little trial and error you should be able t find that you can place some mushrooms next to each other, while others will sting other mushrooms. I have some blue/violet striped mushrooms and will kill my regular purple mushrooms if placed next to them but I can place my metallic red mushrooms next to the blue/violet striped and they don't sting each other. It will help you with spacing. HTH