a bit of advice

[Tami]

hello to all

I am new to forums and marine tanks. I have started a 55 gal FOWLR and have 2-tomatoe clowns, ( came with an anenome)--1 flame angel, 1 sailfin tang and 3 turbo snails that are busy cleaning and making babies. I have about 12 lbs live rock. I have a protein skimmer and good biowhhel filter. all levels are great and I do a 10% water change q2-3 wks.
so far so good

My question is--what now I am hoping to add 3--blue/green chromis and a goobie as well as a cleaner shrimp--I think that is enough and I am just wondering if these will be a good combo??

I have read books articles and varous websites--am really looking for people that have experience and good advice BECAUSE all this info tends to contradict each other at times

any advice will be greatly appreciated!!

thanks

the new guy

 

[AquaReefer]

Hello and Welcome to AA and welcome to the hobby. First before you get anymore fish I would focus on Live Rock. Adding 4 more fish along with the 4 other fish you have could be harsh on your biological filtration. LR is the most natural filtration you could have. For instance in my 55 I have around 90 lbs of LR. I had 115lbs but I took 25lbs out seed my new 30g. I will be adding more in a few weeks. Now getting back to your fish selection. I hope you plan on getting a bigger tank with that sailfin tang as they reach sizes of a Foot and a Half. Other then that you should be fine. Your clowns might mess with the chromis. I just purchased 3 Chromis last night. I like them I put them in my 30g I always wanted a little school of fish. What kind of goby are you looking into. Cleaner Shrimp are always nice I have 2 of them.

 

[Tami]

thanks for the advice
My husband is going to build me another tank this year (fall) to go into a shelf in my brick fireplace and I will move the tang then if it is too big--right now its not so big

I will look into some more rock but i'm from a small town so it takes a while

as far as the goby I would like something with some purple I will have to check in my books on a type

thanks again

 

[ryguy]

Hi Tami,

It's Ryan....

The purple firefish is a cool looking fish, not exactly a typical looking goby, but it does fall into the same class.

also, if you want to order some more live rock, www.jlaquatics.com is the best place that we have near to us. I just got 55 lbs delivered a week and a half ago and it was really nice.

here's a purplefirefish pic:

 

[ryguy]

double post

 

[GinaD]

I love purple pseudochromis, but they can be a bit aggressive at times.

http://images.google.com/images?q=purple+pseudochromis&hl=en

 

[Tami]

Ryan etc..

I must admit I am nervous about ordering stuff for my tank online--as long as the place has cured the rock etc--does it come with any life on it??

I am going to become a forum junkie now!!!

Tami

 

[ryguy]

Hey Tami,

no, that's the one thing is they don't cure it, you gotta do that, but I could help you with it. It's not too much of a hassle, I got my rock curing in the garage right now. In fact, if you were interested, after my rock is done, which is not too much longer, if you wanted to, I could just throw it in the curing tank I have set up. It's got a powerhouse skimmer on it and its a 90G tank with LOTS of water movement, about 3500Gph which is awesome for curing LR.

I was very impressed with the rock i got from them. I have very nice colors of coraline algaes on my rock and I have noticed a feather duster and star fish from the rubble i put in my refugium already.

I bought most of my stuff from J&L, which was in person at the store when I lived in Van. But I have bought twice online from them since being in CR. Delivery is fast, low shipping fees and I just called them with my visa # and sent them emails with the stuff I wanted. Their stuff is more than 2 times cheaper for the EXACT same stuff that big al's has. My first saltwater book was bought from big al's, I paid $74 for it, I can still remember, cause I found the same book at J&L for $34 a week later.... i was choked!! I checked into it and they were double for EVERYTHING. Even the big ticket items such as my tank and stand was double.

This site will definetely make you a forum junkie and a fully qualified fish geek in no time!!!

here's the curing tank i got going (the rock without colour on the bottom is a friends "once live, now dead" rock i'm curing for him as well:

 

[SJSobczyk]

A little off topic here but if you guys are also interested there is a Canadian Reef site called www.canreef.com . Its mostly west coast to manitoba but might help you out if you need some local suggestions.

Of course, you can always stay at this amazing site.....

Steve

 

[afilter]

Welcome!!!

I concur that you shoulde get more rock and hold off on more fish for now. I have a silfin in a 90g which really is not big enough once it gets full grown.

If you do not have a place to get LR locally and are not comfprtable ordering you can make your own. All rock becomes LR over time. Personally I used 90% base rock (lace, tufa, coral rubble) to make my LR. I seeded it with smaller pieces of LR. It does not get all the clor right away, but after two years I would challenge somone to pick out the purchased LR vs. base rock. This is a much cheaper route as well.

Continue to read and do your reasearch...oh yeah and resist buying more fish until you get a bigger tank. You can have a lot of fun getting snails, crabs and others inverts.

Good luck,

Aaron

 

[ryguy]

A little off topic here but if you guys are also interested there is a Canadian Reef site called www.canreef.com . Its mostly west coast to manitoba but might help you out if you need some local suggestions.

I like canreef, but it's slower moving than this site, and reefcentral.com is too fast, topics seem to go unanswered at reef central cause too many posts push your question to page 2 and 3 before you know it.

I like canreef for their classified section for local buy sell and trade options.

 

[Tami]

hey guys

thanks for all the great advice

Ryan I will have to check out the site and see about getting some LR
and will get back to you--I would really appreciate a place to cure the rock
our garage has Dave's 69 Mustang in it!!!--no space for my hobby

Tami