About to switch over to Reef...a few questions.

[randallparish]

Here's what I'm Working with:

36g Bowfront
29g sump
40lbs lr in tank
20 lbs lr rubble in sump
live sand + miracle mud in sump with a calerpa and something else? and from my lfs
Coralife super skimmer
PC lighting--130 W 1/2 actinic 1/2 white

Stock:

1 black perc clown
1 6 line wrasse
1 bubble tip anenome
1 coral banded shrimp
1 cucumber
1 polyp (freebie from live rock)


For starters, How am I looking so far...any questions comments?

As far as coral goes...I'm still researching and I don't really know what my tank can accomodate. I'd like to start out with really hardy, beginner friendly corals. I like the look of the really colorful polyp colonies, other than that I just want to add as much color and action to my tank as possible. What do you guys suggest for coral selection?

I'd also like a few more fish. I was planning on ordering a royal gramma and a green clown goby....will that max out my tank? If not I was thinking about a couple of green chromis.....

I'm also not sure what to do about my water flow. Right now I'm running my emperor biowheel (just never took it off after adding my sump...may get rid of it) which is rated at 280gph, I also have a powerhead rated at 230 gph, and I have my return pump with a SCWD rated at 350 gph (about 5 ft below my main tank). Is this way too much flow? I recently added the SCWD and moved my PH to the middle of my tank and after a few days my anenome moved to the back of the tank where I can't see him....how do I get him back??!! He hosts my clown...funnest part of the tank! Any feedback?

Thank you all so much...you've been a huge help ever since I first got this tank.

 

[melosu58]

One thing you will need is some lighting for your sump if you are going to have macro algea in it. As far as corals you`ll be able to have soft and LPS corals in it. IMO you just dont have enough lighting for the anenome. You`ll need to upgrade your lighting for that as I said JMO. As far as the water flow more flow is good as long as you are not battering the corals and fish. Some good starter corals would be
1) Mushroom coral
2) Yellow polyps
3) button polyps
4) Colt coral

 

[lando]

Mike offers some great points and suggestions.
I would consider the addition of extra LR as a first step. Also, I think some LPS corals like a hammer, torch or candy cane would do just fine in your tank, depending on placement.

 

[randallparish]

Sorry---I didn't think to include it...I've got an 18W PC on my refugium. As far as the anenome, I didn' t realize that he would need so much light. My LFS just said that if I didn't have super intense light that I should feed him once a week or so. What does this mean...do you think he'll die or just won't flourish? Either way, he has moved to the underside of a rock in the back of my tank where he is certainly recieving less light.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Burks]

Sometimes anemones will move themselves out of light and acclimate themselves to light as they see fit. This can be fast or slow depending on the anemone.

Keep an eye on the 6-Line as they seem to either be great community fish or complete disasters. I've seen them go both ways.

Have you thought about possibly getting a second Black Percy and try to pair them up? That'd be a money maker as mating pairs bring big bucks ($349 for a pair, $700+ for a mated pair around here).