New Reef Tank - Beginner

[carey]

Did I miss when you finished cycling? How did you cycle? Have you checked your parameters lately? Since this is a new tank I would check over the next few days to be sure you dont have any spikes.

[Wildsy]

Ph 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Salt 1.24
Temp 81.7 F
The water and rock was already from an established tank! Just crushed a flake of food and put it in the tank. Safe to say it seems they enjoyed it!

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Thinking about getting ready for stocking soon

Any ideas from anyone?

My list so far is as follows;

CUC;
2 fire shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
6 hermit crabs (blue legged)
10 mixed snails (don't know of any that are the nicest looking)
2 emerald crabs
2 Halloween crabs

Fish;
3 Chromis (is it best to keep them in multiples of three?)
Pair of onyx/maroon clowns
Watchman goby
2 blue/yellow damsels
A small yellow/regal/purple tang and as they start to get too large for the tank swap them out to a friends larger tank.

I also REALLY want a lion fish, but I assume 120Litres is too small for one?

Please tell me if this is too much..

Thanks, Olly!

I wouldn't plan a CUC in advance of getting the tank set up. Instead you should stock the CUC as you need it which will cause less death on their part. Also, neither the cleaner shrimp or the fire shrimp should really be considered part of a clean up crew as they will need to be fed directly.

Take a look at a snowflake blenny or midas blenny. I would definitely add one of those over the damsels or chromis. Also, as was said before definitely skip the tangs.

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Thanks guys! I've gone for the ocellaris clowns. Got them home and acclimatised. Seem to be doing well. Having a little fight between the two of them though. Is this normal?

That's perfectly normal. Clowns are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling They are going to duke it out for a while and beat each other up figuring out which one is going to be the female (Yes I said that correctly )

If you notice one getting beat up too much with badly shredded fins it can be helpful to pull the stronger one out and keep it in a net breeder for a few days so the weaker one can recover.

[Wildsy]

Thanks for the advice!

Ah right. What do the shrimp specifically eat?

Yeah, is it correct that they both actually start with both sex then the larger more dominant one becomes the female??

Yes I think from what everyone has said skipping the tangs will be for the best, I shall also look into the fish you mentioned.

Thanks, Olly!

[Wildsy]

With the dual t5 lighting that I have.. 438mm and 24 watts what corals do you guys believe would survive because I really want an anemone but I assume this lighting will be no where near sufficient..?

[Wildsy]

Just checked out the blennys and I like them both lol. Can you get two or will they disagree with each other?

[bribo12]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

With the dual t5 lighting that I have.. 438mm and 24 watts what corals do you guys believe would survive because I really want an anemone but I assume this lighting will be no where near sufficient..?

Yep you will want a 6 bulb fixture for a nem and an established tank of at least 8 months. You could keep most soft corals under that fixture. Zoanthids come in all sorts of crazy colors

[Wildsy]

Checked out the blennies and they both look fab... Can you mix the two or will they fight it out?

[Wildsy]

Originally Posted by bribo12

Yep you will want a 6 bulb fixture for a nem and an established tank of at least 8 months. You could keep most soft corals under that fixture. Zoanthids come in all sorts of crazy colors

Cool. I will reply to this with a picture of something which came with the rock. Hopefully someone will be able to identify it

[Wildsy]

They are all over that piece of rock. Will they become larger and more colourful?

[Wildsy]

Still loving watching the clowns. Haven't moved for 3 hours lol

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

With the dual t5 lighting that I have.. 438mm and 24 watts what corals do you guys believe would survive because I really want an anemone but I assume this lighting will be no where near sufficient..?

These are dual t5ho lights? You won't be able to keep a nem under those light conditions and you will also want to wait until the tank is around 6 months old before trying even if you acquire the proper lighting for it.

Assuming this is a standard 16" tall tank you could easily keep softies and zoanthids. Some of my favs when I started were pulsing xenia, kenya tree, and a finger leather. The xenia and kenya tree are nice because they are the proverbial miner's canary when it comes to issues with water parameters. They will show changes when the parameters are out of whack before most other corals will, although they easily bounce back.

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Thanks for the advice!

Ah right. What do the shrimp specifically eat?

Yeah, is it correct that they both actually start with both sex then the larger more dominant one becomes the female??

Yes I think from what everyone has said skipping the tangs will be for the best, I shall also look into the fish you mentioned.

Thanks, Olly!

The shrimp will eat whatever you feed the fish really. My cleaner shrimp went absolutely nuts for frozen mysis though although it was happy with flake food as well.

Yes, that is true about the clowns. It's easier to buy two that live together or buy one that is quite a bit larger than the other. I bought mine from separate tanks but one was about 2/3 the size of the other and they actually didn't fight at all.

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Checked out the blennies and they both look fab... Can you mix the two or will they fight it out?

They can potentially be mixed but I wouldn't really try it in a tank that small. The snowflake can be kind of aggressive to other blennys and even firefish. I am going to attempt it in my upcoming 40g but I am able to easily rehome them if things don't work out

[Wildsy]

Originally Posted by Mebbid

These are dual t5ho lights? You won't be able to keep a nem under those light conditions and you will also want to wait until the tank is around 6 months old before trying even if you acquire the proper lighting for it. Assuming this is a standard 16" tall tank you could easily keep softies and zoanthids. Some of my favs when I started were pulsing xenia, kenya tree, and a finger leather. The xenia and kenya tree are nice because they are the proverbial miner's canary when it comes to issues with water parameters. They will show changes when the parameters are out of whack before most other corals will, although they easily bounce back. The shrimp will eat whatever you feed the fish really. My cleaner shrimp went absolutely nuts for frozen mysis though although it was happy with flake food as well. Yes, that is true about the clowns. It's easier to buy two that live together or buy one that is quite a bit larger than the other. I bought mine from separate tanks but one was about 2/3 the size of the other and they actually didn't fight at all.

It is 22.83 inches tall understood about the nem. Patience has never been my strong point I will look into those corals, thank you for that!

They sell the frozen mysis at my LFS so when the time for shrimp is ready I will be sure to squire some of that!

[Wildsy]

Originally Posted by Mebbid

They can potentially be mixed but I wouldn't really try it in a tank that small. The snowflake can be kind of aggressive to other blennys and even firefish. I am going to attempt it in my upcoming 40g but I am able to easily rehome them if things don't work out

The joys of having several established tanks I guess haha

[bribo12]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

They are all over that piece of rock. Will they become larger and more colourful?

Yep those are zoas, they will probably stay that color. But hey free coral

[Criptix]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Just checked out the blennys and I like them both lol. Can you get two or will they disagree with each other?

No you don't want both the Midas and the Snowflake with fight with each other unless they are in a tank larger than 30g or are a mated pair.i would do one other the other.This site and live aquaria.com are have good resources about fish care and compatibility.

[Wildsy]

Great. Thanks for the advice. Can anyone ID what the thing is sprouting from my LR?

[Wildsy]

Any thoughts on a flame angel in 34 gallons or is it too small again?

[Criptix]

Originally Posted by Wildsy

Any thoughts on a flame angel in 34 gallons or is it too small again?

to big.According to Live Aquaria they need at least a min of 70 gal.I can't wait to get into a bigger place so I can get a tank that with house angels and tangs.They are beautiful but they deserve a nice big tank with plenty of swimming room.Good luck!