Ready to stock tank

[joeyswife]

Hi,
I've been lurking around in here for several months. This is my first post so please be gentle.
I have an Aquapod 24 64 W pc lighting,25 lbs of LR fully cured. My tank has cycled and I'm ready to put a CUC this weekend. I'm thinking 2-4 turbo snails,3-4 nassarius snails, a couple of hermit, and maybe an emerald crab because I have some algae growing that looks like a plant. The emerald in my daughters tank chows down on the nori we put in there so I thought it might like the real stuff.
I want to get a fire shrimp and some sexy shrimp down the road. Is everybody going to get along and play nice?
This is my wish list for the future:
yelow clown goby
Long tentacle plate
hammer coral
open brain
zoas
xenia
chili coral
mushrooms
frogsspawn
trumpet coral
bubble coral
what do you think? Do you QT corals and for how long? My QT tank is fully loaded wil my daughters ick fish now so I won't be getting any fish soon.

You've guys have been a great deal of help to my husband joeyfromlawrenceville, thanks for all of your input.

Thanks,
Joeyswife

 

[Ziggy953]

Welcome!!

If the QT tank your daughters fish are in has had any copper treatments then DO NOT put any coral/invert in that tank. I don't QT my corals at all. I acclimate them to my tank and they go right in.

The only things I would not put in the tank are the xenia and the chili coral. Xenia spreads like mad and can take over a tank quickly. Chili coral...eh. (personal preference)

Astrea snails, margarita snails and nassarius are what I have in my system. I have one emerald in my 120, and a few hermits. I'm not a big fan of hermits, they will kill your snails for the shells. A few not a big deal though.

Hope that helps you.

 

[captivereefs]

The bubble coral,hammer coral and frogspawn may get a little aggressive towards other corals if space is limited. They will normally send out their sweeper tentacles at night to burn other corals so make sure to give them ample room.

I personally do not like sexy shrimp due to the fact that the ones i had ate my zoanthids!

Fire shrimp are cool but hide alot, if you want color and activity its hard to beat a standard cleaner shrimp

 

[bawel]

Hi Joey's wife,

Turbo Snails grow too fast, instead of turbo snails, I'd suggest Astrea snails or the Astrea star if you want to look at pretty snail shell, I got 1 in my tank, it's definitely pretty shell to look at sometime.

 

[melosu58]

Do you QT corals and for how long?

Read this

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/acclimating-corals-109726.html

 

[joeyswife]

Welcome!!

If the QT tank your daughters fish are in has had any copper treatments then DO NOT put any coral/invert in that tank. .

We are using hyposalinity to treat ich. Copper+coral= dead coral.

I drip acclimate my daughters inverts so I understand how that works. What do you use for heat when acclimating your corals for 1-2 hours? It seems like the water would lose heat after hours in a container. Some of you float them and then put them into the tank while others float, drip acclimate, then into the tank. If you do QT corals, what are you looking for, signs of what?? Aptasia? Bristleworms? Will any bad signs show up in a 30 day QT?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with captivereefs... the bubble/frogspawn/hammer corals all together in a 24g might be asking for trouble. I had a torch (same family as the hammer/frogspawn... Euphyllia) in a 46g that had to be taken back to the LFS after 8 months or so because it just grew too big and was trying to kill off other corals. They're all beautiful corals, but I'd probably just choose one from that family for a 24g. I really like bubble corals, and they seem to be the least agressive of the bunch mentioned. I'd probably recommend one of those in a low flow area.

I think you'll love the yellow clown goby. I have one, and he's definitely the favorite of visitors when they check out the tank. Lots of personality, and it's all over the tank.

While I quarantine fish, I don't quarnatine corals. I just haven't wanted to invest to upgrade the lighting on my QT for that. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I haven't had any real issues with any corals that I've put in my tank. Ones that I've lost have had nothing to do with quarantine... or lack of.

Aiptasia should be obvious on a piece when you see it at the LFS, so quarantine really won't help here. Plus, you can deal with that in your main tank without an issue. Bristleworms aren't a concern - I view them as free cleanup crew! When I buy coral, I look for any damaged sections or unhealthy areas. If there are any... I don't buy it. I also look for any unwanted algae. Oh... flatworms or other parasites should be obvious, but if you see any on other corals in the tank, be sure to check the one you're interested in really well.

Regarding long acclimation times, the heat issue is why I normally don't drip acclimate for more than an hour. The one time I did, I floated the small bucket that I was acclimating, in a larger bucket filled with water. That larger bucket had a heater in it so that the large bucket water stayed at 78 degrees. Kind of like floating the bag in water, but more complicated.

 

[joeyswife]

thanks for the input everyone. I'm off to the lfs to spend some money on a CUC, maybe a frag.
I view reef keeping kinda like gardening, start slow and be patient.

 

[Ziggy953]

thanks for the input everyone. I'm off to the lfs to spend some money on a CUC, maybe a frag.
I view reef keeping kinda like gardening, start slow and be patient.

That's a good way of looking at it.

When I add corals to my system they are usually acclimated over 30-45 minutes and the water doesn't have a chance to get cold. I will usually float the bag in my frag tank to get the water temp matched up while I get my bucket ready for dripping. Kurt provided some great information.