Gyr
Member
I have been sitting on a Live Rock Only tank (OK, it's had a few actinodiscus corals, too) for a few years now and I up-graded to metal halides two months ago. I have added 2 M cap frags, a captive bred percula clown and coral beauty, and then had to cool my jets for a while till a nitrate bump got itself under control. Nitrates have been stable at zero for over 3 weeks now(other parameters all good, too, except maybe calcium being too high at over 520ppm--don't really understand why, as I don't add any calcium supplement), so I am getting the itch to add the next batch of livestock.
My hope is that I will someday have a tank with an anemone and several varieties of SPS corals, which brings me to my main question for this forum, namely, is it better to get the anemone first (planning on going with BTA in hopes my percula will use it), or add a few acropora, etc frags first. I'm thinking acropora first to see if my tank is as stable and livestock friendly as I think it is (monti's are doing well, but have only been in tank about 6 weeks) before adding the BTA. On the other hand, I can see how it might be best to add the BTA first, letting him find his happy place before putting sensitive frags in there that the BTA might nettle as it wanders looking for a good spot.
Am I sweating it too much? Should I just go ahead and add the nem and a few frags at the same time, since I probably won't be securing the frags permanently for a few weeks, any way (acclimation)?
Finally, do nems tolerate shipping well? If so, can anyone recommend an online source for aquacultured BTA's. I've checked a few of my LFS's and the BTA's they carry are not aquacultured.
Thanks,
Kurt
55 gal display
two 250 metal halide Sunpod
My hope is that I will someday have a tank with an anemone and several varieties of SPS corals, which brings me to my main question for this forum, namely, is it better to get the anemone first (planning on going with BTA in hopes my percula will use it), or add a few acropora, etc frags first. I'm thinking acropora first to see if my tank is as stable and livestock friendly as I think it is (monti's are doing well, but have only been in tank about 6 weeks) before adding the BTA. On the other hand, I can see how it might be best to add the BTA first, letting him find his happy place before putting sensitive frags in there that the BTA might nettle as it wanders looking for a good spot.
Am I sweating it too much? Should I just go ahead and add the nem and a few frags at the same time, since I probably won't be securing the frags permanently for a few weeks, any way (acclimation)?
Finally, do nems tolerate shipping well? If so, can anyone recommend an online source for aquacultured BTA's. I've checked a few of my LFS's and the BTA's they carry are not aquacultured.
Thanks,
Kurt
55 gal display
two 250 metal halide Sunpod