Cody & KCs Newbie Reef Tank!

[Melanie]

Here is a good link for helping with your stocking plan. Ye Old Stocking Limit Question.

With 24 gallons, minus some for rock and sand displacement, you are probably at about 22 gal. Ideally you want to have about 4.5" total of full-grown fish. The mated pair of clowns alone will be 6". Then the watchman goby is about 3" as well so you would be at 9". About twice the suggested limit of 1" per 5 gal.

Drs Foster & Smith has a section dedicated to nanofish. One of my favorites on there is the yellow clown goby. He only gets to be 1.5"!

Of course, that is just a guideline and not set in stone. With great filtration, testing, frequent water changes, and very light feeding you can probably safely add a little more than 4.5" total.

The reason I am choosing to stay within the guidelines is because it's so much harder to keep good water parameters if you have too many fish in there.

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From what I have read on RS, the clowns sort of choose what they want to host, if anything. I have a few of the things that some clowns host and so far, my clownie hasn't noticed anything. But he still seems really happy!

Your coral choices sound like good beginner specimens. I have those too!

Have fun in your planning stage and keep posting your ideas! I changed my stocking plan so many times because I got GREAT feedback on here. Saved me a ton of money and heartache too! ("What do you mean puffers and lions don't go together??" ha ha ha ha oh, and the classic "I can't add all of the fish on the same day?"<--my quotes)

[DrHank]

Melanie is absolutely right. Unfortunately it takes a lot of water to support saltwater fish in comparison to freshwater. That is the wonderful thing about a reef tank. You can make up for what you can't have in fish by what you can have in invertebrates, corals, etc.

You will find that the smaller a tank is, the more challenging it is.Smaller volumes of water are much more prone to rapid shifts in water chemistery and quality. They require much more careful and thorough consideration of choices. Much more thought and planning must go into just about every aspect of stocking and maintenance. Temperature and pH shift much more rapidly, just to name a few. That is why nano technology developed. In order to provide the small tank with the same benefits as it's larger counterparts.

Take your time and carefully assess your options. Corals, mushrooms, polyps, shrimp, snails, etc. provide color, motion and activity which can offset the fact that you can only have a small number of fish. Honestly, I enjoy a small well stocked and maintained tank just as much as my big 210. If you have any doubt, I would suggest that you look at some of the picturers of flricordia's tank. I think Mike has a fisn (or maybe two) in there somewhere.

Just continue to take your time, your tank will come out great.

[cynicechoes]

Hey everyone! Don't worry I am going to take me time when it comes to stocking, I don't even plan on stocking anything other than more CUC if needed until after my cruise in Thanksgiving and when I do I am going to take it very slow and 1 specimen at a time!

I knew my stocking plan was going to need some work, that was just the very beginning of the thought process. I haven't done the research to go along with what I'd like to put in there yet, in other words I don't know very much about the fish yet including how big its going to get, so thanks Melanie for telling me about how big the clowns get! I had no idea, and I definitely won't be getting 2! lol I did do a little research on beginner corals, but before making a definite decision I will be doing a bunch more. Oh, I do get that the clowns will chose what to host if anything, but I at least wanted to give them something that they coud potentially host in if they wanted to! lol

I did water tests today and plan on doing a water change in a little bit. I also got my refractometer from drfostersmith.com! Me likes! I think I pretty much got my answer as to whether or not the Pep. Shrimp or one of the nassarius snails has died in there! The nitrates are quite high, so I'm assuming something probably has died. I still can't find that damn shrimp anywhere! lol And I have for sure seen one of the nassarius snails, but I am wondering if maybe the other one didn't make it because my fighting conch and the other nassarius are sitting in one spot very close to each other, and I am wondering if they are cleaning the remains! Hope not! i'm hoping the water change will reduce some of the nitrates. Oh, and now I know which brand test kits I have. Anyways, heres the results:
Salinity: 1.020 (going to increase it slowly by adding salted topoff)
Calcium (API): 360ppm
Carbonate Hardness (API): 13dKH
Phosphate (API): 0.0ppm
Nitrate (API): 20ppm
Nitrite (Salifert): 0.01ppm
Ammonia (Salifert): <0.25ppm

[Melanie]

Yeah, I love the refractometer too! Don't you feel so scientific when you do your tests and pull that baby out?

It sounds like you are doing so great and I'm completely impressed. Your fish and corals are lucky to have such a dedicated reefer taking care of them.

[DrHank]

It tends to loose some of that something special after you've a bunch of urinalysis with one.

[Melanie]

Originally Posted by DrHank

It tends to loose some of that something special after you've a bunch of urinalysis with one.

Ok, you literally made me LOL. Thank you thank you.

[DrHank]

Glad someone got a kick out of it. As I recall no one was especially thrilled about using one at the time. Maybe that's why I'm perfectly happy with my old bulb hydrometer.

[Melanie]

Can you do urinalysis with your hydrometer? ;-)

Sorry Casey! Off topic, off topic.... Thread hijacking.

[cynicechoes]

LOL No problem that was quite an interesting topic you guys had going! I am totally never going to complain, especially when its about urinalysis I mean come on! lol j/k

I am totally happy! I just gave the Korallia another try to see if I could find a good place for it because I was totally hating the toilet bowl effect I had going & I think I found a good place! YAY! I put it in a back corner pointing at some close by rocks and now the rocks are pretty much diffusing it all over the tank! Its going through th rocks and coming out other places and the crap that it blew off the rocks serves as a pretty good indicator of where the flow is going and its moving around in all different directions like it doesn't know where to go! YAY! No more toilet bowl! LOL I am such a tard! Thanks for all the suggestions you gave DrHank it totally worked out!

Also, in my search with a flashlight from many different angles for Peppy, whom I still can't find, i found my other nassarius snail, so they are both alive! So if my nitrates are due to death, Peppy's a goner! Hopefully, he is just a big butt head who doesn't like to come out though. I really wih he would so that I could figure out what he looks like and know whether i actually have a peppermint shrimp or not!

Oh, by the way, thanks for the compliment melanie, oh and for that drs foster and smith link to nano fish that is really helpful! I think we might try to go with a smaller goby, instead of a watchman, but I think I'll avoid the clown gobies cuz it says they will nip at corals! If we still want a shrimp goby i will probably just go with the Hi Fin Red Banded (or Blackray Shrimp Goby) since its an inch smaller than the watchman. I also like the idea of the Gold Line Goby, because it says hey are very active and that you will almost never see them not out in the open in your tank, which is good since I can't have very many fishies!

Anyhoo later guys!

[emj35]

Hi there!

Thanks for the great note you left on my thread. We will definitely have to stay in touch with the progress of our tanks!

Good luck with everything!

-Erika

[lcstorc]

Sounds like things are progressing nicely. Glad you got the flow worked out. I am still trying to find the "sweet spot" for my Koralias. They put out a lot of great flow.
Just as an FYI I have several clown gobies and so far have not had problems with them nipping at anything. Now I don't keep SPS just softies and lps but at least with mine I have had no problems. My citron clown goby does like to nap on my clams but it doesn't seem to bother them.

[cynicechoes]

Thanks so much! I appreciate the info on the clown gobies lynn! I hope you figure out your Korallia, they are a bit tricky! I also just realized that I probably won't be able to keep mine in the long run because I totally didn't think about the fact that when we add the HOB Fuge it is going to add flow to the tank as well! Nothing will be able to sit still if it wants to if I have both! lol

Oh, I am really kinda excited because it appears that there are some ity bity baby snails moving about in my tank! I guess I bought a preger snail or my nassarius ones just happened to really like their new home or something! LOL i dunno! They are so tiny! It is kind cool, especially since I think there is a chance they will survive since I don't have any fishies to eat them yet! If they don't oh well, I still think its cool!

I also realized that I was totally confused as to what cyano bacteria was, and I actualy now don't think i have it! I thought it was the bright green stuff that I can't get off the rocks like a dumby, but DrHank told me that cyano is reddish brown and comes off fairly easy. I don't have any reddish brown stuff that comes off! So i think I might actually be ok! I just wonder what the bright green stuff is!? Anyone have an idea? I can scurb and it doesn't seem to go anywhere, it almost looks like it is just a color on the rock and not necessarily growth.. hmmm... i wonder...

Anyhoo happy reefing ev1!

[Melanie]

My HOB fuge does not add a considerable amount of flow. I mean, not enough to blow anyone around. What are you going to put in yours? I have live sand and Fiji Mud (I wouldn't recomend it because I got aptaisia in my fuge and have read it came from the Mud.) I also have some birdsnest LR. I did have chaeto in there, but there wasn't enough flow to keep it tumbling and it turned white and I had to pull it out. I'm going to add a different kind of plant soon.

Baby snails!! That is so neat! I'm jealous!

My rock has colored with bright green and grown some corraline algae. I'm interested to see what others say it is.

I noticed you giving some really good tips on another thread. Doesn't it feel great to share your experiences and the things you have learned?

PS, You briefly mentioned your husband being deployed or TDY or something similar? Is he in the Army?

[cynicechoes]

Thanks Mel! I'm glad to hear that the fuge probably won't add enough flow to worry about! I actually don't know what I am going to put in it yet. I need to do more research, I haven't learned enough about refugiums yet! Any advice on how to operate a good fuge would be appreciated! I am glad you said that about the fiji mud cause that is what I had heard to put in there! lol Good luck with your new plant decision!

I'm also glad to hear I am not the only one who's LR is turning bright green! haha! I am really curious if it is coralline, like DrHank said it could possibly be, because I can scrub w/ a toothbrush and it goes no where!

I am excited about my baby snails! tehe! I wonder what kind they are!? They are so tiny I can't even begin to guess... I hope they survive long enough for me to find out! I thought they were pods until I looked closer and notices a body and a snail shell! I like yelled, "Cody! We got babies!" LOL He was like WHAT!?

Oh, also, I have no idea about how to go about setting up a QT tank. We got a 10 gal glass aquarium, that we want to use. What stuff do you need for a QT? I would assume minimal lighting, a couple pieces of LR, maybe LS?... As always any advice or info is mucho appreciated!

Oh and by the way, you asked about me saying my husband was deployed, he is in the Marine Corps. It is the reason we moved to San Diego, this was his first duty station after he got out of his training squadron. He is only on a "mini-deployment" of sorts... he is only gone for about a month and a half in Yuma, AZ for a training excercise. I can actually go visit him on my days off if I want to since it is only about 2 1/2 hours away. I couldn't hold out and went once already! lol I would totally be there every week if we could afford the hotel! So its not bad. My only hope is that he never actually gets deployed because I don't think I could take 6-9 months of him being gone, especially since I am hear with no family or friends cause they are all back in Texas, where we came from!

Thanks for the compliment about my tips! I does feel good to be able to share some of my experience! I like to let people know where I have been going wrong, so that hopefully they can avoid it themselves! You live and learn, especially w/ SW! lol

Anyhoo enough of my babbling! Happy reefing ev1!

[cynicechoes]

Hey everyone! I just got back from a visit to the hubby in Yuma.

The tank seems to be in the same condition I left it lol. I did a water change right before I left so hopefully that will have helped somewhat with the nitrates.

Does anyone have an answer for me about the fuge and Qt tank questions I asked in my last post? It would be appreciated

Oh, also, does anyone know or possible know someone on RS that would have an opinion as to a good LFS in the San Diego area?