FishChannel Forums / Saltwater Forums / General Saltwater

Help me stock my tank (please)

lil.guppy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:18:11 GMT

I know I want a couple clowns, flowing anemanies, coral, clean up crew but I have no idea what other fish I can put in my tank.

Stocking 40 breeder

jsmith11618 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:02:19 GMT

My tank is a 40 breeder, 50lbs approx LR.

I am building a 10 gallon sump/refugium that will be up and running soon, Aqua C remora skimmer.

Current residents include:

2 clown ( percula or ocellaris not sure which one)
1 scooter blenny
1 sailfin blenny
3 peppermint shrimp.

Also have some hermits, and snails just don't know how many.

I really like the dwarf angels, do you think I could fit a Coral Beauty in this tank?

Fish catching tips

jsmith11618 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:58:55 GMT

Other then taking out 60 pounds of live rock, does anyone have any tips on catching a small fish?

I am trying to relocate a YT Damsel to his new home that's ready for him.

In the event I do have to remove the rock, if I keep it submerged and it would be out less then 10 minutes total, do you think the die off would be minimal?

I don't wanna go killing everything in the tank by removing the rock.

Lion Fish Owners

lil.guppy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:30:46 GMT

Can lionfish go in a tank with live rock that includes corals and anemanies?
What clean up crew would you recomend with a lion fish.

Our 175 FOWLR system

M.Maddox — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:37:02 GMT

Pics and info about our FOWLR system:

The 175 gallon oceanic bowfront/stand/canopy with 60 gallon sump + wet/dry filter and red sea berlin skimmer. The tank has 4-8" of sand (deeper in the back) a tiny amount of rock (just set it up the other day) and the water is still clearing (had water in it all of 48 hours, but was set up before so the bio media is still 'alive').

[early pics right after setup:]
(For reference, the mag-float on the left side is the 2nd to largest!)

(Complete with haunting reflections...)

The system:

~1200 gph through the wet/dry, and ~400gph through the skimmer

(The foam padding on the return hoses is for noise reduction...I've managed to get the tank almost silent!)

The inhabitants:

Baby Mappa (likes to throw hissy fits when not fed...constantly)

FEED ME!

Camera shy dogface

Us!

Some more recent pics (the system is about 3 months old)

Boo!

If I bite the halimeda one more time it might taste good...(too bad he/she gave up after that, and the halimeda has grown 4" since...)

Me? Pudgy?

Our baby zebra moray checks every snail after being fed, ever since a snail snatched some of his shrimp!

Go away eel...

Thought I'd share! :)

Do I have enough rock?

lil.guppy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:02:42 GMT

46g
50lbs fiji live rock
Should I order another 20lbs? I like the way it looks with lots of swimming room, and I want to start out slow but I am worried that the rock is too low in the water for me to grow some of the softer stuff. Im using the Nova extreme light.
Any advice would be appreciated.
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/14/l_1218de9c546c4ad999f9655820a8da12.jpg

Can I use this on a Hydro unit?

lil.guppy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:49:43 GMT

Can I use this http://www.petmountain.com/product/powerhead-parts/508999/hydor-flo-rotating-water-deflector.html
on this http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Hydor_Koralia_Circulation_Pump_Powerhead_UL__Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Powerheads_Fixed_Flow~vendor~Hydor~SearchStr~koralia~action~view~idProduct~HD19101~idCategory~FIPHFF.html
and will it work?

large hang on the back filter as a refugium?

plecodiscus — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:53:06 GMT

I have a Whisper 60 power filter on my 30gal saltwater tank. It's about a foot wide, and it has 2 large compartments for filter inserts. They have a lot of space in themeven though the cartridges are in.When i was changing the filter cartridges today, I noticed that there was a lot of life growing and thriving in these filter compartments.This range of creatures included:

lots of amphipods, an asterina starfish, a 3" bristleworm, lots of spiral tube worms, and some tube worms that made shells(only about .75" long) on the inside of the filter. Is my filter acting as a refugium? it seems like the bristleworm would be consuming detritus in the filter in order to survive, whhich is pretty cool.

now,i don't know what a refugium does, i just know that there are usually lots of creatures of various sorts in them.

All Nova Extreme Pro Light fixture Owners

lil.guppy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:23:59 GMT

It says that it must be plugged into a GCFI or GFCI (whatever it was) outlet. Well I use those strip cord plug in things with the red switch to turn everything plugged in on or off at the same time.

It also says it needs to go over a glass top but everyone else I see who has these does not have any top on their aquarium.

Condylactis

Delvor — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:05:24 GMT

Hey all, i was in a pet store the other day and saw a nice looking condylactis anemone but hesitated to buy it. I know they can sting some fish but how often with they mess with small fish like damsels or chromis fish, wouldn't want to buy something that would hurt any fish.

Free sw tank!

Conner — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:39:30 GMT

Well, one of my in-laws ex boyfriends is getting rid of his sw setup, and apparently is ready for it to go. He said he'd give it to me for free as long as I picked it up. My in-law said she'd meet me halfway with it (i'm in Louisville, he's in Pittsburgh), so its only like a 3 hour drive one way.

It's a 29g tank, I think one of the biocube's or something like that, since it has filtration built in. There are also two 3-stripe Damselfish in the tank, but he's not sure if he's going to give those away to someone local, or go ahead and send them to me as well. It's going to come with all the live sand and live rock, hopefully still cycled (although I'll probably re-cycle/re-cure it just to be safe).

I'd almost rather he not sent the damsels, since I think it'd be better to start with a clean slate. I know that damsels are pretty aggressive, so I'd want to go with something more peaceful.

If I do get this tank, and not the damsels, here is what I'm leaning towards stocking with (all locally available):
29g FOWLR
Ocellaris/Percula/Maroon Clownfish (pair) (Tank Bred)
Swissguard Basslet (1)
OR Six-Line Wrasse (1)
Goby (watchman, spotted, etc) (1)
Emerald Crabs
Trochus/Astraea Snails

How does that look? Obviously I wouldn't add everything at the same time.

Do I need more movement

lil.guppy — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:36:21 GMT

I have a 46g with a 228 powersweep by zoo med (I hate it i know)
Do I need something elese for the other side of the tank? (I dont have anything in the tank yet)
I was thinking of a regular powerhead and putting one of those hydro rotators on it.

What size powerhead do i need for my 46g

lil.guppy — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:52:01 GMT

I have decided on the Hagen AquaClear Powerhead but I dont know how many and what size for a 46gallon

I cant figure this out! 1.018!!!!!

lil.guppy — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:45:10 GMT

Ok so I set my 46g
I have a 3 gallon bucket. I put 2 gallons in the bucket at a time and measured the salt in those 2 gallons with my hydrometer. Then I poured it into the tank. Well my tank is reading 1.018 but my problem is that there is no more room for water in the tank. Its at its max.
Soooo what do I do to raise the level of salt in the tank?
Any hints or tricks?

Stocking list for a 12 gallon

plecodiscus — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:05:41 GMT

Okay, earlier this month I asked for help with a stocking list for a 12 gallon nano tank that I might be getting for christmas. I have been trying to perfect this list, so here is what I have thought up so far. Would this list work? Does anyone have suggestions? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Fish: 1 yellow watchman goby or 1 orange spotted goby, and 1 ocellaris clownfish or 1 clown goby

Inverts: 6 cerith snails, 2 astrea snails, and 1 emerald mithrax crab to control algae. 6-8 nassarius snails to clean up detritus. And just for show, 2 peppermint shrimp. If the peppermint shrimp die (my last ones in my 30gal did) i'll buy a skunk cleaner shrimp.

Coral: Zoanthids, and some Discosoma 'shrooms.

It looks like the tank would be seriously oercrowded, but when you think about it, it really wouldn't be. during the day, the nassarius and ceriths would be buried, only to come out and dissappear again at feeding time and at night. The crab would constantly remain hidden in the rockwork. I think it would look pretty nice.

Where can I buy live cured rock?

lil.guppy — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:45:27 GMT

I was wondering if I can get a better deal online? I found 20lbs at liveaquaria but i was wondering if there was an even cheaper place out there somewhere.

Lighting for anemone

Doherty — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:50:47 GMT

I have a 20gal cube tank with compact fluorescent lighting, 36w 10K, 36w actinic lamps. Would this be enough light output for anemones?

Free corals.

Conner — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:07:27 GMT

So, my younger brother has a 125g reef set up, and he's starting to get a lot of corals growing well. He's getting into fragging and selling to some of his local stores. He's offered to send/bring me any corals I wanted from his tank if I ever decide to start my own! I'll have to get a list of what he's got so I can try to make you guys jealous...

Hair Alage

jsmith11618 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:20:40 GMT

I have an issue with hair algae, its not taken over yet but is getting worse and starting to take on the live rock.

I was doing well and had corraline starting to grow and now that's slowed down and the hair algae has sped up.

The occupants of the tank are YT Damsel (1), 2 peppermint shrimp, 4 Astrea snails, 10-12 blue legged hermits, and a sand sifting sea star (that spend more time on the glass then sand.)

My nitrate tests as 0ppm, as does my phosphates, ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm as well.

My pH is 8.3, calcium ranges from 460-500ppm, KH is 10dkh, specific gravity is 1.024, and temp range is 76-78 degrees, 50 pounds live rock.

I have 2 Korallia 2`s on each end of the tank (am going to add another one possibly) and a AquaC Remora HOB skimmer, as well as a HOB filter that I am only using to provide more water flow and contains no cartridge or media.

I am trying to get this under control before it becomes a massive problem.

I use RO water and Instant Ocean Salt.

marine aquarium

iamauser — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:03:37 GMT

The very first saltwater tanks were Venetian glass jars where the Romans kept anemones outside but were very short lived. The first personal saltwater fishkeeping began on a wider scale in the 1950s, starting with the basic rectangular glass aquariums (usually 20 gallon), still popular today

flower pot anemone

Tigerpaw33 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:33:58 GMT

Has anyone ever heard of flower pot anemone and if so do clown fish go inside of them.

Sea urchins

fackle — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:09:04 GMT

What food do sea urchins eat? Also are they compatible with other fish or do they need to be kept in solitary cinfinment? Thanks for any replies:)

New anemone

plecodiscus — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:05:14 GMT

Okay, so I have had an anemone in the past (in april of this year, then it died), but since my last one died due to me only having 30watts of light over my aquarium, i want a new one now.

I have:

78 watts of lighting over the tank (may be able to buy more lighting after christmas)

a 30gallon aquarium, 36"x12"x18"high

1 clarkii clown that will happily take to any anemone (he dove into my old LTA as soon as they were both in the aquarium). I am almost sure that he will warm up to any kind of anemone, because when i bought him at the store, he was in a tank with 3 different kinds of anemones than the kind that i bought for him, which was an LTA.

1 coral beauty angelfish

1 banded coral shrimp

the anemones that would be good for my tank would be:

rock flower anemone (i know it's an atlantic species, but my clown would probably still take shelter on it, and if i put it up high in the aquarium it would get enough light

BTA (if i put it up high it would get enough light)

What anemone would be best? does anyone have any more suggestions?

Seahorses and Clownfish

DjkartaIsMyHyde — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:26:17 GMT

I'm going to setup my first marine tank soon and I'm going to add two Southern Knight seahorses to it. I read I a fish-keeping magazine that Percula and False Percula Clownfish are the most suitable clownfish or any fish for that matter to house with seahorses because they don't need an anemone and they arn't voracious eaters so hypothetically they can be housed with seahorses. Would anyone be able to verify this??
Cheers, Djkarta

Any one use shrimp to rid ick

10 acre woods — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:23:05 GMT

Has any one had ick and bought shrimp to rid the tank of ick. My LFS advised me of skunk cleaner shrimp eating the ick right out of the fish. Says it hurts fish but they actualy love it. Didn't know if any one had any experience with this. If so what shrimp did you use and how well did it work.

chocolate chip starfish in aquaria

blenny123 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:09:33 GMT

i want to know if the chocolate chip starfish could go in my 20 gallon long aquarium with two chromis and snails and one hermit crab is there any special food that i should buy so it will eat well? any help is appreciated:D

Red Slime algea

Cuda63 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:23:47 GMT

I have tried most red slime removers. Including scrubbing my live rock and cleaning the tank before use. It comes back after 1 month after treatment. It's driving me nuts. I would appreciate all suggestions.

Is saltwater really that hard?

ShadowFish — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:53:40 GMT

I'm thinking about doing some saltwater in the future but I keep hearing "saltwater is hard don't do it". So is it really that hard?

Apitasia, Shrimp and other stuff

jsmith11618 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:38:22 GMT

I've been battling Apitasia for the past few months, and while the destroyers work, its time consuming and a pain in the ***.

I've heard Peppermint Shrimp will eat these things, had anyone had any first hand experience with these guys?

And out of curiosity what salt do all of you use?

I use instant ocean right now, mostly due to price and I only have a FOWLR and seems to work for me.

29 gallon tank?

CephalopodLover — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:27:48 GMT

I want to get an octopus or some kind of cephalopod some day so I want to start getting into saltwater.:)
For Xmas I want to get a 29 gallon tank but I have no idea what I would need. I would like to know about what I would need to get so that I can have a healthy tank!:) If you could make a list of everything I need for a 29 gallon tank that would be great! :) So that I can put all that stuff on my Xmas list!!:D

Thanks for the help!!!:)

dying chaeto?

blenny123 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:48:32 GMT

:)recently it looks as if my chaeto mite be dying its a kind of clear whitish color is there any way i can save it i know that my lite was off for a few days for repair and when i turned it on it was the clear whitish color any help is appreciated

New tank (possibly)

plecodiscus — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:20:06 GMT

Okay, I'll start by saying that the saltwater aquarium that I've been asking questions about is at my mom's house. I live with my dad, and I visit her every other weekend. I'm just saying this because I don't want anyone asking me why I would get another tank if I still have a ton of quetsions about the first one that I set up.

The 30g at my mom's house is doing well, other than the excessive algae in there(which appears to be dying down anyways), and no animals have died, other than an anemone (due to low levels of lighting), and a snail (it decided to crawl onto my powerhead's intake and get the life literally sucked out of itself). Since I've been able to maintain correct water parameters there, and I only go there every other weekend, I think I'll be able to maintain a smaller tank here at my dad's house.

I've decided to go with a 12g nano tank. I just have a couple questions.

Do nano tanks usually come with heaters?

in a 12g nano tank, about how many lbs of live rock should I use?

Last, I have a list of the inverts and corals. I'd just like to know which ones would be good or bad for this setup, which I plan to make into a reef tank with only soft corals. The choices are separated by commas.

shrimp choices: 1 skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 blood red cleaner shrimp, or 2 peppermint shrimp

I want 2 crabs, but I only want dwarf hermits. Any suggestions?

snail choices: 3 nassarius snails & 3 cerith snails, 3 nassarius snails & 4-5 bumblebee snails, or 3 nassarius snails & 1-2 turbo snails

coral choices (the tank i'm looking at has 3-4 wpg):

mushrooms(NOT Ricordea or Rhodactis),

some mushrooms (NOT Ricordea or Rhodactis) & some zoanthids,

zoanthids, some zoanthids & xenia,

xenia,

or some xenia and some mushrooms

What salt do you use?

jsmith11618 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:04:31 GMT

I use Instant Ocean right now, but may switch to Reef Crystals in the coming months.

Identify this creepy crawler thing

Corona — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:40:13 GMT

So my daughter and I was looking at the hermet crabs feeding on one of the rock when all of a sudden this thing came out of its hiding. I just had enough time to take a few pictures (sorry for the poor quality) before it retreat back inside. It's about 4-5" long and has multiple legs... it kinda creep me and my daughter when it came out to our surprise.

Some new additions

jsmith11618 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:17:07 GMT

I dont have any photos of them yet but I acquired some new additions to my collection. (I am supposed to be selling my tanks, but I decided to keep the marine one.)

I found a scooter blenny at a local reef store and had been eye him for a couple weeks now, so yesterday I was there looking for something else and he was on sale, so I got him.

I was a little nervous about it since they have been known to not want to eat prepared foods, but tonight I offered him various frozen foods and he accepted them all, ate everything that entered that tank, so he isn't picky it seems.

I also got a peppermint shrimp, he already molted and is a curious little guy, every time I go near the tank he come over to look at me.

They are both in quarantine right now but they will enjoy their 40 gallon in a few weeks.

Could you?

CephalopodLover — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:08:47 GMT

I was wondering if you could keep a lobster from a grocery store?
How would you keep it ? What size tank would you need ? What would you feed it? Any other different things you would need? :)

setting up a nano cube

saltwater guy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:06:17 GMT

I dont have any experience in saltwater aquariums but I am fascinated by saltwater fish.I recently got a 12 gallon nano cube for my birthday. I know that it is better to start off with a big tank but i am determined to keep a successful FOWLR aquarium. So i was wondering if you could give me some tips on keeping a FOWLR nano cube. And also the best fish to pick and subtrate. I am currently interested in keeping a clown fish(any type).
Thanks the help:):):):):P:P:P:w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t::w00t:

strange new life form in my tank

10 acre woods — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:22:29 GMT

I have a 36 gal tank that I have had for about 2 years. I had to move it recently and noticed some pink jelly like substance behind the rock out of the light. Upon a more closer inspection on one of the bigger rock I noticed that the pink substance has arms like an anemone, but don't like the light like an anemone does. It actualy cowers in the light. So i moved this rock to my 75 gal and seems to like the lesser light I only have a couple of T5s on it insted of the halides on my other tank. If any one knows what this is please tell me. I am very curious about my new animal.

Mushroom anemones/corals?

plecodiscus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:57:29 GMT

I've had my saltwater aquarium for about 10 or 11 months now, and my algae blooms are starting to slow down. At the rate that they are doing so, I think that I'll be able to buy some corals in December/January. I already have a small colony of about 25 zoanthids that have survived since they came on my live rock in January (I got the rock from a friend of mine).

I really want some mushroom corals, because I've heard that they're the easiest to care for, and I like the way they look, especially the Ricordea species. They are also one of the few corals that could survive under the low lighting that I have(two 39w t-5 bulbs = about 2.6 watts per gallon in my 30gal. tank) I just want to know how to take care of them.

Ask any saltwater Question and ill have the answer

Steads Aquarium Service — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:03:08 GMT

13 years experience, over 100 tanks constructed, 50 maintained, store experience.go ahead =shoot