finalizing plans for my 30 gallon

[saltygirl21]

Okay, I think I've finally got almost everything except the number of crabs, snails, and shrimp. Here's what I've got:

Fish:
2 common clowns
1 orchid dottyback
maybe a mandarin much later on

Inverts:
red sea star
Peppermint shrimp
Cleaner Shrimp
Blood Shrimp
Hawaiian strawberry crab
Blueleg hermit crabs
Boxing crab
Cerith snail
Tubo snails
Cluster duster
X-mas tree rock

Corals (not for right away. I need to wait until I get better lights ):
Flowerpot coral
Leather mushroom
Bubble coral
Sun polyps

Live rock and sand:
50 pounds of live rock
enough sand for a 2 inch base

Equipment:
30 gallon tank
prizm pro deluxe skimmer
canister filter
2 maxijet 900 powerheads
test kits for nitrate, nitrite, amonia, and alkaline
hydrometer
thermometer
60 watts of florescent lighting

Tell me what you think of all of this.

Thank you!

 

[Navarre]

Fish:
2 common clowns
1 orchid dottyback
maybe a mandarin much later on

Sounds good! Make sure the mandarin is off the list for about 12 months. Even then I would say it might not be viable. 100kg+ of liverock is needed to sustain one really.

Inverts:
red sea star
Peppermint shrimp
Cleaner Shrimp
Blood Shrimp
Hawaiian strawberry crab
Blueleg hermit crabs
Boxing crab
Cerith snail
Tubo snails
Cluster duster
X-mas tree rock

Red Star... Be careful with these as they are hard to aclimatise. You may even find it thrives for 6 months then suddenly over the course of a day it simply disintergrates Noone is sure how or why this happens but the reds and blues can sffer with the same problem. My Blue lives for a month and died, my red lasted 6 months and died the same way. Sand sifter startfish are far hardier and do a great kob of keeping the sand clean. In a tank your size I would say that 1 would be fine.
Blueleg Hermits are great workorses, they can be a little aggressive and have been known to steal snails shells. They are better workers than redlegs though but where i live they are harder to find
Boxing crab? Do you mean a boxing shrimp? If so then i dont recomend it with the shrimps you already have as the tank simply isnt large enough.

Cluster duster? Not sure what this is but if you mean a tubeworm then these are good additions to a community reef tank

Xmas tree rock? I assume you mean porites corals? They need very high lighting for the polyps. The tiny tubeworms and the coral actually live in symbiosis with each other. One cannot live without the other. If the worms die then the corals will to.. the same other other way around. ALso.. the worms are exellant prey for butterlfies and some dwarf angels. Lovely loking coral but needs a bit of care IMO.

Corals (not for right away. I need to wait until I get better lights ):
Flowerpot coral
Leather mushroom
Bubble coral
Sun polyps

Not heard of a Flowerpot coral.. if you can get a latin name it would be helpful

Leather mushroom. Great starter coral and not demending at all. You might even get away with keeping it under your current lights before you have to get stronger ones.

Bubble coral. I have one of these and they need a nice sandy base with very strong lighting. Lovely coral though. Make sure its kept a good distance from other corals as these corals can send out powerful sweeper tenticles with a nasty sting

Sun polyps. Beautiful corals. No lighting requirements as these dont actually need sunlight to thrive. They prefer shaded areas or caves out of the light. They only get their energy from the food they catch. Make sure they are fed by hand every couple of days (preferably daily) with brineshrimp or mysis etc. The problem you will face with these coral though is that they tend to get "Mugged" by the shrimps as they soon learn when its feeding time for the sun coral and await you to feed them. There are way s around this.. perhaps feeding the shrimps on the other side of the tank whilst you try to feed the suncoral or put a large glass over the coral just after you have fed it. then let it fed in piece so the shrimps cannot get to it. After its finished just remove the glass.

With the corals you are thinking of I would also add a Calcium and phosphate test kit to the list.

Hope this helps

 

[Def]

Maybe a boxer crab:

http/www.imagiverse.org/interviews/richa...y/boxercrab.htm

I really want one of these too, but they need anemone's...

 

[saltygirl21]

Thank you so much!
Okay, as to some of your suggestions:

Flowerpot coral is Poritidae alveopora
heres the link:
Flowerpot coral link

Then for starfish, I think I might replace the red star with a brittle star. It's so cool how they move around!

I think I've also got the number of invertabrates settled, tell me what you think:
10 turbo snails
10 cerith snails
10 blue leg hermits
5 hawaiin strawberry crabs
3 porcelain crabs
1 boxing crab

Hopefully I can start getting some of this stuff for Christmas. I already have the tank, and I think I'm going to buy the skimmer and filters myself, then ask for the rest.

Oh I almost forgot have any of you kept sponges? I read that they're not that hard to take care of and they help to keep your water clean, if it true?