Marine Newbie Needs Coral Ideas For 2 Foot Tank.

[AK77]

THANKYOU SO SO SO MUCH!!! Ive been posting on an other forum and getting someone to make a list like that has been just impossible

I was thinking about the BW clowns but I dont know if I want clowns just because a lot of people will have them, and if people come round and see Nemo in my tank it would upset me

The two fish I am most keen on at the moment are the Green clown goby and Court jester goby. Can you think of a third fish that could go with them maybe?

For the CUC, I was thinking of getting halloween hermits? I like the stripey legs but are these expensive? Also would turbo snails be any better than the bumblebee snails? And also I was thinking of some porcelain crabs?

Thanks again you really have helped me loadss
Wills

Hi Wills,

No problem. Yeah, I can understand the whole avoidance of clownfish thing, mainly because its almost a bit kitsch now in having a nemo in your tank lol. That's why I suggested the black and white ones, as they just that bit different and are still a very attractive fish.

Gobies are great. The clown gobies are nice and the Court Jester is very pretty also. Other fish you might want to consider are firefish, jaw fish, blennies. Other fish that might be acceptable are six line wrasse, bangaii cardinals and Pseudochromis species. You could also go the route of more species specific and have maybe seahorses or an angler fish/frog fish.

If its a reef tank you are wanting, then I'd steer clear of the halloween hermits and any hermit that isn't a dwarf species. They have a habit of bulldozing rock work and can grow quite large, becoming agressive to other hermits and may also attack snails for their shells. There is also the risk of it preying on any ground dwelling fish like gobies, etc. You are much better off with either the mexican red tips, scarlet legs or dwarf tri-colour. These species just see to be much more concerned with eating algae and poop, than beating the granny out of each other. I'd also avoid the mexican turbo snails, as they are pretty big and again, just bulldoze your rockwork.

Basically you want your CUC to maintain your tank. The Astrea/Trochus/Turban snails will clean the glass of algae. The hermits and bumblebee snails will clean the rocks and the conch will take care of the sandbed. You could also add a tuxedo urchin to the mix, but I would recommend target feeding it, as it may get outcompeted for food by the conch, hermits and snails.

You can see some pictures of the conch and bumblebee snails in my nano journal.

 

[Wills]

cool thanks again!!

Those fish you mentioned were the ones I was looking at lol. Do you think I would be able to do 2 six line wrase and a court jester goby with the clean up crew? With the conch my GF got a bit freaked out by the pics so maybe that might be a miss. But I do really like the urchins are there any others that could work?

Wills

 

[Wills]

Just got back with the tank and its bigger than I thought. Its 72 liters rather than the 47 I was told lol but still Im happy just about to set it up. Its come with an internal filter rather than a powerhead that I was expecting but I guess it still does the same thing.

Does the size increase open up more options for me?

Wills

 

[seffieuk]

Turban snails

Are these a new breed of snails how do they keep their turbons on in the water?!

Seffie x

 

[-Nemo-]

Turban snails

Are these a new breed of snails how do they keep their turbons on in the water?!

Seffie x

LOL Seffie

72l is MUCH better

 

[AK77]

Turban snails

Are these a new breed of snails how do they keep their turbons on in the water?!

Seffie x

cyanoacrylate

 

[Wills]

Just back from LFS had to spend more money. The "powerhead" turned out to be a 200 liter per hour internal filter..... So I went to get a Koralia 2 unexpected expense but worth it I think. Its all set up and running now, going to get some pics later Pretty happy with how it looks, going to leave it over night and then test the water.

Found a few hitchhikers, got a few small snails with like a mottled shell, found one snail with a red and white shell (any ideas?) and also got a few small starfish seem to be a full star shape rather than brittle ones. Ill try to get some pics, one has some legs missing so hope they will grow back I think they do dont they?

Wills

 

[AK77]

Hi Wills,

Yes the Hydor Koralia's are very expensive. They have jumped up in price hugely since I bought mine ages ago. You could have got something very similar from eBay for a fraction of the price, so if you require another powerhead in the future, have a gander on there first as you could save yourself a small fortune!

Not sure on the snails without the pictures to ID them. The starfish are more than lilkely to be asterina starfish. I have quite a few in my tank, some have a few legs missing but they do grow back. You will probably discover a lot of brittle stars in the live rock. I was doing some tank maintenance the other night, which kicked up a lot of mess from the sandbed. I was amazed to see how many brittle stars came out of the rock work. Easily over 20! All I ever see are legs though, they never seem to venture outside of it.

 

[seffieuk]

Ill try to get some pics, one has some legs missing so hope they will grow back I think they do dont they?

Wills

As AK said, bound to be asterinas - thats just they way they are

cyanoacrylate

What would we do without superglue

 

[Wills]

Thanks guys! With the powerhead, I was expecting it to be half the price I payed as I remember seeing one at MA for £25 so I went to one LFS that is famous for being cheaper than MA their powerhead was £58 so I thought off to MA and theirs has gone up to £47 so still cheaper but not what I was hoping for. But I guess a full marine set up for under £100 is not a bad deal I guess

Righty so now the powerhead is in place, what kind of stocking with the fish now we know its a bigger tank.

Went to MA and we saw some Blue Damselfish (Chrysiptera cyanea) and Purple Pseudochromis (Pseudochromis porphyreus). The latter is for my GF are these suitable? I would still like the Court Jester as well is this possible? Quite keen on the six line wrasses as well..... #40## this is just like FW now too many fishes not enough tanks

 

[AK77]

Blue damels are little sods! They are territorial and will bite you if you put your hand in the tank. The false gramma and other Pseudochromis would probably be ok. They are a small fish that enjoy lots of rockwork to hide amongst, as do the jawfish and dartfish like the firefish. At 78L I would definitely stick to a max of 3 small fish. Even that is pushing the envelope if you plan on having corals.

 

[Wills]

Do corals impact the amount of fish you have? (sorry that kind of shows my SW knowledge lol)

Hmmm might have to tell my GF we have to add it last and just never add it lol See how it goes

 

[AK77]

Well the amount of fish will impact upon the corals, not the other way around. The fish waste produces phosphates and nitrates once its eventually broken down by the bacteria in the live rock. These compounds affect the health of corals as they are sensitive to it. If you were to keep corals, you'd be forever doing water changes to kick the nitrate and phosphate down to a safe level, that it would be a nuisance.

You'd also suffer greatly with algaes, even without the corals. Hair algae, slime algae will flourish in tanks with high amounts of nitrate and phosphates, and scraping the stuff off the glass will be a daily chore and again, become a nuisance too.

 

[Wills]

Right I kind of get it. edit* I dont get it, I understand the cycle situation and I understand I need to keep up with the water changes to keep the levels down. But the way I read that was that corals find it very hard to live in this kind of set up? With fish I mean, I really have no idea like I say but a question Im wondering, do corals use any of the nitrate like plants do or is it totally damaging to them?

So, 3 fish max, the list of CUC mentioned before - how many corals should I go for? How does it limit stuff?

 

[Wills]

Right I kind of get it.

So, 3 fish max, the list of CUC mentioned before - how many corals should I go for? How does it limit stuff?