12 gallon start up - ? on feather/Mushrooms

[Pufferboy]

Hello, thank you to everyone who replies.
My questions revolve around the health of a variety of mushrooms that I have and 5 feather dusters. What exactly is the proper care for my mushrooms. 1. where should they be positioned in the tank, regarding light, current, etc. My feather dusters are another question, how much attention should I pay to them? What are some things i need to know about the fish i want to add?
I have had a 5 gallon reef for about a year, recently I upgraded to a 12 gallon. I am using an eclipse tank. With ample live rock and a 3/4 inch layer of live sand. Currently, other than the eclipse light and filter, and a very small water pump for water movement, i have nothing other mechanics in the tank. The tank is in my office which is temperature controlled and thankfully keeps my tank at 76 degrees. I have no fish at this time, but will soon be adding 2 pecula clowns and a mandarin. I have bumble bee snails, black trochus snails and a coral banded shrimp. That is the backround on the tank.

 

[catfishmike]

how long have you been at this?a 5 gal.mini reef sounds small.i know it can be done,but then to add 2 clowns that would put you over the top.that would be too much waste for for such a small enviroment.when you say mushrooms do you mean mushroom corals?if they are corals you may want to upgrade to a pc retro fit kit for your eclipse.do you do daily water changes?if you can give me more info i could check my books and magazines.

 

[Pufferboy]

thanks for replying cat. I have a 12 gallon tank now, i upgraded from a 5. I had the five for over a year and it did ok. I have regular mushrooms, what is the difference between coral mushrooms and mushrooms in a saltwater tank? I did water changes when i had my five gallon once a month, it seemed fine. let me know what you think.

 

[catfishmike]

well now i'm a little stumped as i only know of mushroom corals.perhaps we are talking about the same thing.so far i'm just giving you text book anwsers.if your going to try adding the clowns i would try more frequent water changes.see if you can find a skimmer to fit on the back of the hood.i think there should be an access panel in the back.i think the key to this idea would be using a test kit to mark sure the water doesn't read positive on the main 3.mind you i'm not too hip on salt water,but i have been doing a lot of research.i want to set up a tank for a clown and its host.i hope i can help.maybe one of the more experinced salt people will help too.i'll keep up on this

 

[BrianH]

Most muchrooms will be ok in a variety of light intensities. The only problem I see is with the mandarin. I've never seen one eat prepard food from an lfs and a 12 gallon can not have a large enough copepod population to support them. The rest of your setup seems fine.

Brian

 

[Pufferboy]

brian thanks. Is there any way to encourage a growth or get food for the mandarine. this fish is one of the reasons why i started getting into salts in the first place. any ideas?

 

[catfishmike]

mandarins eat from the substrate sisfting through it for the next meal,in the wild there is a large amount of food to support them.in your tank the "food" in your tank would be killed by moder filtration.if your lfs can prove hat the mandarin is eating you my want to try feeding frozen cyclops.melt down the frozen food and suck is up with a turkey baster and aim the stream of food at the fish. could also try new life spectrum food,as i have heard very good things about it.mostly with hard to feed marine fish.both are not too likely to help.

 

[wayne]

The only way you can guarantee success with a mandarin is by having a large tank with enough copepods to continually feed it. Other than that, you've got I would guess a 10% chance of keeping it alive on frozen mysis,brine shrimp and so on. Remember you'll need to vitamin supplement the brine shrimp.
The other 90% says the mandarin will slowly starve to death