Stocking a new tank

[bdub]

I've had my tank setup since Jan 1st. I have 3 pieces of live rock, live sand in it, and I'm thinking its cycled by now. Its a 25 gallon eclipse with the eclipse filtration including a normal charcoal filter, and a biowheel. Ontop of that, i've added a canister that currently has bio material in it for bacteria to do their work, and a second tray that has a big bag of charcoal, and a phosphate bag in it. I may end up putting another bag in it to get the silicates out of the water as I had a little bit of a brown algae problem for a short bit there........I'm not interested in keeping live corals, so I have fake stuff going on in the tank, including a fake anemone awaiting some clowns.

I have 4 damsels in there so far, 2 blue, 1 blue/yellow, and a yellow. I was wanting to eventually have a few clowns, and like a yellow tang, that sort of thing. I want low maintenance, and fish that aren't going to die if i'm pretty careful about salt levels, keeping filters changed, etc.

I want to introduce the fish slowly so that they dont die, so right now i'm ready for some clowns. Now i've read that if you introduce them at the same time they dont have to be mated, is this true? Secondly what breeds would you recommend, and #'s of each going off of what I've said so far? I did read that a tang is agressive, is this correct? Got a pic below of my tank so you all have an idea of everything.

 

[aresgod]

well, you are going to need to get rid of the damsels if you want clowns...and a yellow tang is a no in a 25...if you want life to be easy then 2 clowns and 2 other small fish would be fine in a 25, as long as you are diligent about water changes.

 

[bdub]

Guess thats what I get for listening to someone at a petstore. They were saying that damsels do grow up to be not so friendly (and i've noticed they aren't that nice between each other now!) But if I got a larger fish, they would set them straight. They were trying to tell me that I would be fine, guess they aren't exactly the saltwater specialist.

If I cant have clowns, the damsels are going.......because they are the "have to have" fish.

What would happen if I had more then a few small fish, the tank looks pretty darn empty. I dont expect any tank to be self maintaining, I just dont want to be battling illnesses, etc from their being too many fish. I was hoping for something atleast mediumly large.........angel?

 

[aresgod]

Angels get huge 12"+ A dwarf angel and two clowns might be ok in a 25...It would be a pia to do the water changes required....if it looks empty add live rock...I notice you just have a bunch of fake corals...the live rock will make your tank alot more interesting.

 

[yamahaguy06]

I agrea with aresgod, live rock makes a salt tank. Just be shure to buy cured LR because your tank sounds like its already cycled. And you dont want to throw your nitrates up. And im my opinion fake corals take away from the whole salt experience. Usally what people try to do is re-creat the ocean and have it natuaral looking. But this is just my opinion. good luck with the tank man...

 

[bdub]

I agree with both of you. You want your tank to look as real as possible.

So then comes the next question, how much live rock do I add? Is there a rule of thumb? I have three pieces now that I spent like 100 bucks on, which was sad because there isn't much there.

Got rid of the damsels by taking them back to the store....then got two perculas......for now. I'll figure out the 3rd fish later.

 

[bdub]

Just read the live rock sticky..........

 

[aresgod]

make sure your LR is cured...otherwise you will have 2 dead clowns....it should not smell bad...that is really important.

 

[yamahaguy06]

Yes that is, and talk to the people you get it from.. oh and rule of thumb is one pound per gallon.

 

[bdub]

Got 25 pounds of live rock coming next week. Already have like 7ish I believe.

If it has been cured (they say for atleast a week, I called on the phone) and it is shipping out of the same state (not long in the mail) if I do a GOOD job rinsing I should be good right?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

there might be some die-off during the shipping...you may receive semi-cured rock. Anyways like Aresgod said, if it's smelly it ain't ready. The rock is porous and some living stuff deep inside dies too. You can cure it in a container with a heater, saltwater and a powerhead.

 

[bdub]

So since my last post........I've bought and put in the tank a power head, and aimed it at my current rock (other rock is on its way) and changed out one of my daylight bulbs for a marine/reef/actinic bulb.

With the bulb situation, having one daylight and one actinic should be good right? Dont want two actinics because the tank gets too dark.

Also, if I'm trying to speed up getting some color on the rock, is adding "esential elements" or something similar to the tank going to help?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Anyways actinics are less useful. Some people say that it excites the coral's zooxanthellae, but it's mainly used to show dramatic colors in a tank.
Oh i just noticed you don't want corals...well you don't need special lighting or wattage.
To speed up the color. You refer to the vivid purple ? If yes, it's coralline.
If you have good live rock, already patch of purple/red encrusted algae you could scrape it a bit to help it spread. Worked here. But coralline can take time to establish, several months, even more. It rely on good Calcium levels.

 

[bdub]

Awesome....

Thanks for the reply.

Its really nice to be able to post questions, and do searches in the forum.........

 

[bdub]

Was doing some reading on the net, and it looks like calcium and strontium are a big plus, and keeping low phosphates and nitrates.

Both calcium and strontium are in this "essential elements" mix I got from the store among other things... so I guess time is the key here.........i'm impatient can you tell? LOL

Thanks again for the help.

 

[dbacksrat]

Your salt mix should have all the calcium and strontium you need if doing a fish only tank--no need to for additives until you get corals that use everything up

 

[KahluaZzZ]

yep...no need to hurry buying stuff like that. Could be dangerous

 

[bdub]

Life is good.......Started over a couple weeks ago. The brown algae got way way out of hand the first time. Added more live rock as I was talking about in previous posts, 30ish pounds in the tank, got a new stand because I was afraid all the weight was going to bring the old one down, used RODI water this time from the fishstore (should of done this in the first place), got two powerheads going and cycled the tank with bottled bacteria and two shrimp. Going to add a couple of clowns in a week even though all the readings look good right now.

 

[Lorna]

Have you added any inverts? like snails or hermit crabs to keep the tank clean they also add interest. Shrimp can be pretty interesting also and you could possibly add a few small low light requirement corals to add colour.

 

[Lorna]

btw I like the way the rockwork looks