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Saltwater Fish Keeping and Help.

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Alright, well i kinda want to try to setup my 46 gal and 50 gal as a reef setup with some coral (the lower light types in the 46, because I'm only runnin like 3-4 watts per gallon...)... I looked on liveaquaria.com and they have sooo many different types, i dont know where to start... I like the polyps and the lps and some mushrooms... Are those ok for my lighting situation? I'm not gonna get a butterflyfish for the 50 gal... Also, anyone try carpet anenomes?
 
I would try a BTA or RBTA with you lighting. A Haddoni would be your best bet if you absolutely wanted a carpet. Stay away from Giganteas. Shrooms, button polyps, any type of leather coral would do nicely. You could get some LPS. A bubble coral would do OK on the bottom as could a Wellysophilia (sp?) brain. Frogspawn or other type of Euphylliad (sp?) are alway nice. you might als get away with a some type of Montipora in the top half of your tank. I can't remember, do you have any type of pygmy angel in the tank, they like to nip at clams and polyps.

edit: RC10, I was rereading you post. In the 46 gallon, what is your lighting setup? For lower light: shrooms, most leathers, and polyps are good. With that 6 bulb lighting setup you could keep just about anything. If you have the extra water flow, SPS in the top 10" of the tank would do nicely. As far as anemones go, Stay away from Giganteas and Magnificas, they don't have that great of a survival rate in captivity. the easiest are the BTAs, with the Haddoni carpets tied for second along with a H. Crispa (Sebae), IMO/E.
 
For the 46 gallon i have a 36 inch 4-bulb VHO ligthing setup... Sounds like most of the stuff i want, i can have... I guess the carpet anemones are venomous, so i will stay away from em... I was thinking of starting with the corals in the 46 gal, when i order my cleanup crew for the 50 gallon... I think i will buy some nano coral packs (which will undoubtedly grow) to start with... How many should i put in at a time? 3-4 small frags? I dont have any angels in my tank right now... I think i am going to add another clam in there somewhere... I kinda want a flame angel in the new tank, but i guess most dont get along with sessile inverts, so i guess i will stay away from em...

by the way, thanks for answering, i felt like i was talking to myself...
 
VHO are very good lights. You could do just about anything in both tanks, given that the corals are placed right and you can satisfy their flow requirements. People get all caught up in how many watts per gallon they have. I had a chance to talk to Anthony Calfo this last January at our DMS meeting. We talked for a little on lighting and he assured me that you don't need some super expensive light setup. In my only current tank, at work, I have 2 96W power compacts. I used to have some LPS, but now it's all softies and anemones.

All anemones and for the most part, corals, are stinging celled animals called Cnidarians. Some anemones are just more "sticky" than others. Carpet anemones are know fish eaters. I cannot prove a single loss to my RBTAs in my tank at work. If you want an anemone, a BTA or RBTA is a good first choice after the tank matures. By that I would say about 6 months.

I have a Flame Angel in my tank at work. He picked every LPS I had to death, but leaves my shrooms, RBTAs, polyps, and Leathers alone. After what he did to my Fungia and Galaxea, i wouldn't trust him around another LPS or clam. Don't really think there is a limit to how many corals you place in at a time. Just make sure that you place them appropriately and plan for them to grow. Leathers, xenia, Green Star polyps grow like weeds, so keep that in mind.
 
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I guess i will be learning how to frag then huh?? Thats good to know that the lighting i have will be sufficent... I have a couple BTAs in my 46 gal, and the tomato clowns love em... I had to get another because they were beating the living hell out of the one (both of them using it and fighting over it). I think i will try some polyps or LPS first... I'm guessing they really dont have a growth limit, so i think i will be fragging and selling in the future... I'm hoping to get my big tank in a year or so, so i will have more room... Is SPS really hard to grow, or is it just the lighting it requires?
 
SPS require a clean stable environment. That means keeping nitrates down and keeping alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium up. SPS requires strong lighting with lots of random turbulent water flow. Most recommend 20+ times an hour turnover with multiple outlets causing the turbulence for an SPS reef. With your lights, SPS species should be kept in the top half (top 10") of the tank. Also, you may not get the color out of some SPS that you would with halides. Monitoporas are a lower light requiring SPS, and many forms are very cool looking. If I were you, I'd stick with some softies for now, like mushrooms, button polyps, a few leathers. Toadstools add are nice. Yes, you will have to frag some softies every month to couple of months. I didn't read back far enough to see that you already have a couple of anemones. Personally, I wouldn't have put them in for a few more months for you to get a handle on maintenance and keeping the parameters stable, but you have them so give them the best home you can.
 
what I posted earlier, or at least what I thought I did was this:
Don't get caught up in watts per gallon. You need penetration depth or PAR value. It's how effective that light is at a given depth. Carpets require ALOT of light and as vgibbens said, don't usually keep well in captivity. BTA will probably be ok, and you can supplement some cubed food from occasionaly. I will say, wait until your tank matures some more before you add the anemone's, it's still relatively young and afterall you want your captive friends to enjoy their new home and have as hapy a life as possible.
 
Well, i got the new tank set up with LS and i got the water in and just got the lights on and working today. These new PCs have a front row of 6 LED moonlights which are pretty cool... I almost want to swtich to a unit like that on my 46g, because i like the looks a lot... I wonder how much i could get for my 36 inch 4-vho unit... i payed like $300... which is about how much this 48 inch 6-PC unit was, with mootlights...
 
Well, i got the filter goin and everything seems to be working great. The LR should be here tomorrow. I got 65lbs total of LR. I went with Premium Aquatics again for live rock, because i liked the turnout i got with the last batch. I got the fully cured LR again as well. I think i am going with the FOWLR tank now... I want to get a porcupine pufferfish (i know, i will be upgrading the tank by next year), and a raccoon butterflyfish. I think i will also get a pair of Onyx clowns.
 
Alright, got the live rock in just now. It gonna look nice, i think. I made it so there is room in front and back to swim, and there are holes and caves to hide in. Its comming together...
 
I just ordered some more chemicals for the tanks (my 4oz bottles didnt last very long, and the clams eat up the calcium supply daily). I also am going to sell the 36" VHO fixture and in it's place is going to go a 36" fixture with 2-96w PC bulbs and 1-250w MH. This should be enough light for most corals and clams (definitly more than i have now). My new tank is growing some brown algea... Nothin major yet... Believe it or not, the tank cycled already... I put 2 shrimps in there (cocktail kind) and they have dissolved, and the ammonia and nitrite levels have spiked and leveled out at zero. I'm going to wait until late next week before i add anything though, just to make sure. The live rock did its job i guess... There are a few feather dusters popping up in the new tank, and i have seen a few baby snails crawlin around...

Oh yeah, i also bought a refractometer (bit the bullet and spent a little coin on one). It should be here by the end of the week.
 
Whats up, I havn't been keeping up with this thread but it sounds like you have made A LOT of progress and changes.

Update me if you don't mind.
 
I duno where to start... My tank that i started with is going great. There are 4 fish (a small blue tang, and small yellow tang, and 2 tomato clowns). I have 3 anemones (bta's). I have 5 pieces of Nano Polyp coral, which are doing great. There are also 2 clams, which are doing fine under the current light, but should do a little better under the new MH. I prolly have 30+ various snails, and maybe 8 or so little hermits. The sand bed is now filled with little critters and such and everything seems happy. I have some "moneyplant" growing on one of the rocks (about 4 or 5 pieces of plant).

On the new tank i have it all set up, and i believe it is through the cycle. I am going to get a cleanup crew in there next week, as i want to stay on top of the algea blooms.

Everything seems to be doing great. all of the fish eat happily and are growing (i think... i dunno, i look at em every day!).
 
Are you testing your calcium levels? Keep an eye on it if your dosing. The salifert kit is a little pricey at first (then again so is everything in saltwater) but it's by far one of the best test kits out there. Your new light set-up sounds nice. Would you like some apistasia (sp?) :smoke: I've been fighting mine tank for a couple weeks now since I have been on the road quite a bit I got a little behind on the big stuff that is beyond my wife's ability to take care of while I'm gone. Fuckin cyano and stupid me anyway for going with crushed coral sub, ugggghhhhhh!
 
You know what Jetmech, I only have had one apatasia, and my peppermint shrimp ate it... Oh yeah, i added 2 more shrimp... a peppermint and a skunk cleaner... so that makes three shrimp.
 
My pep and skunk were murdered by that "hairy crab" that I caught a couple weeks ago. I need to make a drive to the lfs and get more, my daughter misses them.
 
Well, you better get em back!!! lol... My peppermint shrimp hides under a rock all day. The cleaner stays out in the open, but he doesn't clean anything yet... I think he is a little small, and feels that way about the bigger fish swimming about...
 
After skimming the last few pages, i'll add my 2 cents.


Two tangs is a heavy load on a 45G tank, even one tang would be a load.

Personally, I believe a tang needs at least a 75G.

VHO's are better than PC bulbs, PERIOD.

The Atinics and colors in general are better.

SPS should be kept under MH lighting, they need LOTS of water movment and perfect conditions.

This means keeping your Calcium, Alk, etc at good levels.
 
Just an update on the on the thread... The first tank has been going up on six months now. No fish lost, other than the ones stated. The three anemones no longer exsist, because of some tomato clowns in my tank that beat the living hell outta them till the anemones died. I added a little candy cane coral, and it is growing little by little. There is one clam, growing away (happy as a clam). All of the shrimp, snails, etc are doing great... I have a couple pics, but my camera makes the tank look terrible... I'll post em up in a little bit...

I'm trying to plan for a bigger tank in the not too distant future, because the tangs are growing, and obviously they will need more room to swim.
 
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