What would be good to add in this tank?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Here is a pic of my tank

My list of future fish are:

3 Carpenter Flasher wrasses
2 PJ Cardinals
1 Fire Goby
1 Copperband Butterflyfish
1 longnosed Hawkfish


The tank is a 55 gal Corner bowfront with a 20 gal sump DSB and approx 60 lbs liverock

There is one large brittle star, some blue leg hermit crabs, narsauriss sp? snails, other assorted snails, small stars, small brittle stars, and various other pods and critters.

My lighting is just the 30" twin flourescent fixture that came with the tank with 2 Coral life 50/50 bulbs, and I am not going to be upgrading the lights anytime soon.

So, with all that said, what are some things that I can add to spice it up? My wife likes urchins and anemones and clams, but all that is out because I am not upgrading the lights.

So, what can I put in here?? Featherduster's?? anything else???

Thanks for any input

BRyan

BTW, the pic is not that great, but the lights were already off for the night

 

[fishfanatic2]

What's wrong with urchins. They don't need lights. :?

 

[Anonymous]

Why not get three different wrasses? The copperband will croak with in a month.
How about a variety of shrimp, cleaners, fire, peppermint, etc...
You'll need better lighting if you want corals.
What are you currently dosing?

 

[Anonymous]

I am not looking for help with my list of fish, I am looking for something to put in the tank kind of like featherdusters to spice it up. There will probably not be any light upgrades, I am not looking to house corals.

Some one suggested some low light mushrooms. Any input on them??

BTW I am going to be dosing B-ionic

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Why not get three different wrasses? The copperband will croak with in a month.
How about a variety of shrimp, cleaners, fire, peppermint, etc...
You'll need better lighting if you want corals.
What are you currently dosing?

Just out of curiosity, why will the copperband croak in a month?

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

Bryan - it's not a given but they are delicate to get settled in. Mine is doing smashingly well but I make sure she gets lots of food and has 200+ lbs of well established live rock to graze too. Make sure if you buy one it's healthy and eating at the store at least and I'd reccomend quarantining them and getting them fattened up and used to tank food.

Like I said yeasterday you could keep some varieties of mushroom corals with that light - maybe some polyp type corals if they are nearer to the top.

 

[Anonymous]

bryan,

don't do the featherdusters....at least not yet. you should mature your tank a bit more , they eat more than you might think.

your tank looks nearly void of coralline... why is that?

i would think both mushroom polyps and 'mushroom anemones' would probably live in your lighting but the abscence of coralline is bothersome to me.
green star polyps might do ok in the upper regions of the tank.
if you have a friend with these corals they probably are being overrun with them and possibly they would allow you to have a trial piece.
if you were nearby i could give you a chunk of each, too bad you are a jersey boy and i am west coast struttin'.

other lowlight corals that, IMO, would be less likely to live are colt and mushroom leather corals. i think you should have a little more 'umph' in your lighting but they might survive.

oh! i tell you what will live regardless... aiptasia anemones!

 

[reefann]

You could try non photosynthetic corals like Gorgonian and chili corals. You must be prepared to dose DT's or another type. Is your tank stable enough to handle this added bioload? Low light mushrooms like Discomsoma sp? would be good in the upper region of the tank. Why no on the urchin, is it because of the lack of coraline? As podman said this is bothersome to me also. I have no exp with flower tree corals but I know they are filter feeders. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=22&pCatId=644
All I can think of off hand
HTH
JJ
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BMW M6

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, here is another pic. There is coralline on the overflow as well as on the rocks. I have purple, red, and green. This pic is only marginally better, I cannot get the color adjusted right to match what I can see in the tank.

I believe since I am going to be dosing Bionic that I only have to test for one of the two parts so I am testing alk. I have a lamotts test kit and it was 180 on the dropper so that is close to 10 dkh. That is where I am supposed to be right?

The tank has been running for about 6 months I believe, and the coralline only started appearing after I had gotten rid of the other algae's

Btw Techno, I quarantine faithfully, I have the three Carpenter Flasher Wrasses in there now, if they don't look good after 30 days they won't go in the main.

Thanks for the input

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

bump

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

if you have coralline growth my fears are eased.

i am wondering why you don't just buy some VHO ballasts though. your tank is coming along well and i think it is time to turn on some real light
this would allow you to keep quite a few different things and your tanks appearance will be brighter and generally more appealling, in most peoples opinion that is :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

if you have coralline growth my fears are eased.

i am wondering why you don't just buy some VHO ballasts though. your tank is coming along well and i think it is time to turn on some real light
this would allow you to keep quite a few different things and your tanks appearance will be brighter and generally more appealling, in most peoples opinion that is :wink:

Really there are three reasons I am not upgrading my lighting for now.

1. expense (the parrot is coming in less than two weeks)

2. Heat (I will need to so something if I add anymore heat to this poorly designed system)

3. Time ( I will need to build a custom curved hood to match)


BRyan

 

[Anonymous]

I have a longspine and tuxedo urchin in my reef- very cool critters. I particularly like the longspine...

 

[Pygmey]

Actually you can buy a 35 dollar Workhorse 7 ballast from reefgeek.com and get a couple bulbs.. Wire that up and stuff it in the hood.. No real heat and the lights will rock.

Eric

 

[wade1]

The copperband will croak with in a month.

This is typically not true if you feed properly. I have yet to see a copperband that does not fairly readily take to frozen mysis shrimp dropped into the current. (PE brand mysis, not the freeze dried things). The real catch is getting a new bfly over the 'hump' of having been shipped. I would highly advise you not to mailorder it, find it at a LFS and make sure its healthy (and try to get it to eat some mysis). I had one I kept for 1.5 years without issues (and then I made a silicone error and lost it to my stupidity along with half my other fish).

Wade

 

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with urchins. They don't need lights. :?

I understand that when Urchins die they become toxic. Thats why I do not keep them. Get a Raccoon Butterfly....they are much easier to keep. How about a Sixline Wrasse.

 

[dizzy]

Bryan,
I would go with a red African star for starters. They are both beautiful and hardy and should be a good fit in your tank. I would also put several shrimps. I like the scarlet cleaners, blood reds, and coral banded. Try to get a pair of coral banded if possible. If you can find them get a pair of gold banded shrimp. I would put an eye urchin in as well. A pistol shrimp/goby combo is nice too.

 

[fishfanatic2]

I understand that when Urchins die they become toxic.

:? :? :? :?: :?: