We have a new 120 tank (live rock in tank in January) and have thus far been very successful with the limited livestock we have added. The tank is running great, our water parameters have been excellent. We have a LifeReef sump/skimmer/calcium reactor. Our lfs gal, who has been very helpful, was dubious about us ordering this system, which we say at a lfs in Denver (they are custom built in Littleton Colo.) She now says it is the very best system she has seen, and is going to retain them. It rocks! We have 2 400W MH 10,000 K and 2 110W VHO actinics. We have live rock from Sulawesi which has cured beautifully and has given us some wonderful surprises -feather dusters, star polyps, etc, etc - even tunicates, which are thriving, even tho we haven't given them any special care. It is great rock! We had the tank built into the wall, so it is visible from both my home office and the family room, so have had some temp control issues, but cut out some additional wall vents and installed two more fans, which have really helped. We picked up a piece of plastic egg crate grating (the kind that is used on commercial bldg floursecent lts) and are going to replace our glass top with that and in hopes of even better temp control. Picked up this tip from a forum here - thanks! This will all hopefully alleviate the need for/expense of a chiller. Who would have thought we would need one in Montana?!
Stocking questions: We currently have 3 royal grammas, 2 yellow tail damsels, a lawnmower blennie, a saddleback clownfish with host condy anenome, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 fairy wrasse and a beautiful foxface rabbitfish who loves us! All are doing well and get along great. Our first coral purchase, an elegance, just died after just 2 weeks - our research after the fact shows that this is pretty common these days. We have learned our lessona and will do better research from now on! Our lfs has in quarantine for us: a brown tang, a regal (purple) tang, a copperbanded butterfly, niger triggerfish and heniochus bannerfish. Thoughts? We are thinking that the triggerfish will get too big for our tank. We are thinking NO on it and the regal tang. And, we love our feather dusters, since they were the 1st signs of "life" in the live rock - but it sounds like they will be food for the copperbanded? Of course, we hear/read many conflicting reports on reef comatibility and species compatibility of several of these, all of which our lfs gal has recommended for our tank, which she has helped us with since day one. I would really also like to get a banggai cardinal. Eventually, we want to add lots of different types of coral, etc, but after our elegance coral experience, we feel we should first get comfortable with teh fish, then go for all the rest of the reef experience...but maybe we shouldn't be afraid to take the plunge?
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. THANKS!
Stocking questions: We currently have 3 royal grammas, 2 yellow tail damsels, a lawnmower blennie, a saddleback clownfish with host condy anenome, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 fairy wrasse and a beautiful foxface rabbitfish who loves us! All are doing well and get along great. Our first coral purchase, an elegance, just died after just 2 weeks - our research after the fact shows that this is pretty common these days. We have learned our lessona and will do better research from now on! Our lfs has in quarantine for us: a brown tang, a regal (purple) tang, a copperbanded butterfly, niger triggerfish and heniochus bannerfish. Thoughts? We are thinking that the triggerfish will get too big for our tank. We are thinking NO on it and the regal tang. And, we love our feather dusters, since they were the 1st signs of "life" in the live rock - but it sounds like they will be food for the copperbanded? Of course, we hear/read many conflicting reports on reef comatibility and species compatibility of several of these, all of which our lfs gal has recommended for our tank, which she has helped us with since day one. I would really also like to get a banggai cardinal. Eventually, we want to add lots of different types of coral, etc, but after our elegance coral experience, we feel we should first get comfortable with teh fish, then go for all the rest of the reef experience...but maybe we shouldn't be afraid to take the plunge?
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. THANKS!
