Been Out for a while

[ufcd98]

After a few years out of any tanks at all, my wife wanted a fish tank for our soon to be born son, Luke (due sept. 20)

So I impulse bought a 10gal tank with a twin lamp eclipse hood, actinic/10k coral-life bulbs.
40 lbs "live sand in a bag" Aragolife
A "live rock"
2 black percula clowns
1 blood shrimp

While I understand this was madness, I hope that weekly 2gal. water changes will carry me through for the first 6 weeks.

Question-
The clowns need a soft coral to nuzzle through. What are the hardiest kinds which will tolerate this?

Any advice here for a low maintenance, soft coral only setup tank is welcomed.

see things as they are at:
http://luke.schroeterclan.com/
i'm off to research the threads on micro skimmers

steve

 

[Anonymous]

Steve-
I think you would have been best off adding the clowns later, but since you have them already I suppose there's no helping that. Keep a close eye on your ammonia/nitrite levels.

Clowns don't really NEED a host to swim in, but it does look cool. I wouldn't add any coral during the first 6 weeks, but after that you should be OK. I've heard of clowns hosting in just about every type of soft coral: Leathers, zoanthids, xenia, and sinularia, to name a few. I've even seen a pair adopt a fake plastic plant as a host. It's your decision as to which one you want to add, but all the corals I mentioned are relatively hardy and don't demand a ton of light.

 

[ufcd98]

okey doke, thanks for the reply.
where's the hellfire regarding bagged "live sand?"

i assumed someone would enlighten me about it not being "real" or some such. And while clowns don't need a host, they sure are cuter when in one.

anyone got any experience regarding the noise factor on skimmers such as the AquaC remora or the prizm? my wife's parameters for this tank are 1)quiet 2)enclosed/nothing sticking out/sleek looking 3)not hot -all this because it's in the baby's room.

any problems with TOO MUCH macro-algae aside from cosmetics?

thanks,
steve

 

[serjuanca88]

I looked at the pictures on your website. You need a lot more live rock.

 

[ufcd98]

yeah- my LFS gets their next shipment wednesday, so i'm gonna go buy one or two more rocks.

question -
is there a problem with putting an old, sun-bleached (3 years) piece of coral that used to be in my reef tank (decorative)

yups
steve

 

[serjuanca88]

No, the coral will be fine and in time will become "live"

 

[shalegac]

congrats on your new addition to your family.

 

[ufcd98]

thanks all.
man, i miss the constant spending of money on hopefully improving your tank.

steve

 

[brandon4291]

That sand is just fine, they are referring to packing it with heterotrophic bacteria and a preservative film to keep them in-state until they are seeded with some form of ammonia (N) to get them reproducing. Even if the sand was purchased dry, it will soon seed with the right balance of bacteria once its kept in SW for any length of time. Ive held some of the sand you are talking about from a LFS display (I took some fiji pink home for my pico reef sand bed) and I liked it because the particles were all very uniform and round--no sharp edges that would seem stressful to gobies and animals that like to filter it through their gills.

Ive let my tanks get pretty full of macro-algae, the only real setbacks will be found if it decides to crash and you come home to green milkwater!

Also, Ive found that if you let it build up too much it gets to be a pain to prune, there are always little bits left here and there that wind up under coral groups and keep growing in places you don't want them to crowd out. Caulerpa taxifolia is an aggressive macro, and Ive never seen or heard of it crashing. Some are concerned about poisonous chems from these particular one. Other common forms are chaetomorpha and c. racemosa, racemosa is the one I use but I think in some systems it'll be the first to crash. Run a search on this board and you'll find lots of pics of each one.

Welcome

B