New to Reefing need advice please...

[yacn]

:?: Greetings,

150 Gallon Tank 72"Lx29"Hx18"D --All Glass with twin overflows
2-165 watt VHO Super Actinics 72"
3-250 watt Metal Halide single end bulbs 2-14K Blue Line & 1 XM 10K
Dolphin Amp Master 4000/3000 pump
150 lbs of live rock cured and lots of coraline purple and red algae on it
sand bed 4-6"
Fuge 30 gallons w/lots of different plants --T5 lighting over it
15 watt UV sterilizer in line quartz sleeve
Euro-Reef Protein Skimmer RS110
300 Watt Heater
Magnum 350 running with micron cartridges & carbon only occasionally
Auto Top Off unit with RO (spectra pure) in 35 gallon can aerated 24/7

Tank is 3 1/2 months old & I do water changes every 2 weeks 30 gallons

2 croceas clams- one large blue and brown & one midsize green
16 blue mushrooms
6 red mushrooms
2 hairy mushrooms
18 green mushrooms -- 3 different kinds equal amount of each
7 blue spotted mushrooms
blue zoos--all zoo frags size the of the top of a spool of thread w/ 6 polyps
orange zoos
purple zoos
yellow zoos
frog spawn 3 branches
2 stalks pulsing xenia
batch of green eye xenia
2 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
1 blue tang 5"
1 yellow tang 5"
1 coral beauty
1 percula clown
6 green chromos
1 lawnmower blenny
1 sailfin tang red sea 8"
1 blonde naso tang 8"
1 tuxedo urchin
1 emerald crab
1 sally lightfoot crab
48 turbo snails
24 nassarius snails
48 assorted red and blue hermit crabs

I feed a variety of frozen foods once a day & red and green dried seaweed. DT's Photplankton & Reef Nutritiion Phyto Feast liquid added every few days. Also feed frozen cyclops as treat once a week.

I add purple up or agramilk about once a week--capful. I also have SeaChem Calcium powder additive and PH powder additive 8.3PH...don't use it much capful every couple of weeks.

All test levels are good. Except I don't have a calcium test kit.

Lately green mushrooms haven't looked good, small and shrunken, but all other mushrooms are huge. I recently lost a baby blue maxima.

Where do I learn more about the care of corals & clams? I have many good books I have read. But they don't specify brands and I am confused on what additives to add and feeding that is good to ensure health of corals and clams. LFS are vague and different opinon depending on which store you talk to.

I have considered buying Marine Snow.

I will take some pics and post at a later date. Any advice is appreciated.

thanks

 

[cindre2000]

Additives:

Calcium and Alk. Usually in equal parts once you are stable.
Water changes.

Thats about it, there are plenty of people that get buy on just this; and since you do not have a plethora of hard corals, you won't need the calcium all that often (depending on the growth rate of the clams).

As for feeding, about the only things on that list that you may need to worry about feeding is the frogspawn and clams. The rest tend to grow like weeds, fed or un-fed, as long as you meet their basic requirements.

The lighting does seem a bit over the top for most of the mushrooms and zoos, they normally do fine in lower light, some mushrooms won't open all the way with too much light and flow. But you do have the clams that need the light. The clams also like dissolved organics and phytoplankton. With all those fish I am sure you have enough dissolved organics for the clams. Did the small once receive any trauma recently- croceas can be a bit delicate.

 

[yacn]

Yes the blue maxima kept falling over on it's side. I would stand it upright and over a week or so noticed he was deteriating until it died.

I plan on getting other corals with time and an anemone...thus the lighting.

what do you feed frogspawn and the clams? I have been using DT's and another brand aforementioned.

I just pour in tank...do I need to use a baster and squirt it right on them?

 

[cindre2000]

The clams will eat phyto. The frog spawn likes meatier items- mainly small bits of fish and shrimp (like mysis). Spot feeding is usually best. But with the phyto you could just shut off the overflow and allow everything time to get at it.