Saltwater tank stocking. Please help!?

Question

I am going to start a 65 gallon reef tank with an Ehiem canister filter, a Jager heater, metal halide lighting, still trying to decide what kind of protein skimmer to get, I might get a powerhead or 2 also. I was thinking about adding: 2 common clownfish, 1 royal gramma, 1 orange firefish, 1 yellow tang, 1 orange-spotted goby, 1 coral beauty angelfish, 3 skunk cleaner shrimp, 10 turbo snails, 1 pistol shrimp, 2 blood shrimp, 2 feather dusters, and 1 porcelian crab. I am obviously going to buy all this livestock over time to prevent deaths. I am going to get some corals later so any suggestions would be appreciated. Please tell me if all my livestock listed is compatable. I have done about 2 years worth of reaserch so I think i am ready. Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

hi

nice choice of fish...
but if you are trying to start out a salt water tank start out with stripped damsels. now this may sound stupid but get the ones that are getting picked on but its a good idea sence you dont want fish that will be agressive and most damsels will be agressive then once your tank is stable get all the fish at once then introduce them by putting them in a pitcher or a bucket with the water from the store. then slowly sifen water into the piture useing air tubeing. you want to get them all at once becuase that way they wont fight. but your going to have to decide between crab/shrimp/or other lobster type animals -or- the dusters becuase the crab things will eat the duster your tang might nip at the duster only once the duster will flinch and it will scare the tang from doing it again but dont worry it wont hurt the tang

and as for a skimmer dont waste your money unless thats no worry. just get a regular filter it does the same job the best filter i know of espessially for salt water aquariums are theese. you wouldent beleve how good they are and they require little to NO maintnanca ive had one for 5 months and havent had to touch it yet it also has a 3 year garentee.

http://www.pennplax.com/Pages/Aqua.pages..../Aqua20F.html

Answer 2

Sounds like a good setup. If you add corals later your gonna wanna def go with those powerheads. Most SPS or LPS corals need a good amount of water current so after spending all that on the skimmer lighting filter tank and all that the few extra bucks for the powerheads is well worth it. Putting them in later will be a pain unless you go with the fan types that you can see in my nano reef tank on my 360 account. You may also want to invest in a RO/DI tap water filter especially for keeping corals. As far as snails go the turbos are awesome the only snail i think may clean up more than they do are the abalone's but either do a good job. As for the fish some people will say any angel fish arent reef safe but i have a rusty angel in my reef tank that is fine. they say angels will eat polyp's but so far i had more trouble with my shrimps eating some polyp's. Already killed off a small xenia coral colony i had. On the other hand the shrimp doesnt bother my zoa's or my acropora. My only other suggestion is to start the tank with green chromis. They are hardy fish and unlike other damsels they are reef safe and will get along with any other non-agressive fish you add later. Not to mention they are cheap and look awesome in a small school. If you want to get a reef tank going they are good fish to get your tank to cycle and if you lose one while the tank is cycling due to the dramtic changes in your water parameters, its not as big of a loss as losing a fish that is much more pricey. Hope this helped

Answer 3

It looks like you have really put a bit of thinking into this combo. The only fish I see that potentially could cause problems would be the coral beauty and the tang. Coral beauties along with other Centropyge angels are known for picking at corals. A full grown Yellow Hawaiian tang will also get really big for that tank and will not be able to do alot of swimming. Take a look at a 9 incher and you will see what I mean. Other than that, I think you will have a very nice tank. Feel free to email me pics when you get it going. I'd like to check it out!

Answer 4

Nice selection of fish, and you seem to have researched the inverts fairly well. You have good numbers for the shrimp you're planning (some species are territiorial, others should be kept in pairs, and others in groups and you seem to know the proper numbers for the shrimp you have).

I would try to add some variety to the snail mixture. Turbos are probably the best for eating more types of algae than the others, but even they won't eat all types. I would add some trochus or nerites for algae as well, and some nassarius for some sifters (or a brittle star).

Corals are really an individual choice - with metal halides, you can do quite a bit, getting soft or hard corals. But there are so many choices in form, color and aggression level, that's a decision best made by you. Since you obviously are willing to research, I'd suggest you get this book by Julian Sprung: http://www.amazon.ca/Corals-Quick-Reference-Julian-Sprung/dp/1883693098 This book gives photos of all the species, plus info on geographic distribution, lighting, water flow, placement in the tank, food types needed, hardiness, and aggression levels. It's what I used when I first started keeping corals, and still like it as a reference. If you want to start with easier species, try some mushrooms or leathers, but there's so much more to choose from!

Good luck with your tank!

Answer 5

Nano and %. tanks have come an prolonged way through fact human beings began rather having fulfillment with protecting reef tanks. I even have considered human beings save tanks as small as a million/2 gallon (no fish) with fulfillment. suitable set up you might have a effective little reef biotope in a 10 gallon tank. As reported firefish are very good jumpers, so as that may not be a good selection on your tank and that they actually do require greater area. i might advise watching fish like the neon goby or sharknose goby. the hearth shrimp is an extremely neat invertebrate, yet they could get a splash massive in comparison to different shrimp saved in saltwater tanks. you may evaluate looking as a smaller shrimp, like a peppermint shrimp as an occasion. For a communicate board committed to nano tanks look into the link in the source listed under.