Alec's 40gal breeder chronicles!

So I just added my first corals!! One is a green torch coral, the other is some kind of polyp, and i'm not totally sure what the last one is called.. The guy on craigslist I bought it from just called it the green one lol. So once they all open up, I'll snap a few pics for yall

 

I got my first fish today! All my levels have been steady, so I picked up an ocellaris clown No name for him yet, but I'm open to any suggestions haha. He already picked out his favorite coral in the tank, but he's swimming around all over the place. As for the corals I added, I have the names now.. One is a metallic green star polyps, green tipped torch (correct me if I'm wrong), and a trumpet coral). Along with the fish, I picked up a few more memebers to my CUC.. 2 turbo snails and a nassarius. As soon as I put the nassurius in the tank he burrowed right into the sand. Sometimes, I'll walk by and see his little eyes poking out of the sand, it's so cool! Also, Ive started to get some brown algae (diatoms I think) growing on my rocks and sand, is there anything I should do about this? Anyways here's a few pics for yall..

 

Congrats on the corals and fish.

Diatoms are normal in young tanks. They will die off as soon as the silicates are used up.

 

Alright awesome. Hopefully they'll die off sooner than later haha. So initially I wanted to get 2 clowns, but the LFS only had one.. They're getting more tmrw or wednesday, and i'd still like to get another clown so the one in my tank has a buddy. He just looks so lonely all by himself! Would it be alright to add another clown? Or should I wait a few weeks?

Also, the surface water of my tank is starting to accumulate some "scum". I sucked up a lot of it with a paper towel, but what do yall think about a surface skimmer? I have 450 gph flowing through 2 powerheads, and about a 1/3 of the surface water is disturbed by those and has no scum. So do I yall think I should replace one of the powerheads for one that points up and has a little more power, or should I get a surface skimmer attachment? Thanks for the help guys, don't know what i'd do without yall!

 

Bump!!!

 

aw1447

I would go for more surface movement if it where my tank
get those trapped protiens (which is what the majority of the oil scum is) moving into the water column and then removed by your skimmer

Steve

 

Steve- Do you have a powerhead or anything you would recommend?

 

Hello everyone! I added another clown fish today, my other little guy needed a buddy.. (pics coming soon!) But my first clown is picking on my new one! He's a little bit bigger than my new one, and i'm afraid hes going to stress the new little guy out! Do they just need some time to "get to know eachother" or is this bad?

 

Often there is some initial bullying. Once the small one begins to show submission by quivering and shaking it usually subsides. If the new one begins to hide, show injuries to the fins or does not eat then you might have a problem.

You can try moving some of the rockwork around and see if that helps if the problem continues.

 

Korallia type wave waking power heads are ideal
lots of water movement but spread out nicely so easy to control flow pattern around the tank

Magnet mounted naturally - you dont want those rubber suckers as they loose suction and fall off blowing your sand bed over everything

Steve