Chance's 4G Tide Pool!

Its ultimately up to you about what corals you want, im not sure if zoas or palys grow in a tide pool, but that seems to be one of the few corals that could handle it. i would do 2" miracle mud, then 2-3" LS. IMO i would hold off on the crabs, my mantis always picked crabs over snails. I would put 5 cerith snails and an astrea, and throw in a couple nassarius snails for snacks

 

When my paly's grow some more I'll throw a frag in there. Just got back from home depot. I was really surprised on the prices for grow lights. $15 for the fixture, and $9 for a 130(?) Watt bulb. Is this gonna be enough for mangroves?

 

Looking on YouTube, there's a lot of sea stars. Is this a possibility with a mantis?

 

I use a 2800K incandescent bulb screwed into a clip on desk lamp, they grow just fine. Stars are compatible with some manti's IMO, but idk about one in a <5g tank... :/

Maybe some Fromia sp. or Tamaria sp.

 

The marble star (fromia) looks awesome. If i can find one at LFS I'd totally get it.

 

Do i need miracle mud?

 

Its not neccesary, but it helps with mangroves from what i understand.

 

Can maybe have a rock anenome as they live in tide pools.

 

I was looking into it. But was curious as to if Anemones need as much blue light as coral. Because I'm not going to have any LED's or anything.

 

Since they're in a tidepool then they shouldn't need as much blue light since the shallower water depth doesn't filter out as much of the light spectrum. A friend brought me one from his beach trip and it's been doing well under a 6500K twisty bulb.