Livestock Plan

I want to have a plan for the corals and fish I'm going to keep so I know in what order to introduce them to the tank. I have a 30 gal tank, lighting and skimmer TBD. I plan to upgrade to a larger tank within the next 2-3 years.

1. Can I realistically keep a baby yellow or hippo tang for a couple of years until I upgrade?
2. Should I add coral or fish first? Does it matter?
3. When should I add the clean up crew-well before the other inhabitants or does it not matter?

Thanks

 

1. Can I realistically keep a baby yellow or hippo tang for a couple of years until I upgrade? i dont think a couple years would be appropiate. i would think it would out grow that tank in a year, so i would just wait like you said only a couple years
2. Should I add coral or fish first? Does it matter?
people usually mix them up, the fish would make a bigger impact on the bioload so i would add atleast one fish first to see what kind of algae you get.
3. When should I add the clean up crew-well before the other inhabitants or does it not matter?
i would say it doesn't matter if your algae is bad i would add them now. if there no algae i wouldnt add them all at once or they will starve.

 

I would say not in a 30, just not enough room

Doesn't really matter, just make sure the fish you choose are reef compatible if you want to do corals too.

I slowly added mine as I got more fish, but if you want to add it all at once, after your cycle, depends on how much algae you have.

 

wow, look at that, that's good for reliability

 

Following the trend :

I want to have a plan for the corals and fish I'm going to keep so I know in what order to introduce them to the tank. I have a 30 gal tank, lighting and skimmer TBD. I plan to upgrade to a larger tank within the next 2-3 years.

1. Can I realistically keep a baby yellow or hippo tang for a couple of years until I upgrade? Possibly a hippo. I have never seen a yellow tang small enough for that sized tanks. But, you can get hippos pretty small. But that being said, I don't think it would make it 2-3 years. They grow fairly fast. My little 1 inch hippo has gotten to two inches in about 4-5 months. Going by that rate, I would say a year to a year and a half would be the longest. Now, you can always trade it in for another smaller one until you have a bigger tank
2. Should I add coral or fish first? Does it matter?
Doesn't really matter, but in general the corals won't cause a spike or contribute to bioload.
3. When should I add the clean up crew-well before the other inhabitants or does it not matter?
Whenever the algae and detritus begin to bug you

Thanks

 

Thanks guys!

 

For the safety of the corals, add fish first. Corals are more sensitive but have less of an impact. If you add corals then fish, the fish will shake up the tank for a little while as far as chemistry goes as the tank acclimates to having fish, potentially harming the coral.

Tangs are BIG swimmers. IMO even small ones appreciate more room than 30 gallons.

As to CUC, introduce a small one as soon as the cycle is done as a base, something like 10 snails and 5 hermits for a tank your size. Build on that as you need to. It's good to have clean up crew members before fish so they're not already behind on the cleaning when they come into the tank.