Picking my first fish and my first corals

Dear readers,

I have a mere 30 gallon tank with about 15-20lbs live rock. It's about done cycling now, and all my levels have been zerod out for a week and a half. I'm giving it another week before I buy any fish, so now I'm taking the time now to plan out what to get... I'm usually one to impulse buy fish which I did a few times in my past freshwater tanks, and I've finally learned that it's a horrible idea not to research ahead of time.

My tank will be a reef tank... I've got a good skimmer and a carbon pad HOB filter, along with a powerhead providing good circulation (I've got more powerheads if I need to put them in). I currently have 5 red-legged hermit crabs and 5 snails, including 1 nassarius snail (which I love, I want to get more!).

In deciding which fish to get, my main objectives are as follows:
1) I have a small tank. At 30 gallons, I know I can't fit much. I don't want a bunch of tiny fish, but I don't want one huge one either.
2) The fish need to be *relatively* hardy, I'm new to saltwater but I'm not new to aquariums altogether.
3) I absolutely adore puffer fish, but I understand they might not be the best choice. I can live without one if I have to!
4) I love fish with bright colors and personality. Emphasis on this!

On a related note, I know literally nothing about corals. The idea of maintaining an environment in my room so delicately balanced to support coral life forms is what drew me to the idea of a reef tank to begin with. I don't know where to start, what to get, when to introduce them, how they feed, or any of this! I'm not asking for you all to feed this information to me, I'll do the research... just have been more interested in fish at the moment! Note that I have a 65W 10,000K bulb and a 65W actinic 420nm peak bulb, power compact. There is no possibility of upgrading to T-5 in my current living/tank situation... which will last at least two more years.

Thanks for your input in advance... this forum has been very helpful to me so far and I'm really grateful for all of your help!

 

Id look into a pair of clowns, a firefish,gobys, hi fin cardnials they are all cool fish.

As far as corals start with softies and very easy corals such as GSP, zoas,palys,toadstoals,cabbage,xenia and then work your way up to LPS such as hammer and torchs.

 

I hear the terms "softies" thrown around, along with LPS... what do these really mean anyway?
Also, what's GSP?

Last, my concern with a clown pair as someone brought up on a previous thread (I believe it might have been you, actually) is that combined they're 7" adult size or something along those lines? So that's a hefty chunk of the space in my tank. Does the freshwater rule of 1" adult size per gallon hold true for saltwater?

Also, if I go with a clownfish pair, is there a certain type you'd recommend? The black and white clowns are pretty cool looking, but the perc clowns seem popular as well.

Also, how hard are anemones to keep? I love seeing clowns hiding/playing in them.

 

Anems i would not add untill the tanks been up for at least 6 months, clowns i think would be awsome and then maybe a firefish(the purple ones are sweet) and that would be a cool tank esp with anem. My girl loves the black and white and we have a pair in a 29, my favorite are the gold strip maroons thou!!!!


GSP=Green Star Polyps, and softies means the type of corals, such as a toadstoal is litterly soft, an LPS stands for Large Polyp Stonys(such as a hammer or torch) SPS stands for Small Polyp Stonys suchs as a acro or sytlp

 

softies refering to a group of corals that have no internal skeleton. generally the easiest to keep. GSP-green star polyps... i hardy sorty for beginners

LPS-large polyp stoney...coral having a skeletal structure and large polyps

sps-small polyp stony... you get the idea

as a rule of thumb ppl like to say 1" per 2 gallon -1" per 4 gallon....you just have to use your best judgement. clowns will rarely reach 7" and a 30g tank is sufficent for a pair

-i personally love gold stripe maroon clowns...all have similar need so its really just what u like

ill let someone else answer the question of ease in keeping an anemone... but i have a pair of clarki clowns that host in a good sized patch of anthilia(an easy to keep softy)

 

well dam...guess u type faster than me

 

LOL sorry..........



anems IMO in a tank thats been up and running are VERY easy to care for i spot feed mine once a week(if that bc my maroons feed it) other then that just good light.....Now idk if your lights are enough ill let some one else be the judge on that bc i dont want to stear you the wrong way...(but if it was me id try one of the 8 dollars anems at petco in 6 months anyways )

 

Thanks for all the advice guys!

So if I were to put a clown pair into my 29 tank, how many more "adult inches" of fish would I have room for? I think two clowns, a lawnmower goby or something, and maybe one other brightly colored fish (mandarines look cool, don't know a thing about them) would fill my tank nicely.

Also, about corals... You buy them as "frags", but after that the process of getting them living in the tank is a mystery to me. Do corals move around at all? How quickly do they grow? Do they eat?! Sorry to pester with the basics, I'm really completely new to corals.

Also, I'm putting more and more live rock in as time goes on, I'd really like to get a fair amount in there (40lbs?). Is it a bad idea to keep introducing more rock when I've got fish in there? Or to introduce fish and live rock at the same time? (if I buy both at the LFS in the same trip)?

 

Also, what about inverts? Peppermint shrimp look great!

Will they take up some of my precious room in the tank? Are they tough to keep alive? I've got some possible aiptasia that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.

 

Dont get a mandrin untill your tank hits at least a year, and honestly if you dont have a fuge to maintain pod levels, it wont be a good outcome.

Each coral grows on it own rate, i like frags bc you get to watch the coral progess and start as an inch and grow to a colonie, after you get a frag place it at the correct level in the tank(depending on frag) and watch it grow!!!

Introudce live rock slowly like one piece at a time to avoid any new cycles.

If it where me id do a clown pair a firefish and maybe like a clown goby, 3 fish is best 4 would be the max IMO hope this helps!