Starting over again.

This will be the second time i'm starting my 26 gal nano over again. I'm taking all the fish out of it, putting a new substrate in, (crushed coral with sand bed in back) and getting rid of all the annoying corals that keep popping up (look like anemones, but are not. not sure of the name) I have close to 30 pounds of LR, most of that is all one giant rock too.

Anyways, anyone have stocking ideas? i want something really creative, but i'm gonna keep the limit to 3 fish, and i want all of them to stand out and be unique. No dottybacks or damsels! thats half the reason i'm restocking.

 

dottyback(stock this last)

also i think the anemone your thinking of is aptasia

 

ya thats the name. Whats an easy way to kill those?

 

get a needle and inject them with lemon juice,
cover them with kalkwasser paste.
get a syringe spray the there foot with burning hot water when they let go catch them and toss them.

take your pic, if you dont kill them fully they will just comeback.

 

Gold accessor basslet.

They are a nice yellow like a yellow tang, but stay small and are carnivores.

 

Well, it appears i'm gonna have to wait a while to restock this tank, because after adding a very small amount of well washed crushed coral, i had a nitrate spike. PH is around 7.5-8 ish, but No-3 is about 40. any way to get this back to zero? btw, keep the ideas comming

 

Ditch the crushed coral, they tend to lead to NO3 spikes. If you like the CC look, mix it with some oolitic sand to help with the nitrification process. There are many ways to deal with aipstasia, it's really personal preference. I had one and hosed it with boiling water through a vinyl tube and syringe. It let go of the rock and I scooped it out with a net, that was the last I ever saw of one in my tank.

 

the crushed coral is mixed with dolomite, and some LS, which normally keeps nitrate steady. its actually only about 20 right now. tomorrow I'll do a water change and see what happens.

 

Did a water change, haven't seen any results yet.

I've come up with a list of fish that i'd like to choose from for my 26 gal nano reef. I'm limiting to three fish. here's the list, give me your ideas.

Lawn mover blenny
Geometric pygmy hawk
six line wrasse
carpenters flasher wrasse
teardrop ocellaris clown
spotted puffer
valentini puffer
royal gramma
melas angel
eibli angel
coral beauty
african flameback angel
orange fire goby
purple fire goby
twinspot goby
bangaii cardinal
trimma goby


i've seen all these fish work succesfully in a nano tank, but you guys know better than i would, hence me asking for your input. Thanks for your opinions!

 

Water changes will insignificantly reduce nitrates unfortunately. If you do a 10% change, it will only reduce the NO3 by 10%. That means your 20ppm nitrates will still be 18ppm after the change. It will be back at 20 within the hour, all things considered. If detritus and uneaten food get trapped in the CC, you now have waste producing factory.
As for your options, you will want to stay away from puffers, as they are generally heavy bioload fish. At 26G, you will want to keep small fish, and 3 tops, unless you have a very efficient skimmer and a fuge system going.