What do you think of my setup

Sorry I am just getting ready for work so did not read all the posts yet but need to comment on the size of your tank and your fish.
1 sailfin tang Tank is to small for these guys. 75 gallon plus here I would go with a 125 gallon tank.
1 coral beauty ... also needing at least a 75 gallon.
1 green mandarin just 1 mandarin is hard to keep alive with a 75 gallon and it needs to have been setup for almost a year to supply the correct food.
1 blue mandarin ... 2 mandarins in a 29 gallon tank is a bad thing.

I am not trying to sound mean or anything but this is needing corrected and the sooner the better.
If you are married get your other to fall in love with the mandarins and then say OH they need a big tank to survie....hint hint...

 

I was thinking of switching the filter and putting an amiracle wet/dry but LFS guy said that there really is no need to switch if everything is healthy.

Is this the same guy who sold you the sailfin and mandarins for this 29 gallon?
If so I would not trust this guy at all... He is giving you all kinds of bad information.

If you don't believe me please get a book and read up on these fish.

 

You've come to the right place. There are a lot of people who will be glad to help with your tank.

By nature, tangs are grazers. They aren't like clownfish that stay in one general area. They really do need room to move around or the stress can bring about a case of ich.

Phyto is good. However, it contains phosphates and whatever is not used by the organisms in your tanks will over time contribute to an accumulation of phosphates that will eventually lead to problem algaes.

 

This quote was taken from MarineDepotLive.

 

The reason I mesions the DT's is for the reasons Nautilus mensions above. But it sounded as if you don't really know what the Phyto is or it's target coral.
There are two type of Plankton. Phyto(Plant) and Zoo(meat). It's important to know what each coral in your tank is vergitarian or a meat eater.
1 sailfin tang Both
1 coral beauty Both
1 green mandarin meat
1 blue mandarin meat
1 gold stripe maroon clown Both
1 peppermint shrimp meat
1 flame scallop veg
some snails meat
1 bubble tip anemone meat
1 closed brain meat
1 open brain meat
3 types of star polyps veg
1 plate coral meat
1 hammer coral meat
1 acropora meat
purple shrooms veg

So if you are adding Phyto twice a week you are really only feeding the Vegy's

 

Good post J.

aic007 I did the same thing when I was starting out a long time ago with my 40 gallon. I had a kole tang and racoon butterfly (until the kole killed it, maybe from the small territories?) and some other things... my lfs didn't tell me not too.

They were healthy too at the time, but I think the point that is trying to be made here is that now, with the evolution of the hobby and all the things we know now, putting such grazers that have the potential to grow larger in a small tank is considered cruel and may in the long term adversely affect their health.

I would either take the tang back, or start saving for a much bigger tank to get in a few months. I have also hear a lot of bad stuff about trying to keep flame scallops - their mortality rate is pretty high.

My 2 cents.

Matt

 

WELCOME AIC007. It is clear that you have a love for your livestock and concern for their well being. That should make following the advice of Nautilus and inwall75 that much easier.

Ok, I'm going to be blunt and the criticism is directed at your LFS. A completely overstocked 29 gallon tank and only 5 - 6 months maturation is irresponsible at best.

Do your self and your fish a real favor and don't get anything more for your tank on the advice of the LFS. They are in the business of turning inventory and unfortunately you are a good target.

I would bet the lateral line diseease of the yellow tang is directly related to the insufficient size of the tank. This same thing will negatively effect the Sailfin. 48" or 4 feet of lateral swim room is a MINMUM. No matter how well the tang SEEMS to be doing in your tank, they patrol a huge area in nature. I have a 29 gallon and it is suited for two or three SMALL fish at the maximum. The coral Beauty and tang are competing for the same food and there is no way a 29 gallon can sustain them. Here is a link to a tang related thread:

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Fish;action=display;num=1070655612

With 2 Mandarins and only 35 lbs of live rock ther is no way there will be enough copedod and amphipod production to keep them alive long-term. A 100 gallon fully matured tank, one year minimum, is what is reasonably recommended.

I apologize for the heavy tone, but again, it is the irresponsibilty of the LFS that makes my blood boil. Please return the fish or upgrade to a larger tank as soon as you can.

Your crushed coral could be problematic long-term as a full reef is what you seem to be in pusuit of. I would keep the clown fish and look for some one or two small damsels or wrasses if I was going to stay with the 29 gallon.

Let us know how we can help.

 

Ouch, just kidding. Thanks for the info. Someone asked about the sizeof the fish so here goes. The tang is approx 3 1/2 inch to 4 inches across, the coral about the same, maybe a little smaller. The blue mandarin is approx 2 1/2 and the green is tiny as is the clown. The Anemone gets fed rose minnows twice a week. As far as hiding space there is plenty. I think I would rather give up the fish rather to increase the size of the tank due to space limitations. I also put some ghost shrimp in approx 1 a week or so and also brine shrimp. As far as stocking the tank, that's pretty much it. I wanted a decent varity of corals an they should have room to spread and eventually frag as you put it. I really like the tang, if there is something you can recommend that is similar in look that I can swap it for let me know. I an not the biggest fan of damsels, You might get pissed but right now I keep a couple of damsels in my mantis tank for him to pick on if he gets hungry. From what I was told the coral beauty wasn't going to get much bigger than it already is. Thanks for all the info/criticizm and I will explore my options to benefit both the fish and myself. On another note I just picked up a coral life RO unit that I plan to hook up this weekend.

 

I am a RO/DI nut so you get big points from me on that front.

Hint Hint Craig....

 

You have been beaten up alot about this and I know that sucks. I do wonder why anybody let you stock that tank that heavily in both corals and fish but we have had plenty of those rants already. I believe that for the next 6 months is a really critical time don't add any more even if you lose some let the tank establish itself. Please follow the advice given in regards to your fish, I think the only one I would leave is the coral beauty but thats just my opinion. How long did you cycle the tank? By looking at the corals you have a nice selection but they look like they are in a store's display give them time to grow and spread before adding more. I think this hobby is a three part one--- Knowledge, research and experimentation but most people can't do the third part before the first two and that seems to be the downfall. Read ask questions and learn then tinker. j gave some great advice about feeding and my question to you was why did you pick the food you did? Your lfs seems to want to give you what you want but is doing it in their own interest