what to buy?

tomorrow, i will set out to find SOMETHING to add to my aquarium... i just don't know what to add yet... don't know if i should get a new piece of equipment, or livestock...

what i got :
fish: lawnmower blenny, blue damsel, 3 mollies
equipment: lights, heater, powerheads, skimmer, just the basics

what i'm considering :
fish: pair of ocellaris clowns, coral beauty
corals: green star polyp, mushroom (a cool looking fluorescent blue one)
inverts: cleaner crew (consisting of the usual snails and crabs; the LFS would most likely have to order one for me)
equipment: magfloat (would it work better than my algae scraper combo?), light timer
any other suggestions?

i think i'm ready for something a little more challenging than what i have now, as far as livestock goes... i've had the same setup since april, and no deaths or anything like that... the worst i've had is one of my mollies all but completely lost its tail, but it went into hiding for like, a day and a half, and came back out with its tail fully grown back... the tail is just pure white now...i thought that was pretty cool to regrow it so quickly... i think the aquarium has been running since january...

anyway, i'm just ready to add something else to it, but not sure what exactly i want or need... parameters are : pH fluctuates between 8.0 and 8.2, SG 1.024, nitrates either 20 or 40 (forgot to write down the last test results)... with the pattern that i've been having with water changes and nitrates, one more water change, and i should be pretty much at zip...i THINK and HOPE anyway

 

Well let us see. Patience is truly a virtue and rushing the process of stocking the tank can end deadly. I think light timers would help alot.

What kind of lighting do you have? That would determine what corals you can get. Also, with corals, are you dosing supplements like calcium, iodine, strontium and etc?

If you are dosing at least iodine and calcium, that would open you up to crabs and shrimps.

Snails are always good. Though be aware, if you get both snails and hermit crabs, there is a chance the hermits will kill all the snails eventually to take their shells.

 

Good test kit! A Flasher or Fairy Wrasse, Tang or Blenny, Royal Gramma! I would ditch the Mollies IMO! They are livebarers and are notirious for getting ICH. I know from having them before!
A good reef book may be great for you as well!
Suggestions!

 

wow, the LFS is limited on selection here lately apparently... i did see a few nice things though... which adds a few more questions for me... first of all, forget frags or anything like that... apparently he doesn't sell frags... he sells LR with the corals on it... which isn't necessarily bad, because what he has is big pieces of rock with a bunch of corals already growing on them... one nice piece was all but completely covered in green star polyps, and another (about the size of your fist), had about 10 or so of the blue fluorescent/purple mushrooms, and one of what i think is a ricordea, pink, blue, orange, or something like that.. it also had 3 or 4 bright yellow sponges growing on it... the rock with the mushrooms, he said he'd sell it to me for 20 bucks... and then he told me another price for 2 different things... one is a nice shell with 4 or 5 polyps of some sort growing out of the hole (i think they were yellow, but not the sun coral) the tentacles were real thin, and the stalk was pretty thick for the size of the coral... and the other was a rock with star polyps.. both of these for 25... another rock had something growing on it, but it didn't look good... dark brown stalks, but no heads/tentacle doo-hickies... i thought maybe it was some sort of nocturnal thing or just hiding from fish or something... whatever it was, there were a bunch of them on there... he did make a comment that it looked like something was eating his stuff, so i don't know if its good or bad... oh yeah, he said the brown things were zoo's, but i still have questions about them just showing the stalks...

i also asked about a fish that would keep the sand stirred up, and he showed me his sleeper gold headed goby, and said that its the best sand sifter he has... he said he could order some sand sifting snails if i wanted them.. but yeah, fish-wise, the goby is all he had that i was interested in, but i was concerned about the goby and my blenny being together (i've heard that since the 2 look similar, then they may be aggressive toward each other...)

alright, so that's all that peaked my interest at the LFS, any of it sound good enough for me to go back monday and pick up, or should i turn it down and wait until later? also, with the corals listed here, what kind of stuff should i add to feed them? he's got kent marine coral-vite, iodine, and trace elements... oh, and lugol's solution... when it comes to corals, i know nothing about what additives to use, i've just always heard "trace elements, iodine, iodide, calcium, magnesium, strontium, etc" used a bunch... i always figured a bottle of trace elements is a combination of everything i would need...

 

The golden headed sleeper goby will dump sand on any corals that you put near its burrow. Also, I have never been able to keep them alive for over 6 months regardless of whether or not they were eating flake or frozen foods. It will eat all of the bugs out of your sand and when it runs out, it will die. Not a good choice. If you want sandsifters, stick with nassarius or conch snails.

As for what to feed whatever corals you bring home, we'll need to know what you're bringing home first. It's impossible to tell you what to feed the ones you can't positively identify and the ones that you have positively identified above shouldn't require feeding at all.

 

HAHHA, that avatar is great !

Yeah, I'd make two trips to the LFS if it's not that far....or bring a laptop with you ! Obviously things like mushrooms zoos and GSPs are no brainers but some other corals can get confusing

Def. research before hand. ...I spend too much time online reading about SW life...oh well, now to learn about SPS!

 

well, i went ahead and bought the "mushroom rock"... i guess the mushrooms were covered in something in the LFS aquarium, because when i put them in my aquarium, there were a real bright blue and green color.... but at the LFS, they seemed more purple...

 

oh, amcarrig, what happened to the tripped out cat? lol i liked it better
!

 

The change in color of your mushrooms was more than likely a result of a change in your lighting and that of the pet shop you purchased the shrooms at!!! Whether it be the kelvin of the bulb or the irradiance/wattage or even the amount of DOM or suspended matter in your water column!;D

 

Tang and royal beauties clean better

HI,
Be sure you pick your angel ( coral beauties arepretty mellow)remember only one per tank,I love tangs only one per tank they tend to fight alot with same species and may be ick carriers.
Damsels can be good and bad. I have 5 chromis they school and actually groom the tang and the angel. I also have a few 4 stripe damsels they can be a hand full as they grow. I like the domiono damsel haven't had them long enough to know if they are trouble they school near the surface, Clarki have been the easiest with marrons the most grumpy and true percula the most difficult not sure why just my luck.
Skunk shrimp are first line defense againts ich problems I would reccomend 1 per 25 gals, and are a hoot to watch mine climb all over my hands when I work in the tank I guess they are grooming me or munching on skin they don't seem to fear humans. peppermints seem very shy great cleaners but dissapear at a alarming rate never found dead maybe they are lunch or have very short life spans.
every thing you buy will double in size rather quickly so allow some room , and many develope real attitudes that are not eveident at the store when you have them all packed in a tank and stil pretty young. you cant have to many nassirus snails go with the left handed hermits , never mix species of hermits the reds seem adapt at killing smaller species.
Doug

ps 10 pounds of rock per 10 gals works for me..