Hello everyone, I think after three years keeping my then-pico-now-nano (most recent build thread here) I'm finally ready for some fish. I've kept and I'm still keeping successfully plenty of FW fish but this would be the first time with SW fish for me. Currently I have 5 sexy shrimp and 2 trochus snails, plus a bunch of tiny snails, inverts, all sorts of pods and worms (no bristleworms).
Since the tank is so small I was aiming for a single small fish and at first I was considering a yellow clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae) but I recently discovered the two spot blenny (Ecsenius bimaculatus) which is also quite small and would be probably easier to feed since it eats algae and I have plenty of that. The goby is pretty cheap, the blenny a bit more expensive but still affordable.
I also plan to add an emerald crab, 2-3 ceriths, 2 money cowries and maybe a couple of small hermit crabs. I've been managing algae by manual removal but I'd like to have some help on that front.
My nitrates have always been quite low (0.25-0.5 ppm) and phosphates are undetectable. I do a 50% water change weekly, inverts and corals are happy and thriving (aside from a stubborn red people eater). So now I was researching fish and I just had the wildest idea... what if I added TWO of them instead of one? Maybe that would help raise my nitrates and phosphates... or would that be overstocking my tank? I'm trying to decide between:
Any advice?
Since the tank is so small I was aiming for a single small fish and at first I was considering a yellow clown goby (Gobiodon okinawae) but I recently discovered the two spot blenny (Ecsenius bimaculatus) which is also quite small and would be probably easier to feed since it eats algae and I have plenty of that. The goby is pretty cheap, the blenny a bit more expensive but still affordable.
I also plan to add an emerald crab, 2-3 ceriths, 2 money cowries and maybe a couple of small hermit crabs. I've been managing algae by manual removal but I'd like to have some help on that front.
My nitrates have always been quite low (0.25-0.5 ppm) and phosphates are undetectable. I do a 50% water change weekly, inverts and corals are happy and thriving (aside from a stubborn red people eater). So now I was researching fish and I just had the wildest idea... what if I added TWO of them instead of one? Maybe that would help raise my nitrates and phosphates... or would that be overstocking my tank? I'm trying to decide between:
- CUC only
- CUC and a blenny (more expensive, easy to feed, could help with algae)
- CUC and a goby (cheaper, prettier, hard to feed)
- CUC, a blenny and a goby (more 'trates for my zoas?)
Any advice?