40 gallon breeder stocking questions

[jwilkey2468]

Currently I have a 40 gallon breeder with 3 SPS corals, 2 clownfish and a diamond goby. I started noticing small bits of brown spot algae so I got 3 trocus snails and an algae eating lawnmower blenny. I asked a store employee if the blenny would eat frozen food, to my surprise he wasnt eating in my QT tank and he died. I should have done more research and just skipped the QT step or given him the proper herbivore based food.

As of right now my tank has small bits of algae that the snails are taking care of. I believe the "ugly phase" is approaching so I am not sure if I should get another lawnmower blenny (even though there isnt much algae right now) or to get a more visually pleasing blenny like the midas blenny. Will I want an algae eating fish to control my algae even though I am not getting any algae right now? My stocking list can be seen below. Any other/replacement fish recommendations are apperciated.

Stock List:
- 2x clownfish
- 1x diamond goby
- multiple snails, cleaner shrimp (only have 3 snails, plan on getting 2 cleaner shrimp, hermit crabs and carnivorous shrimp)
- 1x blenny (midas or lawnmower)
- 1x melanurus wrasse (Havent gotten this fish yet)

 

[MartysReef]

Cleaner shrimp don't clean, they are visually nice and pick parasites off in the tank so 1 would be fine 2 is overkill. I've been told a bunch lately to forget the hermits and go for a mixture of carnivorous snails and regular snails, a variety of snails is needed. I would add one snail per 1 Gallon of water, maybe a sand sifting starfish Or a diamond goby to soft through your sand bed. Do NOT get a 2nd blenny they will kill each other. I just want to tell you 3 words. Give it time. I say that cause everything will get really ugly beoffe it gets pretty, I also have a 40 breeder and it's stacked with coral. Most issues take care of themselves so don't try to always fix something or overcorrect or underfeed. Lots to learn keep posting and we will help!

 

[LeftyReefer]

get a little blue tuxedo urchin and see if it helps. (I bet it will)

My urchin does a great job on my rocks and my conchs do a decent job on the substrate.

 

[jwilkey2468]

get a little blue tuxedo urchin and see if it helps. (I bet it will)

My urchin does a great job on my rocks and my conchs do a decent job on the substrate.

So you necessarily dont really need an algae eating fish? Also what size tank do you have/ what is your stocking list?

 

[jwilkey2468]

Cleaner shrimp don't clean, they are visually nice and pick parasites off in the tank so 1 would be fine 2 is overkill. I've been told a bunch lately to forget the hermits and go for a mixture of carnivorous snails and regular snails, a variety of snails is needed. I would add one snail per 1 Gallon of water, maybe a sand sifting starfish Or a diamond goby to soft through your sand bed. Do NOT get a 2nd blenny they will kill each other. I just want to tell you 3 words. Give it time. I say that cause everything will get really ugly beoffe it gets pretty, I also have a 40 breeder and it's stacked with coral. Most issues take care of themselves so don't try to always fix something or overcorrect or underfeed. Lots to learn keep posting and we will help!

Cool, thanks for the advice! I will wait for the the algae to build up and introduce more snails then to cover that aspect. Would you recommend getting an algae eating fish like the lawnmower blenny? This would be the only algae eating fish in the tank as I am considering this blenny OR the midas blenny.

 

[Drummingbaker2010]

Currently I have a 40 gallon breeder with 3 SPS corals, 2 clownfish and a diamond goby. I started noticing small bits of brown spot algae so I got 3 trocus snails and an algae eating lawnmower blenny. I asked a store employee if the blenny would eat frozen food, to my surprise he wasnt eating in my QT tank and he died. I should have done more research and just skipped the QT step or given him the proper herbivore based food.

As of right now my tank has small bits of algae that the snails are taking care of. I believe the "ugly phase" is approaching so I am not sure if I should get another lawnmower blenny (even though there isnt much algae right now) or to get a more visually pleasing blenny like the midas blenny. Will I want an algae eating fish to control my algae even though I am not getting any algae right now? My stocking list can be seen below. Any other/replacement fish recommendations are apperciated.

Stock List:
- 2x clownfish
- 1x diamond goby
- multiple snails, cleaner shrimp (only have 3 snails, plan on getting 2 cleaner shrimp, hermit crabs and carnivorous shrimp)
- 1x blenny (midas or lawnmower)
- 1x melanurus wrasse (Havent gotten this fish yet)

just because you don't see the algae, doesn't mean it's not there. You can get frozen seaweed blends, or dried nori sheets, and add them, and I think you should be ok. The "Ugly phase" should be a phase in the ntirification process of your tank before you start adding animals and once everything balances out after that, then you should start. That's a mistake I have also made, and in the process I never saw an Ugly phase, although everything seems to be good now, I'm just looking for my Coraline algae to grow before I start adding more advanced corals and things like that. Best of luck.