Aquascape Recommendations & Livestock advice

[ilikefish69]

Hello,

I am looking for advice on my aquascape. What do you think? I am most likely going to buy some more dry rock and put it in the tank. It's been up for 3 months, has a yellowtail damsel in it for the 2/3rd months. I want to have a mandarin, yellow eyed kole, maybe a clownfish, and a diamond goby. I also want a crap ton of coral. I really like torch coral, of course some zoas, and I like the orange mushroom coral as well.

1) What recommendations do you have adding in this livestock? What order? Timeline? What do I do about the yellowtail possibly attacking all newcomers?
2) How do you introduce dry rock into a (lightly) established tank?
3) Grill my aquascape. Tell me what it needs, what it has too much of, if fish like it, etc.

This forum is awesome and the people are awesome.

 

[blaxsun]

1. There's no particular order, but probably populate with copepods for a few weeks and add the manadrin first (captive bred is preferable).
2. Just rinse and add it.
3. Fish like caves, preferable hidden and out-of-sight. Ledges, crevices overhangs are also very desirable. Barnacles (especially clusters with multiple openings) are popular with gobies, basslets, blennies, etc.

Here's my low profile rockscape to give you a few ideas. It's mainly three massive slabs of Marco shelf rock stacked on one another augmented with various smaller pieces and sizes of Marco shelf and base rock. I know there are over 2 dozen caves but the fish keep finding and excavating more...

 

[sp1187]

more rock.
split it in to at least two sections in stead of one continuous.
work from back to front as well as up and down.
work in staggered shelf levels as you make your way up.
don't be afraid to go higher up than you have it currently in some areas.
separate rocks (islands) for softies that grow like weeds.
or overhanging ledges that shade the touch points of the rocks below.
gsp doesn't grow through shade very well. (my experience with it.)
clove polyps on the other hand will send runners through shaded areas to expand their range.
best "island" those.

 

[hotbiscuits84]

Fish seem fine, but the mandarin will need a more mature tank until you drop it in, unless its able to eat during feeding time. If its eating only copepods, adding bags will get become expensive. Also, consider if you really want the damsel there. If aggression increases and you want it out later, then catching it later will become more of a challenge once you add more to the tank.

Dry rocks you can just rinse and drop in.

Aquascape looks a bit too 2D to me? Rocks seem to be high in a single vertical plane along the background, with spaces between rocks rather than caves. To me, it seems a bit unnatural, and maybe even unstable once corals start branching away from the rockwork to grow. I’d suggest working rockwork more into the foreground, and breaking up the symmetry of how you have it currently. With all of that said, if you really like the way it looks now, then keep it as is! Its our own personalized slice of the ocean, afterall.

 

[ilikefish69]

I just got goosebumps reading these replies. If everyone in the world was as nice to each other as the reef 2 reef forums, there would be no war and no arguments.

Well, people would still argue over Tang tank size requirements, but I don't think anyone would be killed over it... or who knows..

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Only issue I see with the rock is what others have said, it's too much of a wall, there's no depth to it.

Also, good luck finding a yellow eye kole, the true kole tangs are endemic to Hawaii and are currently banned from being collected. White tail tangs are probably the next best thing, if not better.