Hey Folks,
I've got a new-ish tank. I'm at a full week of zeros on ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. PH is good as well. I have no measuring capabilities for phosphates yet; so I have to guess.
I've got about 30#s of live rock, 60#s or so of dry rock and 120#s of live sand and about 1/2# of chaeto in the sump. I dumped a bunch of brine shrimp as well as copepods into the refugium; most of the brine shrimp went up into display and subsequently consumed by an Anthias and the rest I think are in the filter sock. I'm not sure what happened to the copepods; they just disappeared.
So I've started to stock a little. I've got a 5" Square Anthias, 2 damsels, an emerald crab a turbo snail and 5 hermit crabs. I've got a bunch of hitchikers as well including a brittle starfish, some tiny white starfish, a variety of filter feeders, 2 small zoa colonies, an alvepora and what I think is a leather coral.
My refugium is 15 gallons and has several dry rocks, a few live rocks and the cheato.
I'm wondering what all I can probably culture in that refugium to meet the Anthias's needs as well as what else I might be able to support. Also; how much will I need to adjunct the natural flow of critters with additional food for the display tank?
With a 15 gallon refugium, how much can I expect to support with that? The display tank is 150 gallons.
As for additions to the tank; I would like to add a lot more corals (sps, lps and softies) as well as a tang or 2, a mandarin and some cool mobile inverts.
Thanks for any tips. Anything around additions I need to make to support the base micro ecosystem to support the display is helpful, thoughts around how to support that between the key elements in the refugium, maturing the refugium and how to adjunct and how much to expect to adjunct.
I've got a new-ish tank. I'm at a full week of zeros on ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. PH is good as well. I have no measuring capabilities for phosphates yet; so I have to guess.
I've got about 30#s of live rock, 60#s or so of dry rock and 120#s of live sand and about 1/2# of chaeto in the sump. I dumped a bunch of brine shrimp as well as copepods into the refugium; most of the brine shrimp went up into display and subsequently consumed by an Anthias and the rest I think are in the filter sock. I'm not sure what happened to the copepods; they just disappeared.
So I've started to stock a little. I've got a 5" Square Anthias, 2 damsels, an emerald crab a turbo snail and 5 hermit crabs. I've got a bunch of hitchikers as well including a brittle starfish, some tiny white starfish, a variety of filter feeders, 2 small zoa colonies, an alvepora and what I think is a leather coral.
My refugium is 15 gallons and has several dry rocks, a few live rocks and the cheato.
I'm wondering what all I can probably culture in that refugium to meet the Anthias's needs as well as what else I might be able to support. Also; how much will I need to adjunct the natural flow of critters with additional food for the display tank?
With a 15 gallon refugium, how much can I expect to support with that? The display tank is 150 gallons.
As for additions to the tank; I would like to add a lot more corals (sps, lps and softies) as well as a tang or 2, a mandarin and some cool mobile inverts.
Thanks for any tips. Anything around additions I need to make to support the base micro ecosystem to support the display is helpful, thoughts around how to support that between the key elements in the refugium, maturing the refugium and how to adjunct and how much to expect to adjunct.
