Looking for tank livestock and coral ideas

Charlie_11278 · Aug 13, 2018

I currently have a Maroon clownfish pair, 2 red fire shrimps,scooter blenny,and 5 hermit crabs.
My water parameters
Ph:8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates:0
Nitrites:0
Salinity :1.024-1.025

I'm looking for ideas on livestock and corals. I'm thinking about adding purple tip anemones.

Dj City · Aug 14, 2018

How old is your tank?
It looks extremely young like it was just set up a week ago.

How large is the tank?

Word of advice...

get your nitrate and phosphate to a detectable level.
zeroing them out will cause you problems you DON'T want. Also, corals need nitrate and phosphate.

Good luck.

Charlie_11278 · Aug 14, 2018

Dj City said:
How old is your tank?
It looks extremely young like it was just set up a week ago.

How large is the tank?

Word of advice...

get your nitrate and phosphate to a detectable level.
zeroing them out will cause you problems you DON'T want. Also, corals need nitrate and phosphate.

Good luck.

My tank has been running for about 2 months and the nitrate is 5.0ppm will it need to go higher?what will you suggest to make the phosphate rise?

Dj City · Aug 14, 2018

Your phosphate should rise a little with regular feeding.
5.0 nitrate is a little high with no phosphate. You should try to balance that out a little by bringing nitrate down and phosphate up.

Your tank may be a little young for corals. You really want a stable environment for them. Otherwise you will be wasting a LOT of money and killing corals.

What water do you use?
Tap?
RO/DI?

What salt do you use?

What lights do you use?

Charlie_11278 · Aug 14, 2018

Dj City said:
Your phosphate should rise a little with regular feeding.
5.0 nitrate is a little high with no phosphate. You should try to balance that out a little by bringing nitrate down and phosphate up.

Your tank may be a little young for corals. You really want a stable environment for them. Otherwise you will be wasting a LOT of money and killing corals.

What water do you use?
Tap?
RO/DI?

What salt do you use?

What lights do you use?

I used tap water to start it up and instant ocean salt. For water changes I use Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water, 5 gallons(a box of premixed salt water filtered and everything)

Dj City · Aug 14, 2018

Do not get any corals yet!
They will not make it in that water.

You will want to invest in an RO/DI unit. The water from Petco is...... not the best.

You have not stated what lights you have and how many gallons the tank is.

Charlie_11278 · Aug 14, 2018

I have a 40 gallon and a coralife blue and white t5 lamp light. I was planning on getting a RO/DI filter but I'll need to reasearch how to set it up first

Dj City · Aug 14, 2018

It's easy to set up RO/DI.
Check out Bulk Reef Supply. They have videos on how to do it and what you need.

You might also want to upgrade your lights. The T5 bulbs that come in coralife are not really good enough for coral growth.

Good luck to you. Keep researching, GO SLOOOOW and happy reefing.

Bkimberlin14 · Aug 14, 2018

Wait on corals and fish until your parameters stable out like Dj was saying.

As far as other fish are you looking for a show piece fish, some schooling fish, one that hides in the rocks?

My recommendations for ‘beginner’ fish no matter what are Firefish, cardinal fish, royal gramma, Blennies/gobies and clowns but since you have a pair don’t add another clown.

For your clean up crew I’d get some snails for algae clean up once your phosphates begin to rise (trochus is my fav they eat everything)