My Fluval 13.5 gallon reef and updates

[rusty shackleford yes]

Hello y’all, I did not know threads existed on here so thanks for letting me know! Anyways, I have a cycled 13.5 Fluval reef tank with:
-3 hermit crabs
-an emerald crab
-a small mangrove
-neon blue cleaner goby
-a Condy anemone
-and a neon green leather coral Petco gave to me for free.
Below is my condy anemone, when I first added him he would just walk around the rock, but he found himself a spot on the rock near the sanded and hasn’t moved since. I do not expect him to host clowns, but if he ends up doing so that would be great!

I test very frequently and have barely any ammonia usually, but recently my nitrates are getting a bit higher so I will do a water change soon. I thought one of my hermit crabs had perished but it turns out he just molted… woke up one night and looked in the tank and counted 3 hermits! So I guess one just molted. The crabs all only come out at night usually, but sometimes during the day a hermit will come out and graze. The emerald crab just hides in the rock work all night which has a bunch of caves in it.

My neon blue cleaner goby was shy at first, but recently is coming out way more often! He usually just grazes on algae and swims around in the caves.
Below is a picture of the free leather coral. The lady at Petco who gave it to me said it shipped closed but they are usually neon green leathers. Right now he is shedding and will hopefully open soon!

Here’s a list of my future stocking:
-a skunk cleaner shrimp
-a pincushion urchin
-a serpent star
-4 snails
-a conch
-a clownfish pair
-a royal gramma
-and really just any Softy and LPS, but mostly favia war coral, Kenya trees, zoas, mushrooms, plates, Duncans, candy canes, torches, pulsing Xenia, GSP, finger leather coral, open brain coral, and frogspawn.

I will keep updating! I hope y’all have a good day and have any complaints as they make me stronger and more knowledgeable!

 

[Subsea]

Hello y’all, I did not know threads existed on here so thanks for letting me know! Anyways, I have a cycled 13.5 Fluval reef tank with:
-3 hermit crabs
-an emerald crab
-a small mangrove
-neon blue cleaner goby
-a Condy anemone
-and a neon green leather coral Petco gave to me for free.
Below is my condy anemone, when I first added him he would just walk around the rock, but he found himself a spot on the rock near the sanded and hasn’t moved since. I do not expect him to host clowns, but if he ends up doing so that would be great!

I test very frequently and have barely any ammonia usually, but recently my nitrates are getting a bit higher so I will do a water change soon. I thought one of my hermit crabs had perished but it turns out he just molted… woke up one night and looked in the tank and counted 3 hermits! So I guess one just molted. The crabs all only come out at night usually, but sometimes during the day a hermit will come out and graze. The emerald crab just hides in the rock work all night which has a bunch of caves in it.

My neon blue cleaner goby was shy at first, but recently is coming out way more often! He usually just grazes on algae and swims around in the caves.
Below is a picture of the free leather coral. The lady at Petco who gave it to me said it shipped closed but they are usually neon green leathers. Right now he is shedding and will hopefully open soon!

Here’s a list of my future stocking:
-a skunk cleaner shrimp
-a pincushion urchin
-a serpent star
-4 snails
-a conch
-a clownfish pair
-a royal gramma
-and really just any Softy and LPS, but mostly favia war coral, Kenya trees, zoas, mushrooms, plates, Duncans, candy canes, torches, pulsing Xenia, GSP, finger leather coral, open brain coral, and frogspawn.

I will keep updating! I hope y’all have a good day and have any complaints as they make me stronger and more knowledgeable!

Following along. Three fish in a 13.5G tank is a good maximum limit. If you get softies & macros established before fish, they will consume ammonia with no nitrate. Instead of using nitrification bacteria to reduce ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, you would use photosynthetic organisms to consume ammonia. In that way a larger fish load would not mean accumulating nitrate.

 

[rusty shackleford yes]

Following along. Three fish in a 13.5G tank is a good maximum limit. If you get softies & macros established before fish, they will consume ammonia with no nitrate. Instead of using nitrification bacteria to reduce ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, you would use photosynthetic organisms to consume ammonia. In that way a larger fish load would not mean accumulating nitrate.

Thanks for the advice! I was debating between a clownfish pair or just a single clownfish. I guess I’ll go for the single clownfish! And don’t worry the tank has been cycled for a month now.

 

[rusty shackleford yes]

Hello y’all! I have a new update! I finally got some snails and a favia coral. Currently they are floating. I know to put the favia in a spot with medium flow and medium/lower lights. If there’s anything I’m missing please let me know!