New 40 gallon cube

[ATayTay]

Hey all! This is my first ever saltwater tank, please bear with me while I navigate through the lingo and learning process. Starting goal is for clownfish and compatible tankmates, possibly moving onto corals in the future future.

The tank: aquatop recife eco 40. Came with all the basic stuff. Definitely am open to input on upgrades if needed. Filled with live sand, live rock from the LFS, and saltwater from the LFS. Ad

Added some bottle bacteria, and a couple pieces of cut up shrimp to "ghost feed" for the cycle.

It's been up for just now around 4 days. I've tried aquascaping... and I think i'm pretty pleased with it so far. Tried to create some hiding spots as well.

One of my live rocks has a lot of ...well... life on it as well. Any of this look familiar? Anything I should be concerned about? I did my best with the pictures.

This morning I found my first hitchhikers. Which, I'm sure as most of you can imagine was beyond exciting. What I believe is a very small starfish - with only 2 and a half legs(??), and a teeny tiny hermit crab (????). From a quick starfish search - I may need to get rid of them? Can anyone help to ID it?

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[KJ]

I may need to get rid of them?

Yes Asterina starfish. BTW nice looking cube.

 

[TriggersAmuck]

Great start! Thanks for reminding us of that excitement in seeing live rock come alive for the first time!

 

[ATayTay]

Yes Asterina starfish. BTW nice looking cube.

So when I find them...how do I cull them? Or kill them? Or get rid of them? What is the term used...?
And thank you!

 

[Kycelium]

Nice set up! We just got the same tank on July second. How are you liking it so far? From my experience, Asterina stars are harmless for the most part, but can populate pretty fast. I have had them in every tank I have ever set up without any problems, however some people claim that they eat their corals and both other inverts and fish. They do a wonderful job at eating algae. One thing to keep in mind though, is that they reproduce asexually, so that population explosion could be a bit distracting.

If you keep them in your tank and they start reproducing, try taking some tweezers and plucking them out in the morning or at night. They seem to be nocturnal in my experience. Another route could be picking up a harlequin shrimp to feast on them. However, if they eat through all of your asterinas, they'll need another food source.

 

[Zadok Jollie]

Looking great man! And yeah, the asterina starfish were never a problem in my tank. However, after a 2 years or so they got so bad it was getting annoying. A few weeks with a harlequin shrimp in the tank cleared it up. I only see one on occasions now.

 

[revhtree]

Looking great!

 

[ATayTay]

I haven’t given an update! So here we go

Nice set up! We just got the same tank on July second. How are you liking it so far? From my experience, Asterina stars are harmless for the most part, but can populate pretty fast. I have had them in every tank I have ever set up without any problems, however some people claim that they eat their corals and both other inverts and fish. They do a wonderful job at eating algae. One thing to keep in mind though, is that they reproduce asexually, so that population explosion could be a bit distracting.

If you keep them in your tank and they start reproducing, try taking some tweezers and plucking them out in the morning or at night. They seem to be nocturnal in my experience. Another route could be picking up a harlequin shrimp to feast on them. However, if they eat through all of your asterinas, they'll need another food source.

Thanks for the help! I did end up taking them out just before my tank finsihed cycling... I think I removed 8-10 in total. And I haven't seen any since.

I'm liking the tank quite a bit!! I think I will have to change the light when I feel good for corals... hopefully get a timer on the lights as well. And I added a wavemaker for some added flow.

 

[ATayTay]

I thought I'd give you guys a tank update since it has been a month or so. As of 7/29/20.

After cycling I bought two clownfish. I *may* have gone a just a tad past my actual comfort level with this - it's been an emotional roller coaster!! I purchased a thunder maroon and a lightning maroon. The thunder was a bit larger, and is very much the more dominant fish. It/she still bites and chases the other maroon. While it has gotten MUCH better, they aren't buddies. The lightning maroon does the little clown shimmy and the other may wiggle back or just ignore the other. I do not feel the lightning is going to be bullied to death at this time. However, I'm still watching them and deciding if I should separate them and stick to one maroon, or just replace both of them with a more settled pair.

Does anyone have any good experiences with maroons? How long has it taken yours to get along? Or did you have a more negative experience? I know clowns will be clowns, and maroons are more aggressive. I realize it just may not work at all.

After a couple weeks I added a yellow watchman goby and a handful of snails (nasarius, cerith, turbo, and astrea). Strangely enough, the more dominant clownfish seems to like the goby (??!). SHe'll go over and look and swim next to the goby. Never seen her bite or chase at it. I don't think the goby likes her though. ha! Fish are funny.

I'm wanting to add maybe 3 banggai cardinals...that is if i can keep both clowns. But I'm not set on this quite yet. Was considering maybe a flame angel if I have to only have one clown in the tank.

The water changes have been going well. My tank parameters are keeping stable. I have been battling some stringy algae...but it does seems to have calmed.

 

[jeffrey750750]

Make sure your rocks are secure, little goby like to change the scape

 

[TriggersAmuck]

Your tank is looking great!

Back in 2003 I mated two individual Maroons, making sure the second one added was as small as I could find (to make sure it was still a male). There were a few days where the larger (by large, no more than 2") kept the smaller at bay in the corners of the tank, but they eventually mated up and laid eggs every couple of weeks like clockwork. Well, about 12 years later the much larger female passed away. I waited about two or three months and then found a really small third Maroon. These two appeared to bond (with the established clown remaining the larger for the duration, probably morphing from male to female), but I never saw them lay eggs. They definitely were at peace and hanged in the rose 'nem.

So yes, I have heard horror storries about Maroons and Tomatoes and the like, but it can be done every now and then. My current nano has a pair of Fire clowns, and while one is clearly growing at a much faster rate, I don't have the impression that they have really bonded. They don't beat the daylights out of each other, but they tend to stay at opposite ends for the most part. The larger of the two is one aggressive nail biter, as quite frequently she manages to bite me hard enough to hurt when my arm is in the tank! On the other hand I quite like the energy level and feistiness of the species. (Just not when she manages to find that soft skin right in between your knuckles.....ouch!).

 

[ATayTay]

Your tank is looking great!

Back in 2003 I mated two individual Maroons, making sure the second one added was as small as I could find (to make sure it was still a male). There were a few days where the larger (by large, no more than 2") kept the smaller at bay in the corners of the tank, but they eventually mated up and laid eggs every couple of weeks like clockwork. Well, about 12 years later the much larger female passed away. I waited about two or three months and then found a really small third Maroon. These two appeared to bond (with the established clown remaining the larger for the duration, probably morphing from male to female), but I never saw them lay eggs. They definitely were at peace and hanged in the rose 'nem.

So yes, I have heard horror storries about Maroons and Tomatoes and the like, but it can be done every now and then. My current nano has a pair of Fire clowns, and while one is clearly growing at a much faster rate, I don't have the impression that they have really bonded. They don't beat the daylights out of each other, but they tend to stay at opposite ends for the most part. The larger of the two is one aggressive nail biter, as quite frequently she manages to bite me hard enough to hurt when my arm is in the tank! On the other hand I quite like the energy level and feistiness of the species. (Just not when she manages to find that soft skin right in between your knuckles.....ouch!).

Thank you! I'm very excited to watch it develop even more.

And thank you for the input with the maroons! I have not had any bite incidents so far, lol.

Mine are only a small difference in size...so totally not sure if both may actually be females. Unfortunately, I did have to separate them today. Of course, after I say they've not been tearing each other up. The little one got a nice chunk of tail fin bit out and some damage to the pectoral fins.

So now I'm weighing my options.

Keep only one. Get rid of both and replace. Try to re-introduce the bully (I have a feeling this won't work).

 

[saltwatr]

Hey all! This is my first ever saltwater tank, please bear with me while I navigate through the lingo and learning process. Starting goal is for clownfish and compatible tankmates, possibly moving onto corals in the future future.

The tank: aquatop recife eco 40. Came with all the basic stuff. Definitely am open to input on upgrades if needed. Filled with live sand, live rock from the LFS, and saltwater from the LFS. Ad

Added some bottle bacteria, and a couple pieces of cut up shrimp to "ghost feed" for the cycle.

It's been up for just now around 4 days. I've tried aquascaping... and I think i'm pretty pleased with it so far. Tried to create some hiding spots as well.

One of my live rocks has a lot of ...well... life on it as well. Any of this look familiar? Anything I should be concerned about? I did my best with the pictures.

This morning I found my first hitchhikers. Which, I'm sure as most of you can imagine was beyond exciting. What I believe is a very small starfish - with only 2 and a half legs(??), and a teeny tiny hermit crab (????). From a quick starfish search - I may need to get rid of them? Can anyone help to ID it?

That tank looks great! I was curious as to what you did for the stand. I got a Nuvo 40 and I’m having trouble finding a stand for it that doesn’t cost more than I paid for the tank lol

 

[Roach041570]

We just bought the same tank, I'm really excited to get it up and running. So much has changed since I sold my last reef in like 2004. I am going with dry rock for this build, way back in the dinosaur days we couldn't buy all the coraline, or pods/rotifers. How much rock do you have in it?? I seem to have went over board lol... 50 lbs seems to have it stuffed lol.. I really like the openness you have going.