dacia
Active Member
I finally made the jump to a larger tank when someone at work decided to sell their 75 gallon tank with built-in overflows, stand, and lights for about the price of a new tank only.
Of course, I didn't get the tank until about a week after my 55 gallon tank was taken down. Thank goodness that I didn't have any corals to take care of since they had all been given away previously. I did have a couple of fish...HAD a couple of fish. Note to self: do not keep fish in a rubbermaid tub on the floor, no matter how cool the set-up is for emergency tank moves, if you don't want to put the cats outside.
Yes, my fish became sushi and I saw it happen...
So I am basically starting from scratch. After I saw the fish go bye-bye, I scrubbed the crap out of the live rock and cured it. Wow, one big stinky cesspool-like mess! But, after setting up the 75 gallon tank with the 30 gallon sump, the rock cycled the thing FAST and looks great! I am now ready to get some cleaners for the tank.
Unlike my previous 55 gallon tank, I am using crushed coral. I made the change from live sand because the sand bed crashed in the 55 causing corals, fish, and inverts to slowly die off. When I took the 55 down, it was like a snail graveyard...and stinky too. Blech! I knew that it would probably happen, because it was an established 5 year old tank and it was just bound to happen sooner or later. Thank God that my buddy at work was selling his 75 right when the sand disaster occurred...
So, here's the thing. I have NEVER had this type of substrate, unless you count the gravel in the bottom of my freshwater tanks, lol. And that means that I don't really know what kinds of cleaners that I should get. I know that Astrea snails would be great for the live rock, but am I correct to assume that would extend to the crushed coral as well? Meaning, I could get a couple more Astreas? And since Nassarius sift the sand...well, would I even need them for this tank? I plan on syphoning detritus out from the crushed coral like I do the freshwater gravel during water changes.
Personally, I was thinking that I should focus on hermit crabs, Astrea snails, shrimp, and possibly a starfish. Would this be correct?
I plan on keeping a soft coral reef with some easy to keep LPS corals (NO SPS). For fish, I wanted to get a yellow tang, blue tang, a couple of percs, and possibly a couple of other small fish (I want the tangs to be the largest fish, but I want to have a handful of colorful fish to enjoy).
So, long story short, how many of what inverts would you suggest that I get?
Of course, I didn't get the tank until about a week after my 55 gallon tank was taken down. Thank goodness that I didn't have any corals to take care of since they had all been given away previously. I did have a couple of fish...HAD a couple of fish. Note to self: do not keep fish in a rubbermaid tub on the floor, no matter how cool the set-up is for emergency tank moves, if you don't want to put the cats outside.
So I am basically starting from scratch. After I saw the fish go bye-bye, I scrubbed the crap out of the live rock and cured it. Wow, one big stinky cesspool-like mess! But, after setting up the 75 gallon tank with the 30 gallon sump, the rock cycled the thing FAST and looks great! I am now ready to get some cleaners for the tank.
Unlike my previous 55 gallon tank, I am using crushed coral. I made the change from live sand because the sand bed crashed in the 55 causing corals, fish, and inverts to slowly die off. When I took the 55 down, it was like a snail graveyard...and stinky too. Blech! I knew that it would probably happen, because it was an established 5 year old tank and it was just bound to happen sooner or later. Thank God that my buddy at work was selling his 75 right when the sand disaster occurred...
So, here's the thing. I have NEVER had this type of substrate, unless you count the gravel in the bottom of my freshwater tanks, lol. And that means that I don't really know what kinds of cleaners that I should get. I know that Astrea snails would be great for the live rock, but am I correct to assume that would extend to the crushed coral as well? Meaning, I could get a couple more Astreas? And since Nassarius sift the sand...well, would I even need them for this tank? I plan on syphoning detritus out from the crushed coral like I do the freshwater gravel during water changes.
Personally, I was thinking that I should focus on hermit crabs, Astrea snails, shrimp, and possibly a starfish. Would this be correct?
I plan on keeping a soft coral reef with some easy to keep LPS corals (NO SPS). For fish, I wanted to get a yellow tang, blue tang, a couple of percs, and possibly a couple of other small fish (I want the tangs to be the largest fish, but I want to have a handful of colorful fish to enjoy).
So, long story short, how many of what inverts would you suggest that I get?
