please read and help me

[kyle carpenter]

i messed up big time. i have had my aquarium for 3 years but for 3 years it was fresh water, now i decide i wanted slat. but my problem was i rushed it and did not research. i love mandrin gobys and coral but i went out and bought crushed coral and not sand. my question is can i have live rock and grow coral on it in my tank with the crushed coral? if so can i keep the mandrin goby in their if i cant keep the goby would it be ok if on my last resort i scooped most of the coral out and put sand over the top
Thanx

 

[jacksonpt]

OK, if I'm understanding you correctly, you've got a tank that you have converted from fresh to saltwater. You bought crushed coral (CC) for it, and you want (or have?) a mandarin goby. You also want to keep corals.
CC will work, but you have to be a lot more careful about everything you do. Overfeeding becomes a huge issue. You will have to keep much closer watch on your water parameters, and most likely with have to treat your water more frequently with more additives to maintain proper levels. It is highly recomended that you remove the CC and go with live sand, a minimum of 3" deep.
With that said, if you decide to keep the CC, you can have corals, and you can also keep a mandarin goby, but do some research on mandarins first... there is a lot you need to know about them and their diet before you buy one.
I have CC with a mandarin goby and a few corals. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[wildblue4]

from what i have seen in this hobby is that nothing is 100% true. in saying that i do not keep live rock yet but i do a lot of reading and for the most part people prefer sand over the crushed coral because that waste food will not go under the surface and decompose like it does with cc. i have seen lots of reef systems with crushed coral and they do fine. the ammonia spikes, is what you have to watch out for, when using cc because of the food waste. as for the mg they do not surive well if at all out side of the reef tank because of there main food source is the coepods that grow on live rock. as i said before there is not 100% in anything you do in this hobby. some things work for some that wont work for others but there are trends so just read and take you time.

 

[kev]

Can you have corals on LR? Sure you can, this is where alomost everyone puts them. The CC or LS is a pretty big argument with most people, you can have either one to tell you the truth. The CC is "doable", I have a CC bed also and everything is great in my tank(partly due to my banded goby that sifts the CC for me), but the LS seems to be the new trend in SW tanks. The LS will greatly reduce your nitrate lvls in your tank. As where CC is said to make the nitrate lvls higher in your tank. As for the Mandarin, what size tank do you have? They require "larger" amounts of LR(30lbs+) and an established tank(6months+). They also require coepods to stay alive, many say thats all they will eat(thats a lie as mine ate bloodworms and brine), but to tell ya the truth, they need coepods to stay alive, and happy for a long period of time. Isn't that everyones goal? Point is, if you dont have a good sized tank with lots of LR, do the mandarins a favor and dont get one.

 

[holacanthus]

"as for the mg they do not surive well if at all out side of the reef tank because of there main food source is the poylops that grow on live rock."
WildBlue4 lets not confuse him by saying that Mandarin Gobies eat polyps because they don't. The diet of mandarins concists of assorted species of pods not polyps. Pods don't grow on live rock but live in it.If you want the Mandarin, your gonna have to do a couple of things to ensure that it remains healthy. 1. Keep the tank free of pod predators (other minute crustacean eating fishs and inverts) for a period of at least 6 months to maybe even a year, because even 1 Mandarin can eat an astonishing amount of pods! Pods feed on algae and having a clump of some sort of algae in the tank seems to go a long way in establishing a thriving population of pods! 2. Have a large amount of live rock, the more live rock in the tank the better, and more habitat for the pods! As for keeping the crushed coral, it will work yu will just have to keep a close eye on water parameters and remember not to overfeed the other fishes in the tank. Also if you want to see more of your Mandarin keep it with peaceful, non-territorial, non-pod eating fishes, because with most reef feeding habits have a lot to do with aggression!
Hope I was of some assistance,
HolaCanthus

 

[wildblue4]

sorry i said polyps i ment coepods. so i went back in a changed the post. typing one thing and thinking another.