Starting my tank....need your advice

uncheels

uncheels

Member
Hi all
Im new to salt water tanks and am thanking the lord everynight before I sleep that I found this website. I have a been reading perfusly for the last 2 weeks.. trying to absorb as much as possible. I have a 38 gallon hexagon tank with 38lbs of live rock. I got the rock from an experienced keeper and the rocks looks great... tons of little growth. I have a sand bottom and have a domino damsel to help the cycling process. I have a few pieces of coral I bought off the guy. a few Zoo's and what looks like a frogspawn coral. These seem to be doing great. I got my water test last night and the lfs said I didnt have any problems. So im looking to stock my tank with just a few more things. (I've learned on here that it needs to be a long and slow process.) That being said, I have only had my tank for app 2 months. I have 2 large snails, and 4 crabs (I need more). But what else can I get at this point?
Here is my equipment:
-aquaclear 200 power filter
-aquaclear 201 powerhead
-coralife super skimmer for a 65 g tank
-lighting- not sure but this is on the outershell - 20" flourescent aquarium reflector - 120 volt 19 watt 60 ht - but this is on the actual light fixture powercompact 32 watt smartlamp. it has 2 lights, one that is more blue than the other.
I was thinking about adding: (some... not all)
-a few mushrooms
-bubble coral
-pagoda
- mandarin dragonet-spotted
-another fish or two
Please any feedback is helpful. I have a feeling I am going to need better lights, but the current coral is doing really well and opens beautifully. The tank also receives natural sunlight during the day as it is in my living room. I did a 20% waterchange last night. Thank you and sorry for writing a book
 
devil dog

devil dog

Active Member
Originally Posted by Uncheels
Hi all
Im new to salt water tanks and am thanking the lord everynight before I sleep that I found this website. I have a been reading perfusly for the last 2 weeks.. trying to absorb as much as possible. I have a 38 gallon hexagon tank with 38lbs of live rock. I got the rock from an experienced keeper and the rocks looks great... tons of little growth. I have a sand bottom and have a domino damsel to help the cycling process. I have a few pieces of coral I bought off the guy. a few Zoo's and what looks like a frogspawn coral. These seem to be doing great. I got my water test last night and the lfs said I didnt have any problems. So im looking to stock my tank with just a few more things. (I've learned on here that it needs to be a long and slow process.) That being said, I have only had my tank for app 2 months. I have 2 large snails, and 4 crabs (I need more). But what else can I get at this point?
Here is my equipment:
-aquaclear 200 power filter
-aquaclear 201 powerhead
-coralife super skimmer for a 65 g tank
-lighting- not sure but this is on the outershell - 20" flourescent aquarium reflector - 120 volt 19 watt 60 ht - but this is on the actual light fixture powercompact 32 watt smartlamp. it has 2 lights, one that is more blue than the other.
I was thinking about adding: (some... not all)
-a few mushrooms
-bubble coral
-pagoda
- mandarin dragonet-spotted
-another fish or two
Please any feedback is helpful. I have a feeling I am going to need better lights, but the current coral is doing really well and opens beautifully. The tank also receives natural sunlight during the day as it is in my living room. I did a 20% waterchange last night. Thank you and sorry for writing a book
The natural sunlight is not that good you can get algae all over... IMO I would wait on the corals give your tank some time you will wast enough money no need to rush it … on your light you will need to upgrade it at some point I would go with a MH so you will be able to keep any coral you want in the future… you might want to think of adding a refugium you will get a lot of natural filtration from that… but take it slow and have fun and welcome
 
kerriann

kerriann

Member
again, definitely wouldn't do the mandarin - very difficult fish! clownfish are always a great, easy addition to a tank and a six lined wrasse is a nice one as well and both should do well in your tank i believe
 
trigger11

trigger11

Member
I agree you should not add a manderin unless you have a refugium. And even then you need to have that running for 6 months or so to build up a good population of copepods for him to eat. Alternatively you could get a manderin if and only if you see him eat other foods such as mysis shrimp at the LFS. Otherwise he will starve.
Since you have been running for 2 months now I would add a couple of fish and then wait at least 2 weeks before adding anything else.
IMO you have a reasonable amount of snails and hermits.
Here is a major point to remember with having a hexagon tank and lighting. Hexagon tanks are taller in nature so the lighting needs to be stronger for it to be able to reach the bottom. Should you decide to get any softie corals which might need a stronger light remember to place them up higher in the rockwork.
I had a 60G Hex tank when I started. One good thing I liked was that I was able to stack the rocks up pretty high in the tank. I had 3 clownfish and a few green chromis and they didnt do very much swimming while they were in there. All they were allowed to do is go up and down. I switched over to a regular 55G tank and that made a big difference for the fish. Now they swim around all over the place. I'm not saying to ditch the hex tank because that might be the biggest you can fit into whatever space you have. But, if you do have the room a wider tank makes a difference.
 
uncheels

uncheels

Member
Thanks for the reply and advice.... I definately want a larger, flatter tank in the future, but I used to have this as a freshwater tank and when I moved it gave me a reason to start a saltwater. So I plan on working out my n00bie status with this tank... then buying a nice big one to play with. Thank you for your advice. What about a trigger fish.. such as the clown trigger-small (only about 1 inch)
 
guyerson

guyerson

Member
I agree with previous posts, definitely no on the mandarin. I know when I first started my tank, I thought that would be a really cool fish to have only to find out that they are very hard to keep because they primary feed on copepods. I think a good species to start with would be some type of clownfish. My first two fish were a pair of true percs. Also, a sixline wrasse is a good choice, or some type of goby...
 
uncheels

uncheels

Member
awesome... im taking notes and then looking the fish up... SOOOOO many choices... must... take... it.... slow...
 
trigger11

trigger11

Member
Originally Posted by Uncheels
Thanks for the reply and advice.... I definately want a larger, flatter tank in the future, but I used to have this as a freshwater tank and when I moved it gave me a reason to start a saltwater. So I plan on working out my n00bie status with this tank... then buying a nice big one to play with. Thank you for your advice. What about a trigger fish.. such as the clown trigger-small (only about 1 inch)
Fish to avoid would be triggers and also tangs because they grow to be very large. You would want to have a 6ft tank.
 
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