Stocking plan

[uberlink]

I posted this over on the new hobbiests board, but thought I'd request advice here as well. I'm getting ready to stock a recently cycled 28 gallon tank that currently contains 20 pounds of live sand, 20 pounds of live rock (which I may increase to more like 40). So here's my current stocking plan:
Fish:
2 Percula Clowns
Corals:
1 Colt Coral
1 Green Ricordea Polyp (which will hopefully spread a bit)
5 Blue Spotted Mushroom polyps
A small colony of Xenias - Blue Anthelia
Inverts:
10 blue leg hermits (already in)
10 astrea snails (already in)
1 cleaner shrimp
1 brittle star
Down the road:
LMB or the like and a couple of Nassarius snails, if necessary.
Possibly some kind of anemone, like a bubble tip (if things are going VERY well for a year or so).
Does this seem reasonable? Too much for a 28 gallon tank? Too much at once? Thanks for your thoughts.
-Mark

 

[wax32]

Should be fine. What kind of lights do you have? The one thing I might leave off... the colt coral might outgrow your tank pretty fast. And I wouldn't do a LMB in a tank that small, they get rather large and need lots of algae on your rocks to do well long term.

 

[pfitz44]

looks good!

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by wax32
Should be fine. What kind of lights do you have? The one thing I might leave off... the colt coral might outgrow your tank pretty fast. And I wouldn't do a LMB in a tank that small, they get rather large and need lots of algae on your rocks to do well long term.
I have a 24" Orbit Sunpaq, with Dual Daylight (10,000K & 6,700K) and Dual Actinic (460nm & 420nm)--total is about 130 watts. Word over on the new hobbiests' board is that this may be too little light for the ricordeas, so I may leave them out.
If the colt grows too big, can it be trimmed back?

 

[murph145]

ricordeas are the same as mushrooms u have enough light for a richordea
but like others said that stuff might outgrow your tank pretty fast

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by murph145
ricordeas are the same as mushrooms u have enough light for a richordea
but like others said that stuff might outgrow your tank pretty fast
I'm getting mixed signals on the ricordea lighting issue between this thread and my similar thread on the new hobbiests' board. Would others please weigh in? Thanks.

 

[wax32]

I'm not really sure what a 28 gallon tank is, but if it is like a normal 29 show (about 18 inches deep) then 130w of PC will be OK for ricordea/mushrooms. IDEAL lighting would be 4 bulbs instead of 2, giving you more options for corals, but they will be OK under 130w. I wouldn't go with much more than rics/shrooms under that light, leathers would be about it.

 

[uberlink]

It's a 28 gallon bow-front tank. 18" deep.
So do you think colt and pulse corals would be a bad idea? Should I consider adding a second lighting unit? Not a heck of a lot of space on top of the tank for more lights!

 

[fishfreek]

I think your lighting is fine for the corals you are planning for. Also, the addition of a smaller LMB will work fine.