thinking about switching over...

snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member
Ok so I at first was going to go for a reef setup, but after getting really frusterated because things died and algae took over my tank... :mad: ... I am thinking about maybe switching it up and going fish-only.. so then that brings up the question of what can I do now that I couldn't before? Can I add more fish? And if yes, what are some really cool looking fish you would recommend for my situation? Possible fish I like: Humu Trigger, flame angel, copperband butterfly, dwarf lion, red starfish, hatian anemone, snowflake eel, more clowns.. well here is my current setup:
60 Gal Tank.
Seaclone 150 protein skimmer
48" moonlight lighting system
1- Clown fish
3- Green Chromis
1- Royal Gamma
1- Pac Blue Tang
1- Yellow tang
a whole bunch of snails/hermit crabs
2- brittle starfish
3- peppermint shrimp
1- coral banded shrimp (haven't seen him for a while :()
5- emerald crabs
 
bdhough

bdhough

Active Member
I agree with JW. I would ditch the blue tang over the yellow. If you do that then a flame angel would fit in nicely or a clown mate for your other clown.
Another thing you need to ask yourself is y did your "reef" tank fail? Did you get corals in there? Or did your tank never get to the point where you could place corals in there? What was dying? If you were having algae problems then something was very wrong with your water chemistry at some point..... If fish were dying then going fish only without correcting the root problem will lead to more fish dying.
EDIT:
Those inverts sound fine. Just make sure they get a little food themselves....
 
snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member
Well what I think happened was I was leaving my light on for way too long and it took me a while to get my protein skimmer in. Algae seriously took over the glass and was covering my rocks, I had 2 anemones in there a carpet and a hatian, both died. I lost 2 green chromis, 1 just disapeared the other I found half dead with a big gash in his side :confused: I had some hammer coral die.. but the weirdest thing was one morning I woke up and saw my decorator crab on top of my brain coral and it was covered in some sort of web... well the crab was dead and the brain hasn't been the same since, he lived threw it but not the same.. Also before my hatain died he went all the way across my tank and I saw him in a cave behind the brain, so I think he may of stung the brain because I think the brain is dead now but I am not sure. It also seems like I am constantly losing inverts because I know I put A LOT more in then there was, right now I have bubble coral, some polyps and a flower cup, the flower cup has never extended its things all the way, kinda half way.. so I know its not happy.. the bubble looked more full in the LFS and so did the polyps but they both seem to be doing ok, all my fish seem happy.. but how can you really tell? I am not too sure on water parameters so I cant tell you that. I am just getting frusterated and dont want to kill anything else and just want a nice looking tank, I find I dont have the time to put into it that a reef system takes so I am just trying to get a nice looking maybe easier to take care of type tank.
 
snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member

Originally posted by jwtrojan44
Not sure about urchins. Don't keep them myself. Some shrimps would not impact on the load. I would think two brittle stars is enough, but if you keep them spot fed, another might be okay. I like to see community tanks with lots of inverts. Makes for a very interesting display. A couple other small active fish like a six line wrasse or purple firefish would work as well.
yeah I really like inverts over my fish.. but they seem to disappear pretty quick.. maybe the starfish are eating them? I put in a coral banded shrimp and he only had 1 claw when he came in and he regrew it.. so I know he was happy for a while.. but I haven't seen him for a couple days.. and he was a big sucker too.. :confused:
 
snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member

Originally posted by jwtrojan44
Not sure about urchins. Don't keep them myself. Some shrimps would not impact on the load. I would think two brittle stars is enough, but if you keep them spot fed, another might be okay. I like to see community tanks with lots of inverts. Makes for a very interesting display. A couple other small active fish like a six line wrasse or purple firefish would work as well.
well the reason I want another starfish is because I really like starfish.. but the ones I have hide in the rock all day so I never get to see them.. so I was thinking if I went all fish I could get a red general and not have to worry about him eating my coral...
 
bdhough

bdhough

Active Member
Hmmm. Interesting. Sounds like you do have some serious water chemistry problems.
First the anemones. How much lighting do you have? If anemones don't have enough wattage of light then they will die. They are very light intensive and require all but metal halides in most tanks to live. If memory serves 60 gallons are very tall. Maybe you have a more square tank. Either way its quite possible your lights just werent enough for the anemones. Yes they do move anywhere in the tank they please. Its quite possible your brain was stung by one and is now in its state that it is.
As far as your decorator crab they are a no no in a reef. They pick at certain corals to use as decoration on their shells.....
If you had the other 2 chromis in addition to the other fish you have now you were more than likely overstocked but something tells me they died a while ago. A gash in his side could have been caused by any number of things attempting to eat him.
As far as your remainnig corals. The flower pot, or goniopora, is an impossible to keep coral. They don't live past 6 months in most cases. Star polyps and bubbles are fairly easy to keep but if they are not expanding very well then its most likely water quality issues.
Brittle/Serpent stars are always under the rocks. If you went fish only a red general would be nice or an urchin. Do a little reasearch and make sure the stars and urchins mix. I have never bought one but seem to remember hearing things about mixing them.
What exactly are you loosing as far as inverts go? I can tell you y for certain inverts....
So with those things in mind. Please check your water parameters. Test everything that you can, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, phosphates, silicates, calcium, alkalinity, and ph. Once we get those established we can better diagnose your tank. One thing i can tell you is that if you've been using tap water as opposed to ro water then i can almost garauntee thats your algae problem. Couple that with the lights and there you go. One final thing with algae problems is overfeeding. It's very easy to do and most people don't realize they are doing it.
With that im off to bed for the night so ill try and asnwer more questions tomorrow.....
 
snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member
well.. I definately will get my water checked before I buy anything else.. but here is a list of some of the inverts that I really like that I want to get, let me know what you think:
Haitian Reef Anemone
Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Pencil Urchin
Flame Scallop
Assort. Nudibranches
Purple Lobster
Hawaiian Feather Duster
Aquacultured Fighting Conch
Coral Banded Shrimp (mated)
Red General Starfish
Horseshoe Crab
 
bdhough

bdhough

Active Member
Those sound fine except for the purple lobster and horeshoe crab. Don't bother with a horseshoe crab, and the purple lobster loves to hide all the time.
How much wattage do you have on your tank? Anemones need very intense light. If you couldn't keep 2 before you won't be able to keep one now. If your water is not right or you don't have enough light they will die within days of purchase....
 
harlequin

harlequin

Member
You seriously need to consider bringing the blue tang back. Too small of a tank for a fish that gets over a foot in length and loves swimming space. If you dont bring it back it will prolly grow to a point and die quickly of stress related illness. PLus if you want all those inverts bringing the blue tang back will help on the water quality issues which all inverts need. By the way the clowns will not usually adopt a hatian anemone, the sting is way more powerful than pacific species and not even the clowns skin coat will protect them in most cases. Anemones require pristine water conditions as well so wait until this algae problem goes away and add a MH light source( I dont remember if you said what your light source was). The blue tang needs to be first priority for its sake though.
 
snowflakejason

snowflakejason

Member
well I do realize the blue tang will be a problem, but I plan on waiting until he gets a little bit bigger before I take him back, hes still just a baby... and really my favorite fish so I dont want to see him go yet :(
I do have a question about the red general starfish, I have used the search feature so I got a little bit of info on him.. but is he going to eat my snails and hermit crabs.. are those considered "sessile" inverts?
 
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