2manytanks

ChefFish - Sounds like you're well on the way between the set-up you bought and the advice you've been given. One thing I would like to re-inforce is what bosshog told you, the lights you have should be OK for the tank and livestock you have now, if the tank is only 24" deep, and you have a substrate layed down bringing everything even closer to the lights, and the softies are sitting on rocks even closer to the lights, then you should have no problems at all. It's not necessary for you to put out the big bucks for more extravagant lighting. If you decide to get in to hard corals you may want to change to something brighter like MH. At the same time, whether necessary or not, the shimmer provided in the water by MH lighting is just the greatest. As to the old line about sponges etc. being "nitrate factories", I'm tired of hearing that, and in my opinion it's bull. If not regularly cleaned any type of filtration is going to produce nitrates. If you want to keep your tank and water clean and sparkling you have to remove the solids, and whatever material you choose to remove the solids with has to be cleaned or replaced itself - or yeah - it's going to produce nitrates. Likewise, if you leave the solids in the tank and water, guess what, they'll just settle somewhere else and produce the same by-products there. Any filter that adds too the problem just isn't being kept clean enough, period, and I'd rather clean and replace the cloth and foam filters in my sump than than the sump itself and the tank. And as to nitrates, with a live sand bed and live rock you really won't find it to be of much concern once it has settled in, they really are remarkable at keeping the water clean - but you are still going to have solid waste. You may find in the future that your protein skimmer may be a bit too little for your tank, a really good protein skimmer is abbout the best investment you can make. Oh and a good clean up crew like sand sifter stars and gobies, and sand dollars to stir up the sand and keep it clean. Have fun.

OK, first two items that jump to mind are - you don't need a bubbler in the sump - good water flow and the protein skimmer will take care of aerating the water. Also, if you're going to use a wavemaker I'd suggest staying away from the Koralia's. When you fire up the Koralia's the armature bounces around a bit before settling in to position - no problem if it's getting turned on and staying on, but horribly noisy and annoying (and probably hard on the pump) when it's constantly being cycled on and off. I've been playing around with spacers on the armature shaft to prevent it from bouncing out but discovered that if it isn't allowed that movement, it will, more often than not, wind up turning backwards and pushing the water the wrong direction. I'm going to hunt around on the internet to see if someone else has come up with a cure. If you're going to use live sand you don't really need as much live rock - it's still a good idea, but it does use up real estate that you may find you want for swimming room for the fish. I'm not up on hermit crabs but I know that many will eat coral, and even if they don't, many corals do not take kindly to the hermits crawling around on them. Don't get a mandarin until you're tank has been up for 6 months to a year, you need to build up a good population of 'pods for them to eat. Crabs and shrimp don't mix too well - shrimp are good food. You may want to stay away from Damsel's, they're such mean little beasts that almost everyone of us who has had them has wound up looking for new homes for them. If you do get some, make sure they are the last fish in the tank, let the other fish have at least a few months to settle in and establish their territories and pecking order before you add the damsels. If you're going for a sand substrate I would highly suggest a good clean-up crew for it. Some sand sifting stars and dragon gobies, maybe even sand dollars to keep it mixed up and clean. Good luck.

The link he sent was for live rock. Real nice price, but remember that's US dollars, and I'll bet the free shipping is only to the 48 continental states - you may wind up paying a mint for shipping and duty and brokerage fees. You probably would do better to hunt around locally like bignose said.

Hmmm.... Nothing for $0 isn't a bad deal, but won't make for much of a tank. We can't look at your shopping cart I guess.

Sounds territorial to me. But they are curious and will check things out like someone else said. I used to have one that loved to be petted, pretty much anytime I put my hands in the tank I could manhandle him to no end, he loved it. That's one of the things I like about fish, they really do have more personality and intelligence than the vast majority of people give them credit for.

Functionally, that is no different than useing a standpipe. The main reason for having a curve in the standpipe is to cut down on the noise of the water falling through the pipe, if you were to drill through the side of the tank I would still suggest useing a bulkhead and curved pipe on the inside of the tank to cut down on the noise. I would be concerned though, about the structural integrity of the tank wall after having a hole drilled through it and still having the same load on it.

Ya, it worked out good - I was really surprised at the number of people that came out. And it gives us a little glimmer of hope for the salt situation in the area, I'm amazed at how many people locally are into salt or starting out, even if Jim doesn't end up getting a store going at least there's new opportunities for us all once we get to know each other. I'll send you a PM with my number and stuff tonight if you wanna see my xenia pond.

See you there in a few hours Shar. Too cool, he only lives 1 block south of me - I can walk.

I toyed with the idea, mostly because I have to clean the growth off my tank sides everyday in my SW tank. But decided against it as that phytoplankton I introduce to the water stream when I clean it off the tank sides is an important food source for my corals - I used to pay good money for live phytoplankton when I could get it. In a FW, fish only or Fowler SW tank it seem likes a good idea.

You're right, the trigger and the tang are definitely out for a 30g tank. I don't know how big your tang is or how it's behaving, but even small it would benefit from a larger tank, they just aren't comfortable without some swimming space. Never had blenny's myself, but most gobies (stay away from mandarins though, you don't have enough real estate to grow the food they need) and clownfish are a good choice. You have enough room for a smaller species of anemone for the clownfish to host in, something like a bubbletip anemone and some percula or oscellaris clowns. Don't know about your lighting, with a small tank like that you'd do OK with soft corals with good power compact or T5 lighting, things like mushrooms, xenia, colt coral, GSP and zooanthids. A bubbletip anemone would also do well in this lighting - stick with a darker anemone, nothing white in this kind of lighting, the lighter anemones need brighter light. You should have a protein skimmer, particularly if you're getting into corals. Sorry I can't help more, I'm kind of bagged and brain dead right now. Let us know more details, and just keep reading, learning is the most exciting part.

Home Depot has a not bad selection too.

What? You got rid of the smaller tank and ending up setting up another one right where the older one had been? Sounds like me. 8) Looks good.

I can't make much sense of your writing, but from what I can see it doesn't look like you're useing an overflow, without everything being absolutely airtight and able to withstand the pressure you are going to have problems. An overflow would solve the problems, properly adjusted it allows only enough water to flow from your tank to fill the filter.

I agree, looks like Majano, they are nice looking and seemingly harmless little anemones, but they will take over and crowd everyone else out. I made the mistake of feeding some before I found out what they were like.

Welcome to the forum. Got any pic's to share?