triggerhappy Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) hey all. i'm fairly new to saltwater keeping but have lots of exp with freshwater. ive had my 180gal salt tank running for over a month now and no problems thus far. i decided to try and fast track the cycling process by adding over half a large bottle of 'Nutrafin Cycle' and a small bottle of "Weiss Bacter Boost'. both say it will help cycle your tank but the "Weiss' product says it can do it in two days! here we are a month later with approx 65lbs of live rock,40lbs of live sand, 60lbs of live crushed coral and shells. and a tank full of triggers and a few damsels.....all eating healthy and with water in their proper parameters. im looking to add some more color to my tank but realize triggers eat almost anything. any ideas as to what to add? any corals anemones or other things that could co exist with the triggers would be appreciated. at the moment i have a clown trigger, humu humu (picasso), blackbelly, a small clown lookalike with small spikes over his body (id love to know the name of this guy), a rectangle or triangle trigger, an undulate (most aggressive), a dog faced puffer and two yellow tail damsels and two normal blue damsels. i wouldn"t usually add so many fish in such a short period of time but it seems some of my roommates also had their eyes on fish too. when i said i was gonna put triggers into the tank they went out trigger shopping. they are here now and the only one is really not sure of is the undulate....otherwise everything seems to be fine. i also have a 29gal nano cube that im using as my coral/anemone tank. with two black clownfish and a flame angel. they all get along well and have grown up together. soon enough ill be looking to turn my top 180gal tank into a reef type tank. can i use my normal canister filters (two rena xp4) and some powerheads. would that be sufficient filtration? i know flow is a big factor in reef keeping so i might need some pointers if there are any. thank you. Edited April 23, 2009 by triggerhappy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Just starting out myself, just reading/research so far (and saving my money for those Metal halides... ). So I may not be right, feel free to correct me. From what I understand puffers generally try to sample everything they think is edible and most corals and anemones don't survive the sampling. I would like to know about the canisters too, from what I see people are *very* divided over it - but *most* agree a skimmer at least 2x the gallonage listed is preferred, many even say 3x - you can turn it off for a few hours if necessary, but you won't have to upgrade if you a bit heavy on feeding. Corals like light and current to varying degrees, but many seem to like lots of light and a fair bit of current 10-15x gallonage moving seems to be the minimum as there will be calmer spots for corals which don't enjoy so much current. Powerheads would work, but I saw a very adjustable "water fan" somewhere that is supposed to do better, don't ask me where, I am haven't looked for it quite yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggerhappy Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) i should mention that on the running 180gal salt i have a cascade1500 and a fluval fx5 and both seem to be handeling the load without a problem...so far. i also have an external power head that would probably push lots more if i were to get a larger intake hose... ive heard the same for the puffer, but the triggers apparently have the same interest in 'tasting' everything as well. when i got my live rock it was covered in little plants and colorful algae...now its just algae..lol. i was mostly just wondering if there was anything someone had found that worked well with these teeth type of fish that would add color...maybe just other, faster fish.... Edited April 23, 2009 by triggerhappy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bignose Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Sounds like you have a FOWLR(fish only with live rock) tank or predator tank. I don't think you can really add to that but I'm no expert. Like crystal said there is divided opinions on canister filters mainly because they collect alot of ditrius and can create nitrates which are horrible to SW tanks. But people have used them without problems and swear by them. They are great for media like phosphate remover and carbon if you don't have a sump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggerhappy Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 hope those canister guys are right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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