New to Saltwater and need some advice

[jtran012279]

Hey everyone I'm new to saltwater and need some advice on which corals would be best to start off with and where to get the best prices for them.

I have a 90 gallon with approx. 150 lbs live rock if not more, and probably about 80 lbs live sand. I have 175w 10000k halide all the way across but may upgrade if everyone thinks i need to.

What I have in the tank now: 2 chromis, 1 maroon clown, 3 peppermint shrimp, 4 emerald crab, alot of tiny blueleg hermit, alot turbo snail, 1 kenya tree that just started to break off

What other fish or livestock should i think about adding ? I read a few message board and some fish that jumped out were the yellow tang, blue tang, and flame angel but it seem like blue tangs are easily prone to disease and i thought i read somewhere i needed a tank of 100 gallon or more for it...so what other fish should i think about getting along with where to start with corals.

thanks

JT

 

[ouling]

start with mushroom corals and "colt" corals. If your water is good, which means 380+ Calcium, <10PPm nitrate, <1 phosphate and some decent water flow, you can go with some brain and montiporas. Because you already have enough light, I have ALOT OF MONTIpORAs if you are interested. And zoathids are always good.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Hey JT,

A yellow tang and Flame angel are my favorite pair of fish. The look wonderful in contrast to eachother. You could consider a jawfish or yellow watchman goby for a fish that has great personality and later look into a pistol shrimp for some cool interactions.

As fas as corals. 1 x 175W 10K halide is not much light for SPS, but then again I would not care because I really do not like SPS. If you wanted to stay with softies and LPS then your light should be enough. I will look into a nice fragspawn, some zoas, maybe a mushroom or two just to get your feel wet. All that is pretty cheap at PetLand Alph. They always have a nice selection of torch and frogspawn corals. As for mushrooms and some of the softies, you might want to just keep an eye out of the boards. Someone where always has a few to frag off for very cheap (if not free).

Hope that helps and welcome to the Hobby!

 

[jtran012279]

How far is Fayetteville....coming from the Emory area? I'm out of town for the holiday so let me see and i'll pm you ouling... Thanks

how do i know i'm not paying too much for frag? are there set prices etc?

xyz... for the flame angel did you put it in as your last fish? or does it not really matter...yea I've been eyeing the yellow tang and the flame angel at marine fish every time i go in there....any other places you would recommend to buy fish?

 

[george]

How much circulation is there on the tank? And what skimmer are you using?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

QT all you fish together and then it normally does not matter if you add them all at the same time. You are QTing right?!? Of the fish you have in there now the chromis and clown might fight with anything you put in there for a bit but should be ok in the end.

There is no way to know if you are paying too much for a frag when you start out. A coral is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. One of lifes true quagmires! Go to Petland In alph, Once you see what they are charging for "frags" you will then be ready to hit other LFS and see what they have to offer.

 

[george]

Xyzpdq0121;44072 wrote: Go to Petland In alph, Once you see what they are charging for "frags" you will then be ready to hit other LFS and see what they have to offer.

Is this an endorsement or an indictment?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Can it be both?

 

[tennistopspin]

Welcome to ARC, this forum is full of people willing to help out someone new!
With all these nice people, you're sure to get lots of welcoming gifts ...

I have to mushroom rock with about 5 blue/green stripped mushrooms you are free to have, I also have a pink bird's nest that broke off during a rearrangement, so you can have that frag too... had some kenya frags but thats going to another reefer...

PM me and I'll let you know where to pick up.

Best,
David

 

[saltwater junky]

IF U JION ARC I 2 WILL GIVE YOU SOME FREE FRAGS:tongue:, ARC MEMBERSHIP SURE IS WORTH THE FEE .

 

[jeep9783]

U know what i have found, find one person that u have seen there tank and follow them, cause if u take everyones advise then u will end up with alot of dead stuff, just find one person and stick with them the eventually u will make your own way, ouling is one that i would personly trust along with salwater junky and cameron, others i have no ideas but i know that all have helped me and in the end i have yet to kill anything since
ARC

Chris, just my 1 1/2 cents

 

[jtran012279]

I'm already signed up as an ARC member and would love to get some starter frags. I'll PM you all when I get back into town and have a chance to meet up.

Just a thought or idea.....is there a way say in everyone's profile where they can post a pic of their tank or a link? I would like to see some members tank and get some ideas of what they have....there was a forum with members tank pic but not that many was on their like ouling, salwater junky or cameron?

 

[saltwater junky]

Oh I Didnt See The Arc Thing My Bad ,well I Will Frag You Whatever I Can .

 

[jtran012279]

circulation? skimmer? sorry I have no clue how to find out

I have a 90 gallon all glass with pre-drilled mega flow overflow system it used to be my freshwater tank but I thought it was a waste of a tank to be used as a freshwater so I ventured into saltwater. It has 2 heads that come out of the top in the middle and the pump that I'm using is a 115 volt ac/60hz/110 watt/1.5 amps and a few weeks ago I bought hydor koralia powerhead 3 and i'm thinking that's 850 gph but it seems like it can use more circulation so I'm thinking about doing a closed loop when I come back I dont like how this hydor powerhead looks so big in my tank and I'm not sure how 2-3 would look if I decided to add more.

The protein skimmer, I have no clue it is the Proclear Pro 200 Wet/Dry that included the skimmer

This probably isnt the best set up but it's my first saltwater tank and it seems like I learn something new every day. So by the time I start my 2nd tank hopefully I'm at the level where everyone else is.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Hehehe, Ya there is a slight learning curve but don't worry, we all start somewhere. There are pros and cons to everything in saltwater for the most part. Your job is to learn those pros and cons and make the best tank for YOU. I could tell you how to set it up, like my tank but if you do not understand why things work the way they do, you will never be able to keep fish in the long run. Buy a few GOOD books (SW Fish for Dummies does not cut it) and read as much on the web as you can before you make any changes, add anything else that is alive, or spend any money. It is easier (and cheaper) to find the best solution the first or second time you try then to try every way that it can be done just to find out that the first thing you tried was the best.

Where would I start my research?!? Well since you asked, check out

 

[jeep9783]

i can also try n get u some zoa frags for next to nothing, u just bring me some frag plugs n i will hook u up, ouling lives right down the road 2, so u can just make your rounds and i am sure u will end up with a tank full

 

[jtran012279]

thanks everyone for all the offers...but I'm going to have to hold off on the fayetteville offers to later to later if that's ok b/c all of a sudden I think my tank is having diatoms or what looks like it.......salanity: 1.024 - 1.025, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrate 5-10, Tempt 81, ph 8.2-8.4.....I've been using distilled water while I'm waiting to order my RO unit so I'm thinking the diatoms just is coming up b/c of this..... everything in the tank seems healthy so kind of wierd b/c usually I thought diatom form during the cycling stage

some questions.....I was feeding my maroon clown and chromis mysis shrimp and also fed some to the green button polyps I just received and all of a sudden a few of my peppermint shrimp and my emerald crabs started to attack my button polyp....would this hurt or kill my polyp? Am I not feeding these fish and critters enough? I feed flake in the morning and in the evening I feed them mysis shrimp. Everything looks really good...mushroom, polyps, kenya tree....kenya tree started as 1 and now there's about 4 little pieces all over the tank so not sure if I'll be keeping all of those and it seems like they love attaching to a big rock...

 

[wolfie]

peppermint shrimp and my emerald crabs can be a pain in the tank.. They will try to steal food whenever/whereever they can. Keep a close eye on them. Some may even kill corals for food.


I lost a starfish because of the emeral crab and 1 head candycane from the peppermint. Not to scare you, but other have better luck with them.