I had asked Hy a few questions through PM and thought the info he passed along to me might be of interest to others that had been following along. I've posted it below.
Tank is doing very well. I rearranged some rock after one tipped over and will post a picture tonight of the slightly modified arrangement. All kind of stuff living and moving around in the tank. Unfortunately I still have what sounds like a mantis shrimp in there somewhere. Grrrr....I thought I had gotten every last one.
I bought a 75 gallon tank used from a guy and when I picked it up he game me some Xenia that he was trimming out of his tank. He said take it or I'm just going to throw it away, so I decided to take it and see how it did. Two pieces of attached pretty well and seem to be doing ok.
In the process of adding them I also decided that the two MaxiJet 1200s I'm using for circulation are just too powerful for a tank that size and I'm going to downside to a couple of smaller pumps in the next week or so. The 1200s are probably much better suited for the 75.
Here's the chat I had with Hy:
Your tank will do fine for several weeks without extra target feedings. You will still undergo some diatom and hair algae blooms, which will feed your hermits and snails. The Condy and Rockflower anemones are photosynthetic, and will get a lot of their needs from your lights.
Your clams, feather dusters, etc. will benefit from phytoplankton (either Kent's Phytoplex or DT's; I hear better things about DT's), but don't need to be fed immediately. Take a flashlight to your tank late at night, and see how much floating particles you have in your water. That's good[\b]. Those particles feed your filter feeders. I did not feed phytoplankton for about 1 month. I'm now feeding 2-3x/week with phyto. I just got a syringe setup with a tube so that I can target the clams and feather dusters closer. (I'd use the turkey baster, except that mine leaks...) I've just been dumping phyto into the tank so far at the recommended dose (x tsp/y gallon)
You will note that I refrained from adding fish to my tank for 3 weeks after Part II arrived. If you can possibly do that, that's fine. During that time, I did target feed the anemones with a pea-sized piece of shrimp or silversides 2x/week.
Once I had fish in the main tank, I reduced my anemone feeding to about 1x/week. In spite of that, both my anemones have grown much larger. The anemones seem to be able to pick up pieces of frozen (defrosted) formula 1 or brine to supplement their photosynthesis. The hitchhiking corals seem to be fine with that too. The fish get 1 piece of Nori clipped to a clip 1x/day, and a dose of {flake/pellet/frozen} 1x/day.
As you stock up with additional corals or fish, use my rule of thumb--no more than 1 fish/month (unless they need to be paired, such as clowns), until fully populated.
Tank is doing very well. I rearranged some rock after one tipped over and will post a picture tonight of the slightly modified arrangement. All kind of stuff living and moving around in the tank. Unfortunately I still have what sounds like a mantis shrimp in there somewhere. Grrrr....I thought I had gotten every last one.
I bought a 75 gallon tank used from a guy and when I picked it up he game me some Xenia that he was trimming out of his tank. He said take it or I'm just going to throw it away, so I decided to take it and see how it did. Two pieces of attached pretty well and seem to be doing ok.
In the process of adding them I also decided that the two MaxiJet 1200s I'm using for circulation are just too powerful for a tank that size and I'm going to downside to a couple of smaller pumps in the next week or so. The 1200s are probably much better suited for the 75.
Here's the chat I had with Hy:
Your tank will do fine for several weeks without extra target feedings. You will still undergo some diatom and hair algae blooms, which will feed your hermits and snails. The Condy and Rockflower anemones are photosynthetic, and will get a lot of their needs from your lights.
Your clams, feather dusters, etc. will benefit from phytoplankton (either Kent's Phytoplex or DT's; I hear better things about DT's), but don't need to be fed immediately. Take a flashlight to your tank late at night, and see how much floating particles you have in your water. That's good[\b]. Those particles feed your filter feeders. I did not feed phytoplankton for about 1 month. I'm now feeding 2-3x/week with phyto. I just got a syringe setup with a tube so that I can target the clams and feather dusters closer. (I'd use the turkey baster, except that mine leaks...) I've just been dumping phyto into the tank so far at the recommended dose (x tsp/y gallon)
You will note that I refrained from adding fish to my tank for 3 weeks after Part II arrived. If you can possibly do that, that's fine. During that time, I did target feed the anemones with a pea-sized piece of shrimp or silversides 2x/week.
Once I had fish in the main tank, I reduced my anemone feeding to about 1x/week. In spite of that, both my anemones have grown much larger. The anemones seem to be able to pick up pieces of frozen (defrosted) formula 1 or brine to supplement their photosynthesis. The hitchhiking corals seem to be fine with that too. The fish get 1 piece of Nori clipped to a clip 1x/day, and a dose of {flake/pellet/frozen} 1x/day.
As you stock up with additional corals or fish, use my rule of thumb--no more than 1 fish/month (unless they need to be paired, such as clowns), until fully populated.
)
