Some pointers

[Jasongreene41]

I have a 100 gal hex and 2 snowflake clowns with a blue tang trying to build a colorful reef tank for my children. I'm new to salt water. Haveing trouble trying to put it together. Any ideas on compatible tank mates and corals? Tired of buying bad ideas. Thanks guys.

 

[Nina51]

welcome to RC. not sure what you mean by "tired of buying bad ideas" but you should be aware that your tank is much too small for pretty much any tang. tangs need larger, LONGER tanks.

you can go to liveaquaria.com and spend hours looking at all of the different fish. they also give you very specific requirements for each fish and what it takes to care for them. there are lots and lots of fish with great personalities and color that would be appropriate for your tank.

there is also a sticky thread in the "new to forum" section here where steve (snorvich) will look at your tank size and stocking wishes and advise you what will work. you will need to have a specific stock list for him to look at as he doesn't give suggestions as to what fish you should get.

good luck with your tank. i'm sure your kids are thrilled!

 

[Jasongreene41]

Cool thanks. Buying the tang is one of the bad ideas I'm talking about. I had 2 chocolate chip stars as well. Found out quick that was a bad idea as it ate all my snails. Not to mention all the pain and hard hours of keeping the tang from dying of ich and parasites it had when I got it. Brought it back from death twice. Kinda attached to the tang now. I have a 90 gal I can turn to salt when it gets bigger than a Ritz cracker.

 

[Nina51]

ugh! so, the tang had ich when you bought it? i assume you don't use a quarantine protocol so if the tang had ich and the clowns were exposed to it, there's a good chance they will come down with it, too. what procedures did you use to "bring it back from death"? if the tang had ich and he was already in your display tank (as opposed to a qt), then ich will be in your tank as long as there are fish in there to act as a host to the parasite.

even a 90g tank won't be big enough. if you go to liveaquaria.com, you will see that these tangs require a 180g tank, minimum. also, most tangs are ich magnets. that's not to say you won't get one that will be perfectly healthy and not have ich but of all the fish available to us, tangs are probably the ones most likely to have it pop up.

i'm also gonna assume that you bought everything at a local store. given that you are new to the hobby, unless you are dealing with an ethical bunch of store employees, they can and will tell you anything to make a sale...i.e., 10 gallon tank? sure, you can put 3 tangs in there, no problem...that sort of thing.

nothing in this hobby is more important than patience AND researching every single live thing that you think you want to add to your tank.

 

[Jasongreene41]

I have a Qt tank. I cured it of ich and Parasites with malachite green and fresh water dips. That was neat to watch. then a bacterial infection I cured with... can't find the box but it worked. And melafix is a dream. Read about skunk cleaner shrimp and got 2. Was going to get a cleaner wrasse but read not to with fish with Sensitive skin.

 

[Betta132]

Cleaner shrimp don't prevent ich.

 

[Jasongreene41]

I know. But they do parasites.

 

[Nina51]

glad to know you have a qt! cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasses don't prevent parasites. they may pick them off of an infected fish but no, they won't cure it.

 

[snorvich]

I know. But they do parasites.

No they do not. Unfortunately your tank still has ich. Your treatment did not cure the problem, it just deferred it due to the life cycle of ich where visible symptoms come and go.

 

[Jasongreene41]

Where are you getting this? These were all old problems long cured (in a qt tank) The tang is healthy and has been for a month. It was a headache but enjoyed the experience. Now back to the question at hand. I want to put corals in eventually but am taking my time in doing so. What I don't want is to buy another fish that won't work with the grand scheme. Do y'all have a favorite that goes with clowns and most corals? The water and health of the fish are up to specks. Its no where near as hard as my planted tank. Im no amateur with fish just new to the salt water.

 

[Jasongreene41]

And to settle the parasite thing I don't have any any more it's just a precautionary thing. I want shrimp so might as well get some that do something.

 

[gone fishin]

Since no one but you knows your taste in the type of fish and coral it is difficult to help with your grand scheme. As Nina pointed out Live aquaria is a great place to browse fish and coral to see what you like.

If you did have ich then I beg to differ that your tank is up to speck given your treatment. That is just my 2 cents. I wish you good luck.

 

[snorvich]

Where are you getting this?

As per your request. Here you go.

 

[Jasongreene41]

Does anybody know the definition of ******? What's the point of a quarantine tank? It went in Quarantine as soon as it got home. For a month. It never went in main tank. How does the main tank have ich? Jesus people. I have 6 large tanks all with different fish from Africa to south America and the clearest no Maintenance koi pond. Good options for fish to narrow my reading by a month or two. Not pick out my tank for me. Just a few to pick from cause all my choices clash with one thing or another.

 

[Nina51]

I cured it of ich and Parasites with malachite green and fresh water dips.

ok, so you have a qt. good. i don't know anything about malchite green but i do know that fresh water dips don't "cure" anything.

are you saying the fish is still in your qt and you have never put it in your dt?

just trying to understand the methods here.

 

[guserto4]

There's a few things to note here:

This saltwater thing is waay more of a pita to keep happy and healthy consistently then freshwater. It's not to rocket science to get a tank to last 3 months but it can be to keep everything happy for years. You're not new to aquariums. That's good. But yousaid yourself you are to salt. Soo, the advice you got is warranted, you just don't know it yet.

You got a little bit of a smack on the wrists with the tang. Understand the tang police exist and for decent reason- too often people get incompatible fish with their tanks and while fish may be happy while they are tiny, they will get bigger and the concern is thinking about its home over the life of the fish. Just be glad you didn't mention getting a shark. That's is always an inevitable pile on in this forum.

Tangs are prone to ich. They just are. They also need long lengths of horizontal swim room (4-6' minimum, depending on particular kind of tang) to not stress out and make themselves prone to disease, like ich. Probably part of the reason they have the ich wrap is bc they are all too often in too small a tank to keep them from getting stressed out. If you QT'd you may have still introduced ich to your display tank bc ich runs in cycles- to properly get rid of ich, take a look in the new to the hobby forum, there's a sticky there explaining tank transfers and hypo salinity, etc. you Probably have introduced ich to your DT if the fish was not showing signs of ich but ich was in a non sign showing part of it's lifecycle. 1 month is not long enough to break that cycle. I subscribe to 12 week QT. It allows a few life cycles of the nastys to run through, let's the fish recoup from all the traveling it's done and allows it to start to eat and build it's immunity back up before being introduced to its tanks friends or frienamies. If your DT had ich to get rid of it you will have to remove all fish and treat them separately using either tank transfers, hyposinity, etc. AND you will have to let your DT run fallow longer than the ich life cycle to get rid of what's in a dormant stage which will spring to life and infect what is in the tank that isn't strong enough to live with it.

You've had some seriously knowledgable people give you reasonable advice in this thread. If you want to keep fish alive long term I'd suggest listening. You can decide you know best but you came asking for advice and people gave it. When the tang gets sick again perhaps you will be more apt for advice.

Calm down, learn more about the hobby (there's more like years worth of knowledge to read for saltwater, not months) and you will have success. Poke around this forum more, watch other people get slammed for the same things you have done, and you will build up the SW expertise. The key to saltwater (especially if you get into corals- there's around 10 water parameters to keep in check) is knowledge & patience. Every good reefer strives to gain more of both.

Happy reefing!

 

[rjallen]

Folks, I have read and reread this thread and there is a lot of assumption, miscommunication and word filling in here.

My read says the OP has a QT tank and quarantined his tang. The ich events happened IN THE QT tank. He treated & cured his fish BEFORE placing it in his 100 cube. Many of you have have never heard of Malachite Green??? While copper, tank transfer. hypo and using various anti malarial drugs are the current most popular anti ich treatments, Malachite Green CAN cure ich. Its slower than copper and sometimes works too slowly to save a severely infected fish but, used properly, is less stressful on fish. I have cured ich with this several times over the years. MG is the primary active ingredient of Paraguard manufactured by Seachem. They also manufacture Cupramine, widely accepted as the BEST copper based formulation for ich. Hikari also makes a MG based ich product. MG is a valid choice under certain circumstances. So I accept what the original poster stated- his tang was cured before placing him in his DT. He DID NOT say he had the fish in QT for a month. He said the fish had been healthy for a month. I assume, after completing treatment and quarantine. He never said how long this process of quarantine lasted. Why assume he knows nothing. Please read carefully before passing judgement
My point is please lighten up and help this person with his original request for stocking advise for his 100 cube tank. Yeah, he has made and admitted to making mistakes like we all have in the past. He is looking for help lets give it to him.

RJ

 

[Nina51]

well ok then!

to the OP, if you don't care about having shrimp in your tank, a pair of longnose hawkfish will provide hours of entertainment.

for vibrant color, hardiness and a really social fish, a royal gramma.

replace the blue tang with a kole tang.

a goby/pistol shrimp combo is great fun to watch. your kids would love it! gobys look like little frowny faced cartoon characters. they are SOOO cute!

if you have a cover on your tank (and you should!), a yellow coris wrasse would add a splash of yellow. beautiful fish and once they get over their shyness when first introduced, they are always out parading around and picking at the rocks for goodies.

stay away from the cute little inexpensive damsel fish you see all the time. they are extremely aggressive and will cause havoc in a peaceful tank.

again, go to liveaquaria.com and you can narrow your search down by first looking at the "beginner fish" category. lots of good ideas there. you will want to stay away from anything that requires even "moderate" care as opposed to "easy". the last thing you want is to get a difficult-to-care-for fish that might not survive when you have little kiddos.

all of the fish i suggested, i have in my 75g dt, among others that i did not suggest because i don't think you're ready for them. just my 2 cents.