Suggestions for stocking

[DaveFe]

My 75G should be coming in this friday or saturday, but I won't be setting it up for a while because we are remodeling the part of the house I want to put it in. So I have plenty of time to think about what I want to put in it.
I have some in mind but I'd like to hear from you guys some fish/corals/inverts you like. I'm new to SW so I'm looking for things that are easy to care for, also interesting looks/behaviors are a plus.
Thanks

 

[Dave VG]

Give some more details on your future tank like how much live rock do you plan on having? What type of substrate, lighting etc? That will help people here to better answer your question. I will suggest tho that you do not put crushed coral on that list as the substrate. Especially if you are planning on doing corals. I does look good but It’s a nitrate factory trust me. I made this rookie mistake. I started a FOWLR and had no intentions of having corals. Now I have to tare the whole tank down and replace it with sand because I want to start with corals and I can’t get my nitrates down below 20 ppm. I do have some softies that are doing good But I would like some SPS and LPS. Not possible with nitrate problem. As far as fish stocking goes, docile fish first, aggressive fish last and make lots of hiding spots in your live rock. Types of fish and corals will depend on your setup.

Dave

 

[Piazzon12]

Although they are good cycling fish, I would say stay away from damsels as permanent residents, as they can be too aggressive and hard to catch without tearing apart your rockwork. I have clowns, chromis, a mandarin(although you will have to be well established before getting one), and gobies. I also like firefish but don't personally have any yet.

 

[DaveFe]

I'll probably have about 100 lbs of live rock, I'm thinking about doin a DSB, Idon't know what kind of lights I'm going to have cause I don't know what kinds of corals I want to keep.

 

[Dave VG]

The lighting is a big part of keeping corals. Maybe we could help you with your choice when you decide what corals you want to keep. I just bought Nova Extreme T-5 light Fixture with two 10000°K T-5 HO lamps, two 460nm Actinic and four Lunar Lights. This is a nice light for the money IMO.

Dave

 

[DaveFe]

I don't know much about corals that's why I was asking you guys for suggestions , I was thinkign about T-5 because it sounds like you can keep quite a few different corals and not have to deal with as many of the heat issues as MH lights.

 

[Dave VG]

I'm just starting with corals also. nwrogers and drbrox are pretty much the coral guru’s here that I know of anyway. Maybe one of them will chime in.

Dave

 

[drbronx]

T-5s are certainly a good way to go. You can keep a full range of corals given suffiecient number and selection of bulbs. Keep in mind, every choice of lighting or anything else for that matter has relative positives and negatives. Since you are not in a rush, take your time and do your research. Also check out local reefers tanks so you can see in person, different types of corals and system arrangements.

 

[DaveFe]

Thanks, I've spent so much time researching setting up a tank I almost forgot to figure out what I was actually going to put in it. From looking at pics online and on this site, a few things I like are bubble coral, frospawn, hammer, also all the different colors of zoas seem cool. Any advice on corals of these types and ones similar to them?

 

[nwrogers]

Bubble coral, frogspawn, and hammer corals all fall into the category of LPS corals. Zoas usually fall into the category of soft corals. Both LPS corals and soft corals generally fall into the category of requiring moderate lighting. These corals would do fine under most any lighting except NO (normal output) florescent. I am not a huge fan of PC lighting so I would say unless you can get one really cheep I would stay away from them. VHO lighting is nice and IMO the VHO super actinic is one awesome bulb! I can’t comment on T5 lighting since I have never used it but many people seem to like it. I have only seen two tanks with T5 lighting in person and in one the colors seemed very washed out and the other had only been setup for a week so it was too early to tell anything. I think the tank with the washed out colors could have been that way because of the bulb selection. From what I read bulb selection with T5 is very important. Anyway my favorite lighting by far is metal halide. It has been around for a very long time and has time and time again proved to be an excellent lighting choice for soft corals, LPS corals, and SPS corals. My favorite bulb right now is the XM 10k SE with VHO super actinic. The growth with these bulbs is amazing, the colors are awesome, and the visually appearance of the fish and tank in general is perfect. I chose the 175W XM 10k bulbs for both my 150 SPS tank and for my 65 LPS and soft coral tank. Just to give you an idea of how nice a tank can be with 175W 10K bulbs and VHO super actinic bulbs just check out David Playfair's tank…

For me that just about sums it up…

Perfect

Here is his website: http://mistressreef.homestead.com