The LFS said there is a pipefish I can put in my reef

[Mad_Reefer]

Is there a pipefish that will do well in a reef aquarium with tangs and such? These are the details.
This tank has had some salt water in it since about 8/31/2009. I know many ways that I would like to make this system better but I am VERY happy with it considering how much money I have spent. Someday I might have more money and be able to set it up the way I really want.
180 Gallon glass used tank. I resealed the whole tank and built a coast to coast overflow with black acrylic. It still has towers in each corner but with a coast to coast piece that stretches between the towers.
I have one of each Koralia 2, 3, and 4 for additional flow. I would like more but that is what I have now.
My live rock is: 50 pounds of new Utah rock (LBTR); 45 pounds of new Fiji base rock; 45 pounds premium Fiji rock that is two years old; and 40-50 pounds miscellaneous rock that I accumulated over the years.
I guess my sand is about 200-300 pounds of fine Utah oolite sand.
I have 3x 250 watt stealth heaters, one in the sump and two in the back of display.
Lighting: 1 250 watt basic Odyssea fixture; 1 Corallife 216 watt (4x54) T5 and I'm not sure of the bulbs but 2 daylight and 2 actinic; 1 Odyssea 3 foot 4x T6 HO fixture with 3 daylight and 1 actinic.
Sump is a Rubbermaid tote that is 55 gallon total volume. I have a Remora Pro skimmer with a mag 9 pump. Chaeto fills most the space with room for one Maxi-jet 1200 for extra flow and 2x Rio HF 12 for returns. Also I have a maxi-jet 900 or 1200 pumping water to the mangrove bucket. The mangrove bucket is a 7 gallon bucket. It is about ¼ full of sand and has about 14 mangroves that are growing nicely. The drain is placed about half way up the side of the bucket. The mangrove bucket is in the window and gets a good amount of sunlight. The sump has a 65 watt CF spiral twist bulb over it; I think the spectrum is about 6500K.
I built the stand myself out of 1x pine, wood glue, liquid nails, and coated with outdoor polyurethane.
I connected two 5 gallon buckets with bulkheads and plumbing for an ATO reservoir that drains to a float valve drilled onto the side of the sump.
I use BulkReefSupply.com #1 2 part mix at about 100ml per day.
And that is about it.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.

 

[namxas]

flagfin (Doryhamphus sp.) pipes do quite well in reef setups. in fact, i kept a pair of Janss' (D. janssi) in my reef for a number of years and they did very well. the other flagfins i'd recommend are bandeds (D. dactyliophorus) or bluestripes (D. excisus). one caveat is that to keep more than one bluestripe, you MUST have a M-F pair, as males will fight to the death, even in larger setups.

also, i'd recommend the first two species over the latter, as bluestripes are a smaller species (4").

altho multibandeds (D. mulitilineatus) and yellow-bandeds (D. pessuliferus) are often available, and are indeed pretty, they have poor survival rates, even in the hands of experienced keepers, so i'd stay away from them.

the other type of pipes that do well in reefs are the dragon-faced pipes (genus Corythicthys), which slither around the rockwork and coral rather than swim. these pipes have small snouts and can sometimes be a challenge to feed, but do well once they're established.

you'll need to get both types onto frozen foods, as your tank is still a tad young to have a heavy pod population, and even then, a pair of hungry pipes can clean a tank out in short order. your QT would be a good place to train them, but if they don't get the idea, you'll probably have to feed them live pods and BS (or BBS for the DF's) to get them over the hump. in fact, mixing a bit of frozen food with their live is a good training technique.

on last thought: those !@#$%^& Koralias or any other in-tank pumps or PH's will need some type of guard on them to keep the pipes our of them. they have been known to stick their heads into them and... if you don't want to mod them, or aren't DIY inclined, replace them with the Koralia nanos which come with a guard on them.

HTH

 

[D3monic_Urges]

 

[theisdept]

Do they ever go off frozen?