Time to Add to the Nano- I need you're help~

[chicagophil]

So its about that time, when the stars are aligned and everything just seems right in the tank. Recent Aquascaping of my 24gal Nano has made alot of room for fish and other creatures to hide and swim about. I am looking to Add some fishes and other creatures to the tank and would really like some experianced thoughts on the additons.

Essentially I want a community reef tank. I will outline the Setup and Contents below. I really want my tank to continue to look like its growing in front of my very own eyes. Any Tips would also be appreciated.


Setup-
24Gal Nano
150W MH
Tunze Protein Skimmer
Korilia Nano power head
regualr filter sponge media for mechanical too
25% water changes ever 3 weeks. - I use Reef Crystals salt.
Tank has been up for 3 months at my place, but the LR and sandbed have been undisturbed for 15 months Coraline is growing at a fantastic rate.

Feed-
1 cube frozen mysis every 3 days
pellet food every other day
Marine Snow 1 Capfull per 20Gallons Plankton
1/8 teaspoon Coral frenzy every 3rd day- sometime direct feeding the polpyed corals.


Contents-
1 terratorial Coral Banded Shrimp- who i think is aggrsseive
1 True Percula - I don't know if he would host an Anemone
1 Royal Gramma - very aggressive probably going to give him away to someone- Looking for more peaceful fishies.
1 Emerald Crab- loves clean'n the rock
1 molly miller blenny- newbie of the tank, might get killed my the shrimp
2 huge brittle stars- They knock everything over when i feed the tank anything one 8in diameter, other 6in diameter.
10-15 turbo snails- which i think 5 may be dead ....there were a large pile of shells without occupants for 3 weeks that i removed...i think the shrimp or the starfishs ate them.
20 Little Narcisus hermit crabs

Corals-
4-5 different Mushroom variety
1 large branching trumpet coral
some Colt Coral
Green hairy mushrooms
2 types of Xenia
some large polpys of some kind
little bit of frog spawn
a few Zoos
1 bit of brain coral- gowing well
green star polpys- growing like mad
white star polipys which have not opened since i put them in 1 month ago- do you think they are dead? maybe 1 star opened if that
1 stalk of kenya tree that is growing nicely
well i think that is about it- I am trying to manage my evaporation- does anyone have any ideas of figuring that out? It really swung this week. I used to have it where the skimmer would make a sound when it got low...then i did a water change and that threw it off.

Additions & Subtractions- That is where you the reader comes in
I am interested in removing the Royal gramma simply because it gives my clown hell all the time. I have noticed the Blenny hidding in the coolest places. I would really like some more sneaky guys like them. If i remove the gramma, the only fish i will have is going to be the clown- what fish go with them? The people at the LFS have been wrong about aggression in the past- so i am no longer going to listen to them.


additions- Anemones? thoughts- i don't know if my clown will host. i do not know if it was caught or if it was tank bred. Also, anything that would hangout in my Rockwork and enjoy the protection. really i have been enjoying my Blenny's habits, right now i can;t locate him- i hope the shrimp didn;t work his magic. Also, Tangs If someone is breeeding them i would love a couple little ones that i could grow until they get too big for the tank then i can pass them along and get more- or by that time graduate into a slightly bigger tank. Any ideas or tips for mysetup would be appreciated. More economical purchases would please my betterhalf, she gets to pick the next fish.
if someone has some fish or other stuff they think would work well in my tank, i can trade you for it or we could figure out some monetary exchange. Sadly i have traded with persons who Knowingly had Ich in their tank - luckily caught by a local fishman who knew the trader. This tank has never seen the likes of that disease.
I really would like a Mandarin goby in my tank. I realize they need to be hand fed since i dont have a refugium- but they look sweet and swim really smoothly - thoughts?
I live near Living Sea Aquarium and have been very pleased with the quality of live stock from there. Has anyone had issues with their fish?

Oh, no jumpers please- i really enjoy my fishtank without a lid the glimmer on the ceiling reminds me of scuba.( does that mess with evaporation?)

Another side question, I am thinking about changing out my sponge filter to put a mesh bag filled with live rock- does anyone have any thoughts on this practice? i figure more LR the better for this size of a tank.

anyone need a royal gramma? (chicagoland NW side)

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Unfortunetly, i have little experience in the hobby but from what i read you might want to consider instead of a bag of LR in place of the mesh filter, maybe a bag of carbon? You would probably see more improvement with a bag of carbon over a bag of LR. This is all just from what i read that was written by Randy H.F. over in the chem forum, so take it with a grain of salt as its coming from a newb.

 

[Illuminati]

Tangs are not tank bred and are in NO WAY small enough to keep. It's inhumane to even put a small one on a tank that size.
Mandarin's also need more care than your tank can provide (Hand feed????). They only eat pods so without a large tank and lots of liverock the pods cannot reproduce quick enough.

If you remove the Gramma you can get a more peaceful relative like a Blackcap Basslett.
With that you can look into gobies, cardinafish and dartfish as they are peaceful and are smaller.

 

[Sound]

I disagree on the Mandarin only because I've kept one in my 12 gallon nano for about 2 years now and he's been fine. It's not too hard to trian them to eat frozen.

 

[lukeeee1990]

as a little advice for ur evpouration, perhaps consider a clear plastic / glass condensation tray, this way u get to keep the ripple effect, if u didnt want to do that, clip on a fan to the tank to direct away the heat from the MH light, as these produce ALOT of heat which is largely contributing to ur evapouration

 

[FiShTaCo]

Best thing for evaporation is a bucket of R/O and a JBJ ATO system. About $80. and well worth the money. Being open top does make it evaporate quicker.

Use Chemi Pure Elite....best reef carbon IME & a lot of others. One bag every two months or so should suffice. Make sure you do weekly water changes of 10% total water volume and this will help ensure regularity. I use Kent Nano part A & B additives daily to every other day while testing my parameters and it brings up all levels perfectly in my fully stocked 12g.


First thing I'd do as far as livestock is remove that coral banded shrimp....he will continue to become more aggressive towards small inhabitants. PITA! The royal gramma sounds second to be evicted. If you like these fish just get one later, after the other fish you choose are acclimated. Please do not get a mandarin , even though some may have short term success, these are not nano fish & will eventually starve. If you like the blenny fish....look into a watchman goby/shrimp pair, very cool. For another swimmer I would try a chalk bass...look at www.liveaquaria.com under nano fish.