Too much at once? Ordering inverts+corals online

[stevie1493]

Hey all I have been browsing RC for a few years now and finally decided to pull the trigger and sign up

A couple weeks ago I had what I believed to be velvet wipe out the fish in my almost two year old reef tank, which happens to be my first RT. I was quite attached to my fish.. needless to say I was devastated. After reading up on velvet I understand that it is best practice to maintain a fallow period for 70+ days in order to ensure the parasite is starved out. I plan on moving out of my current home in late spring/summer 2017 and don't want to purchase new fish since after quarantine they will be moving with me only a few short months later.. So I have decided that instead of re-stocking my tank with fish, I will purchase some new corals/inverts and grow them out in my current tank over the course of the next 6 months so that when I move and upgrade to a larger tank I will already have established inverts+corals which are acclimated to my light, maintenance routine, and husbandry practices. This will also give my tank almost 5 or 6 months of fallow time, ensuring that the velvet is completely starved out and eradicated.

I would like to add to my tank during this fallow time a Pom Pom Xenia, a Candy Cane (Caulastrea furcata), a Devil's hand leather (lobophytum sp.), some more zoanthids, and maybe some green star polyps. I also would like to add some peppermint shrimp (Lysmata Wurdemanni) (3-6), cleaner shrimp (Lysmata Amboinensis) (pair), Trochus snails (3-6), and either 1 Tonga fighting conch (Strombus. sp.) OR 1 sand sifting sea star (Astrospecten polycanthus). I have found an online vendor I trust where I can purchase the above livestock for an attractive price and free shipping. Here is where I am in need of some advice.. Would this be too much livestock to purchase/add at once? The free shipping is attractive and I live in a cold weather state so I would prefer to get it done and over with in one fell swoop... Would it be a much better idea to purchase all of these inverts in smaller increments? If so, which should I stock first? Any compatibility issues with my current stock? Is stocking these animals when I know I will be moving in 6 months even a good idea? Feel free to chime in if you have experience with any of the animals I am interested in. I am sure that I will think of more questions as responses come in.

My current tank (55g+15g sump) stocking consists of the following:
4 dozen discosoma mushrooms of different types
1 Parazoanthus sp. colony (around 2 dozen polyps)
2 medium sized (3"-4" each) leather corals of the same species (Sarcophyton sp.)
1 small branching euphyllia hammer (maybe 2")
1 small rock covered with maybe 60 zoanthid polyps
4 or 5 cerith snails
Dozens of nerite snails
Around 6 small hermits of various species (mainly blue legged)

Params.
Temp. - 77.4-77.7 F
ph. - 8.1 (API)
sg. - 1.025-1.026 (I don't have an ATO so it varies slightly)
Nitrate - Hovers around 15ppm, I like to keep it under 10 and I will do a 70%+ WC if it creeps up to 20 (Salifert)
Phosphate - undetectable (API)
dKH - 9 (API)
Calcium - 380ppm (API)
Magnesium - 1230 (Salifert)

Hopefully I provided enough details. Glad to finally be on Reef Central!

 

[Cancun]

Hi and welcome! In my opinion your plan sounds good....I can't see a problem adding all of that at once. Sounds like you have done your home work and your water params are good also!

Just out of curiosity what fish did you loose to velvet and what symtoms did you have? Also how fast did you loose them? Sorry for or the loss of your fish by the way...I get so attached to them!

 

[stevie1493]

I had a royal gramma, a firefish, a pair of ocellaris clowns, and a yellow tang. The YT appeared stressed, gills breathing rapidly, and looked dirty, especially around the top of his dorsal fin. I knew something was up but I wasn't able to identify it as velvet until my moonlights came on later that day and it was clear under the actinic lighting that he was covered in dust. I turned the lights on maximum intensity to get a closer look at him and sure enough he was covered in more white specs than I could count.. The next day his condition worsened, he was swimming into the current of the powerheads and breathing more rapidly, looking even more dirty.. later that day he was listless and could barely swim, at times lying down on the sandbed. I inspected the other fish and they showed no white specs but they were breathing heavily and no one was eating. Later that night the tang went and when my moonlights came on it was apparent that all the other fish appeared as if they were covered in dust. I considered euthanizing them since I knew they were probably goners but I had been sick myself with the flu all week, was missing work and had 0 energy to do anything.. In the morning the rest of the fish were dead; the time that elapsed from when I first identified the YT as having velvet to the total loss of all fish was around 36 hours. A couple weeks prior the YT had some larger specs that appeared to be ich, but they went away in less than 24 hours. I had my QT torn down at the time and didn't set it up because he appeared totally healthy other than a few spots and I thought the costs outweighed the benefits of tearing apart my entire tank attempting to catch him.. I should have removed all fish and treated with cupramine. Lesson learned. When I move next year I'm going to have my QT up and running 24/7 just in case something like this happens.