What would you do in this situation?

[flaeaglefan]

I have a fairly new 220 6x2x 30" deep with PC lighting 2 96 watt actinics and 2 96 watt 10k's ... And about 100lbs of coraline encrusted rock. Tank is ready for fish and MAYBE coral due to low calcium.


Lets say you had this same setup and someone gave you 24 hours to pick anything and everything you wanted for live stock,from fish, to cleanup crew, to corals


what would your stocking list look like? Can you go overboard and cause a massive load issue adding too much at once? Would you take the chances given the situation?


lets see those opinions.

keep in mind that almost any coral and fish you can think of is available.

 

[thegrun]

Well, start off with the clean-up crew. Yes, you most definitely can add to much at once. 70 small snails would be a good start, I would not use turbo snails if you plan on corals, as they tend to bulldoze over corals. Some people don't like hermit crabs, but I would get 40 or 50 of them as well (this is all AFTER your tank has cycled). There are differences of opinion, but I believe it is better to start with corals before fish, as they add little to the bioload of your tank. Start with soft corals and mushrooms, it is best to wait six months or more before going to SPS corals, which will require you to get a handle on your calcium and add more lighting if you plan on keeping them. You could add a couple fish a week with a tank your size, three if they are not to big.

 

[flaeaglefan]

Good answer. But what would you do with only 24 hours to pick what you wanted, knowing that it all had to go in the tank at the same time????


Cleanup crew and coral? No fish? How many corals? stock the entire tank? just a few?

 

[aquaticdiver]

Personally, I wouldn't waste any time on the clean up crew or livestock and I would go straight for corals!! I have learned that corals are the most expensive part of reefkeeping and if your getting some for free then by all means get some. I would go for mushrooms, polyps, zoanthids, and some hardier LPS corals. With the clean up crew I would go for some shrimps and snails because I don't like hermit crabs in my aquarium. But definitely go for the corals. Then you could just supplement trace elements like iodine and all of that good suff, then go for clean up crew, and then once your tank is established go for the livestock.

 

[fender4string]

If you're talking about fish, stocking a tank that quickly would probably cause a crash. The biological filter wouldn't adjust quickly enough to handle the massive bioload increase.

It would be convenient but irresponsible as a lot of the fish might die due to poor water quality. Just my 2 cents.

If it were corals go nuts!!

 

[SaltyDr]

Fish would be impossible if you QT, which you should or al of the fish may end up dead. Definitely get the CUC and coral - softies, zoanthids, and maybe some LPS up high on the rocks.

 

[thegrun]

Yes, if you only had 24 hours, corals for sure. You could have a very nice looking reef tank (without fish) in one day, although it would be a lot of work. If you could get truly fully cured live rock at a trusted local fish store you could do it.

 

[fishoutawater]

I think your lighting is going to really limit what kinds of coral you will be able to put in there. Any chance of getting different lighting before coral?

 

[Toddrtrex]

Honestly I wouldn't do anything. With a new tank, and the lighting you have, I don't suspect that things wouldn't turn out too well.

What are the parameters? You said that cal. is a little low, but how low? And what about Alk. and Mag, along with the usual suspects.

 

[flaeaglefan]

I added 100lbs of live rock that came directly from the tank of a lfs owner. The rock was in his system for 8 years. It spent about 25 minutes out of water, then went into my tank with all new water. Rock has been in the tank for 4 days.

I had my water tested today and these are the numbers

alk 7
po4 0
no3 0
cal 275
ph 8.2
sg 1.025



I talked to 3 different lfs people and none of them seem to think i will have much of a cycle due to the rock that was added.


The reason i started this thread was because i have an opportunity to buy whatever i want at about the lowest imaginable cost, but can only do it once and it will be fairly soon. If i can get away with stocking my entire tank at 1 time im going for it. But i dont want to kill anything/everything doing it.

 

[jterrell]

Even if the tank had been set up for a year adding too much at once will cause a crash.

 

[jbird69]

New lights.

If you want coral you arent going to get very far with those lights. You have less than 2 watts/gallon of flourescent lighting right now. Perfect for fish, VERY limited for coral.

Id bet dollars to donuts if you stocked it with a bunch of coral right now we'll be seeing your thread titled "HELP" in the near future.

 

[fishoutawater]

If you have mature live rock from another system, I would think you could add to your tank livestock to your system that approximates the bio load in the systed it came out of. If you can buy lights at your killer discount I would definitely do it. For a tank that large, I would think 3 250watt halides would be a minimum.

 

[hamiltonguy]

Agree with the above two posts. With PC lighting you are very limited to the livestock you can keep (in terms of corals). Also, you should add all the liverock you want now (~another 100lbs) as the new rock will probably cause a mini cycle and it's just something you don't want to risk. The light isn't all bad if you can place softies and/or LPS near the middle-top area of the tank they should be OK. As for SPS, metal halides on a tank that size would be best.