Who's had success with nems in "mixed" tanks - and how?

[jonwright]

So I'm getting ready to start building my 155 bow and I currently have a crispa in my 50 gal.

I'm looking at what to put in where and as I do I'm confronted with a few things that I might need to fix on my 50 that maybe I can do right with my 155.

So - I'm thinking that in order to have good nutrient uptake and export how do you guys do that? With GFO and GAC that I have in my 50 I'm getting cyano which I understand can be a result of imbalanced nitrates and phosphate. I'm light on coral ihabitants and they aren't doing well. A pink monti looks pale, and my frogspawn is pale, too.

I took my GAC and GFO offline a month ago and I wound up with GHA all over the place (I also neglected water changes for a bit so yeah...that's all on me). I'm not really enthused about the GFO but it does seem to be working to keep the GHA under control.

I was thinking some other softies would do well to keep what few nitrates I have in balance but with all the reading on possible allelopathy (SP???) I have taken my chalice and sea lettuce out long ago. They weren't happy I think with the bright lights that keep the other guys happy.

What has been the key for you guys running mixed tanks with nems?

BTW - I have a clam with the nem and both of those guys by all accounts are doing very well. It's the other corals that don't look happy and the cyano I'd like to address, of course.

My water parms with CA, alk, etc. are doing fine (I test) and are pretty stable. They have to be to keep the nem and clam happy. I have NEVER had phosphate or nitrate show up at any measurable level on my test kits, but still.

I've put in bristle worms, pods etc. no evidence of those guys in the tank anymore (my nassarius eating them??) and and tried having gracilaria and chaeto - the algae was a mess.

No fuge, and limited space for additional equipment.

What am I missing here? I'm thinking I need a more rounded out tank with some softies or algae for nitrates...but what?? What softies there are (zoas) may not really enjoy the 250 watt Mh.

 

[rt67ghy]

What dimensions are your tank?

 

[jonwright]

The 50 gal is 36"x18x18 or so. The 155 is a 6' tank. Think 180 with corners rounded off.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Johnwright, a tank 36x18x18 almost the same as a 40b which measures 36x18x17. would that one inch really make a 10 gal difference over the other?

 

[rt67ghy]

The crispa should do fine in the 155g. Having a lot of LR may help somewhat in controlling NO3. Keeping softies with a nem and LPS/SPS should not be a problem but I wouldn't expect the softies to take out too much NO3. To control PO4 you'll probably need to use GFO at some point and that should prevent algae/cyano when the tank is established. A lot of the PO4 test kits don't reflect readings for PO4 even when you have it but the hanna ULR phosphorus checker shows very low readings of PO4 so it can help you to keep PO4 very low- low enough to prevent algae/cyano growth but high enough for the health and growth of your corals. Running GAC and changing it every month I think will keep the chemicals/organics normally released by corals under control. If corals are stressed or dying they release more chemicals and if you notice anything like that going on you could increase amount of GAC you're running until the trouble is over. I've read stories of people trimming their anthellias in the tank and causing deaths of all their acros or green star polyps really flourishing and other corals near them suffering/ receding. These I think would be good examples of allelopathy taking place in the tank. To counteract this running a large amount of GAC would take care of this and protect other corals from harm.