completely new to this
- Thread starter docness
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Welcome.
As stated before, dont get a moorish idol. They will eat all of your coral and they are probably the hardest fish there is to keep in captivity. Also, wait until your tank has cycled for 9 months before adding the mandarin and add some copepods early on to start getting a food source going for the mandarin.
As stated before, dont get a moorish idol. They will eat all of your coral and they are probably the hardest fish there is to keep in captivity. Also, wait until your tank has cycled for 9 months before adding the mandarin and add some copepods early on to start getting a food source going for the mandarin.
I have the BRS dry rock for my 40. I love the rock. I wanted it for a variety of reasons, no pests and less expensive. I was able to chisel out extra caves in it as well while it was dry.the problem with the dry rock compared to the live rock is the time it takes for the tank to be ready for livestock. After some research, I decided to soak the dry rock in RO/DI water for about 6 weeks with replacing all the water about once per week. This was done to help leach out any excessive minerals built up in the rock. Then I replaced that water with salt water, added a small rock from my 17 that had been running for two years and let that rock soak with a power head and heater. I did 10 % water changes about twice per month. After the first month or so, I added a variety of amphipods, Copepods and tigger pods. I fed the pods phytoplankton every once and a while and let that rock soak for about 9 months. I also added some coral food to help feed the bacteria that was growing. I didn't add bacteria from a bottle but that is an option. It was probably longer than in it needed to be but I knew I was going to move and didn't want to set up the new tank right before moving. Either way, you will want to take your time with dry rock. I recently redid my 17 gallon and with live sand, good live rock, and old tank water, my tank didn't even go through a big cycle. It was ready in less than a week. Just my opinion/experience.
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If you have your mind set on an eel, then look at a Chainlink. They are less aggressive than a snowflake, but I even doubt that a snowflake would eat your other fish... inverts might be a problem, though. Here is a great article on The Pebbletoothed Eels:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/
I would wait to add a mandarin until your tank is more-than mature. They need a healthy supply of fauna on the reef to thrive, but too many people add them too soon.
I wrote a post in the live rock section about why dry/dead rock is no bargain - I won't derail any more here, but feel free to ask your questions on that thread.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/
I would wait to add a mandarin until your tank is more-than mature. They need a healthy supply of fauna on the reef to thrive, but too many people add them too soon.
I wrote a post in the live rock section about why dry/dead rock is no bargain - I won't derail any more here, but feel free to ask your questions on that thread.
Keep in mind while his points are spot on for actual live rock, they dont apply to what most LFS sell as live rock. The majority of LFS sell dry rock that has cured in a holding tank of some sort. If you dont see an abundance of life on the rock including microfauna, algae, sponges, etc. then it is no different than using dry rock and letting it cure for a couple months.
Welcome to you both. My husband and I are coming up on 1 year tank anniversary and now have 3. This first year was all about patience, frustration, thrilling successes and having a "seasoned" tank that really has become our "end of day" soothing routine. One of the biggest hurdles was adding fish to the reef tank. Though you can get guidelines about what live well together, we had several that we had to remove [not fun when you have corals growing] as some fish are ocean caught, some are bred in captivity. Each fish has it's own personality and they are very different. Had a mandarin and even though we full on added pod populations, it did not last, though never looked thin so it may have been for another reason.
We had problems with "live sand" and found that [of course] it is trucked around, warehoused and by the time we got it the bacteria that was not good took out 5 rental damsels in just a few days. BTW that was added to the fuge not DT.
Still very happy to have arrived at this stage and would say it was worth it. Well worth it. Sounds like you do your diligence and that will get you quite far!!!
Ditto to what everyone here has said, except that I only know of eels being successful in a mixed tank if they are "running with the big dogs" so to speak and the fish in the tank are big enough to eat them if they were so inclined. JMO. Jody
We had problems with "live sand" and found that [of course] it is trucked around, warehoused and by the time we got it the bacteria that was not good took out 5 rental damsels in just a few days. BTW that was added to the fuge not DT.
Still very happy to have arrived at this stage and would say it was worth it. Well worth it. Sounds like you do your diligence and that will get you quite far!!!
Ditto to what everyone here has said, except that I only know of eels being successful in a mixed tank if they are "running with the big dogs" so to speak and the fish in the tank are big enough to eat them if they were so inclined. JMO. Jody