[Leonard]

1 Sea Horse
2 Starfish (Diameter 3" and 3/4")
1 sea urchin
1 Banded Coral Shrimp
3 Hermit Crab [moved] DANGER! reference by leebca

FISH
3 Clown fish 1" (like nemo)
1 Regal Blue Tang 1"
1 Heniochus Black and White Butterflyfish 3"
2 LionFish 2.5"
1 Panther Grouper 1"
1 Bicolor Pseudochromis 1.5"
1 Blue Damsel 1.5"

Anemone
3 Anemone (5", 1" and 1/2")

5 Tube Worm
3 Sponge

[leebca]

This particular grouping of livestock would require about a 100 gallon aquarium. If your aquarium is smaller than this, then these marine lives are too crowded.

You don't mention if you are using live rock or not. If you have live rock, then it should be no less than 2 pounds per gallon of display tank volume.

If you use live rock, the sea urchin may devastate it. You don't mention the kind of urchin you have. An urchin can cut into surfaces to eat. If the tank isn't really large, then the urchin will run out of food and starve. If it is the kind of urchin that will accept additional foods, then it will have to be fed and kept fed.

Without knowing the kind of starfish, it isn't possible to say if they are a good idea or not. Still, they should be in a very large aquarium, generally speaking.

The grouper is a very efficient predator. It may take care of the overcrowding for you in that it will eat several of the other fish you have on your list, when it gets a little bigger.

The Anemonefish (what you call clown fish) and the Damsel will likely become enemies. One of the Anemonefish may find itself being driven away if the other two decide to mate. If two decide to pair off, they will need about 5 or more cubic feet of aquarium space to call their own territory.

The fishes are a mixture of slow and fast and infrequent feeding kinds of fishes. This means that some fish will not get their fair share and others will get too much food. It will take a lot of time and care to feed these inhabitants.

Anemones require proper and usually a lot of lighting. You don't mention the kind of anemones you have nor do you list the lighting you have provided them.

The Tube Worms and Sponge are specialized feeders. Feeding them will be a challenge. In addition, they will expect the best water quality for survival. In fact, some of the stock on the list require experienced aquarists to provide a livable aquarium.

All-in-all the grouping shows a mix of specimens not usually found together in the sea or ocean in one place. It doesn't show a good understanding of the hobby and what it takes to keep these things properly alive.

[Leonard]

Here is my photograph of my aquarium.

I use live rocks. They have 2 crabs from it.
My Anemone picture is here
I used direct sunlight, here is the post
sea urchin and starfish will post soon.

[leebca]

How old is the aquarium? When did you first set it up? Are you testing the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, pH, specific gravity and temperature? What are those numbers?

[Fishyz]

What size of tank is it?

[Leonard]

Around 2 month. Maybe mid 11-2006. Amonia, Nitrite and nitrate not tested yet. I dont have that kind tester yet.
pH: 8.2
grafity: 36
Salinity: 1.0245
Temp: 29 C
Water flow: 7x Tank Vol
Tank: 25 Gal

[leebca]

Leonard,

Based upon the information you've supplied:
1. The water quality is not being monitored closely enough nor for the correct constituents; and
2. The aquarium is currently over stocked.

Most aquarists would like to do what you have done -- jump into the reef keeping hobby in one leap. However, this hobby takes time, if the aquarist is serious about maintaining the lives in the aquarium. Most of us can't go to the ocean and find more inexpensive fishes and marine life, or put back the ones that aren't working out very well. So, we take care to go slowly and carefully in order to preserve the life in our aquariums.

A reef/marine aquarium takes time to mature and settle down. It isn't a piece of the ocean, though we like to think it is. It is a cage for marine life. This cage depends upon bacteria to be successful. So the job of the aquarist is to monitor what the bacteria are doing or not doing (those tests you are not performing) and giving the time it takes for the bacteria to settle down. All this happens first, then the marine life is added slowly.

When we add marine life, the limit to how much life is added depends upon the bio-load. The bio-load that the marine system can handle; and the bio-load each specimen puts on the system. Things like display tank size, the biological filtration, and circulation contribute to how much bio-load the system can handle. In the case of the 25 gallon aquarium, the reasonable maximum bio-load would be one small fish, maybe two very small fishes that don't grow up to be big fishes.

In the average time frame, the aquarium you now have, would be less stocked and would need to be more than 1 year old to sustain those types of marine life you have. Even then, some of the marine life in that aquarium would not do well because of their special needs which that size aquarium cannot provide.

You may or may not wish to keep a marine aquarium the way the Westerners keep them. But if you do, then the best recommendations we would give would be to start over, going step by step, very slowly, building up to a mature 25 gallon aquarium that will hold one or two very small fishes.

Allow me to give you an idea of what I mean by bio-load. Your 25 gallon system has the ability to handle about 3 bio-load units. I've re-listed the livestock you have in your aquarium and have, on the left, indicated the bio-load units that life puts on the aquarium:

Bio-Load
- - 2 - - 1 Sea Horse
- - 2 - - each for 2 Starfish (Diameter 3" and 3/4")
- - 1 - - 1 sea urchin
- - 1 - - 1 Banded Coral Shrimp
- - 0 - - (gone) 3 Hermit Crab [moved] DANGER! reference by leebca

FISH
- - 5 - - total for 3 Clown fish 1" (like nemo)
- - 3 - - 1 Regal Blue Tang 1"
- - 3 - - 1 Heniochus Black and White Butterflyfish 3"
- - 6 - - total for dwarf or young 2 Lionfish 2.5"
- - 3 - - 1 Panther Grouper 1"
- - 2 - - 1 Bicolor Pseudochromis 1.5"
- - 2 - - 1 Blue Damsel 1.5"

Based upon your current livestock, this bio-load requires an aquarium that can handle 32 bio-load units. This would be an aquarium of no less than 180 gallons, with about 350+ pounds of live rock in it.

This is the way the Westerners would set up the aquarium. So from this, I think you can see how far apart our procedures and practices are from where your system is at this time. Our knowledge and experiences say that your system is not good for the marine life you are stocking. So we cannot give you any advice other than to reduce the stock and follow the guidelines we use.

If you look at it this way, our advice would be that the tank is unsuitable for: the Grouper, the Lionfishes, and the Tang. Without knowing the kind of urchin and starfish you have, the recommendation would likely be that this tank is too small for those creatures. As for the rest, the aquarium is only good up to about 3 bio-load units, so you'd need to choose what it is you want to keep, and get rid of the rest.

I hope this has explained my perspective on your question.