Transitioned from fowlr to reef, a few questions

[DanielHarrington]

Hello all, very glad to join the community.

Having set up a FOWLR tank a year ago with the intention of learning the basics of marine aquariums before starting a seperate reef tank i had the unfortunate experience of having a fish go mental and killing and partially eating every other living thing in the tank. The community i had had been settled for over 3 months with no additions when the Clown trigger fish (which i had introduced last for terratorial reasons) decided to go on a murdering spree.

Having returned the fish to the store where i bought it (won't go into details but one of the staff in the shop let a little too much info slip, which i used to full effect resulting in a very angry manager) and recieving a rather large credit note, i acquired a new lighting system and a protein skimmer. over the last 2 months while regulary checking water perameters i have introduced very slowly a proven mating pair of percula clowns, 5 astrea snails, one piece of live rock with mushroom coral and just last week a bubble tip pink anemone.

The change in my tank has been brilliant, many clusters of feather duster worms have become evident and many other small crittters have started to show themselves. I would however like to talk over what my plans for the community are and whether they are feasable.

Having had a FOWLR tank with just 5 rather agressive fish i am now aiming for a predominantly reef tank with a nice community of small friendly inhabitants.

1st, i would like to have a small group of Banggai Cardinals (maybe with appropriate sea urchin?) any thoughts?.....

2nd, I would also like a few humbug damsels, again thought and reccomendations.....

As for corals, i would ask for people for reccomendations regarding what would be most fiitting and how slowly to introduce them to the system.

One problem i do have at the moment is a sudden influx of Aiptasia, i have asked my local marine store to order a few peppermint shrimp for me. I do not want to get a copperband butterfly as i do not want to introduce a potentially reef unfriendly fish that will restrict what i can acquire in the future. Is this the right course of action?

My perameters are as follows:

Temp= 79-81 F
Salinity= 53 EC ms/cm (1,026)
Calcium= 450ppm
PH= 8.3
Phosphate= 0.000
Ammonia= 0.000
Nitrate and Nitrite= 0.000
Magnesium= 1300ppm

The Clowns feed well on both brine shrimp and Tetra Marine mini-granules.

The anemone will take whitebait (silversides) in small pieces 3x a week.

I feed GroTech Corall ABC once a week.

I do a 10% water change every week and test water perameters 2x a week (at the moment).


I know this post is a little disjointed but its hard to remember everything in the right order and i am very concious that i dont want to abuse any of the organisms in my care so i have been blurting out the information as it comes into my head!

Thanks for your help.

Daniel.

[benmorrow1978]

I'll only answer regarding a few parts, I'm no expert on all subjects.

Damsels are territorial fish. I would venture to say they will pick fights with any slower fish in your reef. I would put damsels in with a clown trigger any day of the week, but not my community fish. Made that mistake once and won't again.

Also, I've read that sea urchins do not do well with soft corals. They do well with them I guess, eating them. They are also good at tipping over your rock structures.

Hopefully someone much more knowledgeable will chime in with more answers for you!

Good Luck!

[Evie]

We love the look of clown triggers too, but as you discovered, they are not as reef friendly as we would want them to be! Better to keep them out of a reef environment.
"i would like to have a small group of Banggai Cardinals" These are beautiful fish that are reportedly completely reef safe & very peaceful. Please try to acquire only those that have been bred in captivity - the wild ones are endangered due to over fishing. Getting captive bred banggais will help the wild populations recover so that future generations can enjoy them too! =~D

[Original Fin]

We love the look of clown triggers too, but as you discovered, they are not as reef friendly as we would want them to be! Better to keep them out of a reef environment.
"i would like to have a small group of Banggai Cardinals" These are beautiful fish that are reportedly completely reef safe & very peaceful. Please try to acquire only those that have been bred in captivity - the wild ones are endangered due to over fishing. Getting captive bred banggais will help the wild populations recover so that future generations can enjoy them too! =~D

Good looking out for the Banggai's Evie!

Do I recognize your screen name from NVR?