What corals/anenomies & sponges

AndrewT

AC Members
Dec 26, 2005
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Hi,

Im a total newbie, no fish in tank yet, just live rock.
Can you provide names of corals anenomies & sponges that are easy to look after?

I have T5 lights & the rock is built up very high, probably 6inches away from the lights, so a mixture of life that require light & some that are not so dependant on light would be great.

look forward to some replies.
 
Anenomes are not easy to look after. For corals you will want the softer varities, such as mushrooms. But you will probably want to give your whole setup. And really you will want to get an established tank prior to adding corals.
 
Is it cycled?

Good question, im not sure :)

I have 20kg of cured rock in a 40g tank.
Put rock in last sunday, no amonia reading, Nitrite is <0.3 this has stayed the same since putting the rock in.

I also see a bit of life on my live rock :)
 
I'm not a salt expert by any means and was sort of hoping that other more experienced people would jump in as well but I will share what I have with you.

Since you used cured live rock it sounds like you are close to being fully cycled, at least the ammonia part is out of the way. You could probably start with fish at this point, save inverts and coral until much later, maybe a few weeks down the line when you have all of your levels sorted out. When you add your fish watch for any spikes that may occur in ammonia nd do a water change if needed.

Are you using a standard filter or powerheads and live rock? The problem with regular filters is that they tend to create lots of nitrates and these can be very deadly to inverts, more so than fish. Live rock and a deep sand bed can help to combat nitrates without having to do huge water changes. If you are unsure about this then try searching the forums for DSB and you will find lots of great info.
 
By placing the live rock in, you may have started a small cycle but I believe that once you start adding fish, the newly bioload will start to a new cycle. When I cycled, I went the fishless route and placed a shimp in the tank. It took me 4 weeks before my tank leveled out to 0.

Its important to remember that ammonia and nitrates will always be present at your tank, but as long as there is a sufficent amount of bateria to hand it, the levels should stay at 0. Its when people go crazy and add 4 or 5 fish at one time, increasing the bioload to a point that the established bacteria cannot handle it, that levels shoot up and cause a problem.

Go slow and research
 
Thanks for the input - has this site been down as i could access it the last few days?

Anyway, my Nitrite remained 0 and Nitrates very low.

I have since put 2 perc Clown fish in and they are doing fine. I also have once pices of soft coral.

Im not going to add any more fish for 2-3 weeks, to take thing slow.
Although i will probably add more soft corals, as my LFS said it should be OK.

Im testing every day, and no movements as yet, Ive also done a 10% water change last night.

I have 2 powerheads running on a wave maker. and a canister filter, plus a skimmer which im still trying to get used to!!

Tanks is starting to look good now :)
 
i wouldnt ann anymore fish. actualy, i wouldnt have added any fish. you should have recycled your tank with shrimp or fish food jsut because you have cured live rock, doesnt mean that your tank is cycled. you dont need to test every day either. test once a week, before or after a water change. if your levels go up, qhich they probably will, then dont buy another fish until a few weeks after everything is perfect.
as far as corals, i wouldnt listen to your LFS in this department. adding corals to a cycled tank is risky, even softies like mushrooms. they MAY survive, depending on the species of coral, the coral itself, and how high your amonia spikes. but once again, id wait a few more months before adding any more.
 
Many times vendors pass partially cured live rock as fully cured, as it takes a while to fully cure. If you are able to get "real" fully cured live rock your cycle time will be greatly reduced. That and some live sand, and your tank is almost fully cycled from the get go, everything just needs a week or so to settle. That's how people do it in the service industry, however I do not reccomend this to newbies. Take your time and don't waste money. As for softies, if it's just shrooms, GSP and the like they don't produce the amount of waste the a fish produces, and I suppose that is why your LFS recomended them. I would avoid toadstools, colts, kenya trees, or anything that melts down into toxic goo for the first couple of months. Sounds like your on the right track.
 
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