Guest samson Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 Equipment: 20 gallon AGA Eclipse 2 hood with filter media removed (280 gph) 32 watt PCs retrofit 100 watt Ebo Jager heater Maxi-Jet 1200 (295 gph) Maxi-Jet 400 (106 gph) RO/DI water changed 25% bi-weekly Kent salt mix Livestock: 2-3" live sand 24lbs of Fiji live rock, no corals at the moment 1 Banggai Cardinal 1 Blue Devil Damsel 1 cleaner shrimp 1 peppermint shrimp 6 blue legged hermits 12-16 mixed variety of snails (many small baby snails appear each day) Questions: 1. Can I add a false Percula clown to this tank? 2. Should I add any chemicals to encourage coralline growth? 3. Please take a look at my diagram below. I am concerned that I have too much water circulation. Currently between PHs and Eclipse hood, I am getting about 680 gph circulation. I have been told it's good by LFS, but I trust and value your opinions more. My powerheads are sitting at the top of the tank, centered and aimed at each other to create counter-current. The fish swim low to mid water, but will occasionly dart up for food. Same with shrimp. Do you think the Maxi-Jet 1200 is too strong for this tank? Without having any corals in the tanks, it's hard to see the effect the current has. Also, is my placement okay? I see a lot of your tank photos and it seems your PHs are set in the back wiht circulation forward. thanks for the suggestions. Sam Link to comment
Crakeur Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 I would avoid adding the clown only because the clown and the damsel might get too territorial and start to give the banggai a fight for space. There are coralline growth accelerators on the market but if you are doing regular water changes you might not need it ( I still add some coral-accel every other week). Regarding the circulation, you might want to wait and see how corals handle the flow before switching to higher gph. As for the set-up, a picture would be better than your diagram but it looks like you have a nice base to add your corals to. Personally, I have one jet (rio 50) on the left side of my tank (7 gallon), blowing forward on an angle and a micro-chiller adding circulation, and it seems to be fine. One way to check and see if your lfs knows what they are talking about is to ask them a few questions that you know the answers to and see how they "score" on your test. I hope this helps. Link to comment
Joe Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 I would drop the idea of the clown because as Crakeur stated you will have some serious space wars going on. As far as the flow goes you should have more than enough. Joe Link to comment
Guest samson Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 Thanks for the info. I figured the clown wasn't a good idea. Any suggestions for an additional fish? Link to comment
NanoReefer53 Posted July 22, 2002 Share Posted July 22, 2002 I would get rid of the damsel unless you wanted to have a damsel only tank. Damsels are really aggressive in such a small body of water. Maybe you can try a pair of clownfish or a bair of bangers. Or maybe 1 banger and 1 clown. Link to comment
Totlxtc Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 I third the suggestion of not adding the clown. I have a Bluedevil and a Maroon clown together and they do fine. This being they have plenty of space in a 54g tank and both are mean. Once they established their territories, all was well. The 20g too small for a pair of Bangaii but fine for one. Another Bluedevil wont work either because if they pair up all heck will break loose on the Bangaii. I kept a breeding pair of Devils in a 20g and couldnt keep any other fish in that tank. You maybe able to get away with a sand dwelling fish, gobie, firefish, etc. Not sure thou?? Best thing i found for increasing coralline growth in my 20g was using Pickling lime in the top off water. It really took off when i started dosing Seachem's Reef pack. Pick up the small 3 pack sample since it will go along way on a 20g tank. Your waterflow is fine. I had one MJ1200, two MJ600's and one Pengiun HOB filter (dont know the flow) on my 20g. Needless to say there was no dead spots and the fish werent flying around in the current. If your worried about too much flow, put one to the PH's on an adjustable timer. I ran the MJ1200 on it and had the pins set to turn on for 15mins/off 15mins and off during the night. My PH placement was one on the side blowing across the tank, one on the opposite side high blowing at the surface and one on the back/center blowing straight forward. Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 dump the damzel, get the clown. add a citroen clown goby... perfect ! the system will work well as it is. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 the citron goby's a great choice! drat, i didn't think of it. nice & quiet almost comatose but a great choice! you may want to get it some branching items to hide among or just perch there. a very cute and cool fish! Link to comment
rhinoivory Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Dave and Tinyreef, what is the scientific name of the citron goby, it sounds interesting.............. Link to comment
DaveESPI Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Gobidon Citrinus aka: Citreon or citrus goby aka: clown goby hope it helps ! also throw in some trochous snails.... jest fer chits and giggles Link to comment
rhinoivory Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Kewl, thanks dave.... Btw, whats with the two nicks, daveESPI, and DAVE ESPI? huh? are there two daves or one, arghhhhh! Link to comment
Guest samson Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Thanks top everyone for the ideas. i tried to get the damsel out of the tank once, but the little SOB is real smart and hard to catch. I don't want to take out all the rock just to get him... and chasing him down wiht the net seemed futile. Maybe I'll give him another try. i am goign to take a look into the clown goby. thanks again for the suggestions! Sam. One other thing, i think I may have ID'd my mysetrious crab last night as a Sally Lightfoot. He/she is or what appears to be black and white striped, long legged and very shy. fast as hell when he sees you lookign at him. It's the closet thing i have seen in any pictures, although his claws appear to be a lot larger than a Sally's. Link to comment
grantlaw Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 If you continue to have trouble catching the damsel, there is a technique I have read about which I would love to see in action (or at least read about) . . . Go down to the fishing shop and get a tiny hook, bait it with a tiny bit of fish (or whatever), and hook the guy out of your tank. Seems a bit brutal, but it should work quite well. Of course, I hope you will take it back to your LFS, so it may grace somebody else's uncycled tank. Link to comment
DaveESPI Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 see "Cheech and Chong" Daves not here.... NO MAN THIS IS DAVE !....... COME ON MAN OPEN UP !........ Nah, Daves not here........ He'll be back in a while......X) I had access problems a few months ago so I made another sn. This is my "family friendly persona" I had to put crude and off color sarchastic Dave away for a while......:*( to appease the Gods that be...... Link to comment
Crakeur Posted July 23, 2002 Share Posted July 23, 2002 Originally posted by grantlaw Go down to the fishing shop and get a tiny hook, bait it with a tiny bit of fish (or whatever), and hook the guy out of your tank. When our 180 gallon office tank was a fresh water predator tank (snakehead, african aba knife, arrowana, oscar etc.. all huge) I thought about fishing on slow days. Never got around to it. Link to comment
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