New to reefing not new to freshwater.

[Noahlikesfish]

Alright so I’m a fairly experienced fw keeper (coming up in 9 months now) and I’m thinking of doing saltwater, I have 2 tanks i could use. I could either do a 20 long (no fish inside) or I could try to downsize my 40 gallon which is pretty fairly stocked but it could possibly work. I tried to make my tank look like a 20 long for a couple days and it dosent seem TOO bad. And I would put my 40g fish in my 20 long and 10g or I could just do the 20 long. I don’t know what to stock but I know I want to keep the tank simple and sweet, I’m going to use the filter on my 40g rated 75-110g tanks a powerhead and mabye a reverse UG. I plan not to do much dosing or water changes mabye 25% a month? I will dose nilocg thrive ferts and mabye buy like phosphate and nitrate. I’d prefer more predatory fish instead of like designer clowns and nano gobies or other fish that a expensive nano reefer would get. (I despise high tech reefs and designer clowns) I’m leaning towards using the 20 long because it’s cheaper and I have the tank already. I plan to keep basic softies like Xenia and leather brown corals and gorgs and other big soft pretty corals and macroalgae. My ideal stock for a 20 long I’m thinking would be 2 clarkii then 3 cool oddball fish and mabye a couple small schoolers. All helpful tips are ideal. I am going to light the tank with led floods at 6500k. Fish suggestions would be appreciated, I’m gonna stick to the igreen guide except for mabye a couple exceptions if it’s like borderline

[Noahlikesfish]

I’m probably gonna keep it simple just a hob but lots of live rock. 20 lb most likely and also make some fake LR with concrete or mortar I forgot what it was. I just know ppl in the 70s did it and it works well and you can use it to supplement LR instead of dry rock

[Noahlikesfish]

I really like sculpins and hawk fish and fish with good personality but don’t hide 24/7 that’s why I want the clarkii b/c they are more territorial and will like notice me and things and they feed aggressively which is fun to watch. Btw I’m 14 so I can’t really do anything insane. My budget for now is $500 but hopefully I can expand it over time.

[Noahlikesfish]

Good thing is I have a good lfs which makes stuff simple, they know a ton so I can get help there.

[Noahlikesfish]

I know all the employees are hobbyists and they have lots of nice displays. If I remember they have like a 500g koi and ray indoor pond thing a 450 insane reef a big frag tank a 300 discus and then a large plant tank (dosent have fish but it looks pretty with all the plants)

[Noahlikesfish]

My favorite is the koi tank b/c it has fish like plecos and other things that look cute when small but they are all at their adult size. There’s like a panaque larger than a koi in the tank

[RoyalGramma001]

Saltwater should be really fun! I wouldn't do clarkiis if you want more than 1 swimming fish I have a tomato who I've tried twice to have another tank mate and she is super aggressive so I'm setting up a 4ft tank because of it

[Noahlikesfish]

Could I do a clown like clarkii 

[Noahlikesfish]

Like bicintus or something. I am not too concerned, b/c I have seen them in community tanks and they didn’t harass stuff. I think the trick is to add them last and make lots of clay pots and bottles in the LR for the fish to hide 

[Noahlikesfish]

What other types of fish could I do I kinda like fuzzy lions and puffers and hawks. Mabye I could just do a pair of clarkii then a lion a puffer and a hawk then pray I don’t have to stick my hand in the tank b/c I would feel agony

[paulsz]

in a 20 gallon long, i'd say that's way too much and it could end up really bad...

 

Regarding waterchanges and dosing: You said you don't want to do much. That will mostly depend on what your tank needs and not so much what you prefer. You want softies only. But if softies are using up the alkalinity, calcium and magnesium, you will either have to dose or do a waterchange to bring levels back up. I agree with sofites you can do less of that, but it'll have to be done.

 

I don't think there's any small schoolers in saltwater like there is in freshwater. And stocking in saltwater is much different than in fresh. In freshwater, I had 6 panda cories and 6 zebra danios in a 20 gallon. In saltwater, each fish "lives on their own", except fish/inverts that have paired up (e.g. two clowns or a goby and pistol shrimp). 

 

But here's a few fish you can look into:

- clownfish

- firefish (although they are jumpers and frequent jumpers, so you need a lid)

- blenny (e.g. bicolor, two spot, tailspot, sailfin)

- gobies (e.g. watchman, clown)

 

maybe you can get a flame hawk, but with other fish it'll get risky. A predator in a small tank will get the other fish eventually. 

[Noahlikesfish]

I don’t think a 3” sharp nose could do much predation. I watched vids on fuzzy lions and nobody says they eat stuff that that were added before them

I do like blue gudgeons

mabye I could do 3 blue gudgeon pair of clown a fire fish then a blenny and a dottyback or hawk

[Noahlikesfish]

Fire fish is blue gudgeon I’m acting stupid rn. 3 blue fire fish pair of bicintus blenny hawk fish and dottyback or smth 

[Noahlikesfish]

I plan on buying 2 small powerhead so I have 800 gph from powerheads then my 3 gallon capacity 75g -110g hob filter. Then all I need is floodlights and some substrate. I can’t decide between crushed coral for microfauna diversity or sand or just a layer of sand with crushed coral and shell rubble on top

[Noahlikesfish]

All my friends keep clarkii idk how they are that aggressive, they don’t look like they just bully fish. And if I add them last and add lots of caves and pots and glass bottles they should have areas to hide

And everyday fishkeeping has a pair in his beach tank

[paulsz]

is this gonna be in your 20 long or in your 40? 

[Noahlikesfish]

My 20 long I don’t wanna mess up my 40g. 

[Noahlikesfish]

I want to have fish with lots of personality and I want lots of biodiversity in my fish and inverts and coral. I’m thinking of doing more types of coral like easy lps and sps. Is 2 24w kessil bulbs ok for that? And will a big hob running a algae scrubber and carbon and mabye some floss too. And I’m debating on doing a reverse UG because from what I have seen, the long term tanks don’t have crazy equipment. I don’t wanna be using radions and expensive skimmers, I wanna just have a simple setup. I will make a layout for the hob rq. It’s gonna start w/ mechanical then a bag of carbon then a algae scrubber to remove anything else. I probably will dose with all in one calcium blocks and also freshwater plant ferts. I might just buy ei dosing nitrate magnesium and phosphate b/c it’s cheaper and it dosent have any trace co2 in it 

[Noahlikesfish]

I don’t want like micro gobies that hide because then you don’t get enjoyment out of them. I was thinking of getting some guppies or mollies to school 😂

[Noahlikesfish]

I’m gonna stick with 5ish fish depending on the size because that’s what the guide says. And I will count fish like micro gobies as 1/2 a fish. Because that seems most logical for how much bio filter and filtration I’m going to have and how simple of corals and macros. I might keep like super hardy lps but that’s about it. I wanna get a lot of gorgs flowing in the tank then Xenia’s and Kenya trees. I don’t like all the glowing corals or the zoathids. I don’t wanna get poisoned by zoas. And I’m probably not going to frag and just let my tank run natural. Is there anything wrong with not fragging? I also wanna get a sea cucumber mabye and some lettuce nudis mabye

[Murphs_Reef]

That's a lot of fish. I have 7 in an 91 gallon.. 

[Noahlikesfish]

Porcelain crabs and arrow crabs are cool. I might do something like a hawk fish pair of bicintus Pipefish a rock dweller like a non micro goby or dragonet or wrasse and a blenny then some inverts. I’m gonna have like 20 lbs gulf rock then a rock work of LR, clay pots, glass bottles and some pvc covered in mortar for additional lr  so all the fish can hide and feel secure.

[Noahlikesfish]

I think that could work b/c like half the tank is gonna be Lr or hiding areas. I wanna do like a top section with like gorgs and macros and softies then like cracks with lower light stuff and stony corals. I might do cheap zoas and just let em grow wild 

[Noahlikesfish]

I think it’s gonna turn out really cool in the long run with all the coralline in the pots and bottles making it look realistic with the clown pair hiding inside then at he mandarin and pipefish (my mom wants seahorses but I don’t like seahorses) can feed in all the copepods from the macros and algae scrubber then the hawk fish can chill 

[paulsz]

to be honest, you may be jumping things too quickly. One thing i'll tell you is take things slow. If you have a plan of a setup and  list of fish/inverts in mind, make a list on paper. And slowly you can add things. To start,  have your live rock and some floss. You can add carbon once a month if you want, but there's no need to have it running constantly. The scrubber can come later. No need to dose nitrates and phosphates if your tank is going to produce them naturally. You're going to want to test for them...

 

Remember, this is not like freshwater at all. The only thing that is similar between the two is the nitrogen cycle. After that, it's a completely different ball game. 

 

By posting messages one after the other, we are going to have trouble following along and helping you. Try making your replies one message altogether. And it also seems like you've already made up your mind on fish. Even though me and Murphych said it was too much fish, you seem to thing it is fine. So there's not much we can do to help you there...

 

Good luck! 🙂 and if i can recommend, read some of the articles on nano reef before starting anything: https://www.nano-reef.com/articles/beginners/

 

And again, take things slow! Too fast is only asking for trouble, trust me. And i'm sure others can testify to that!