Please comment on my proposed tank

[tkhawaja]

Have a look at my proposed tank setup: My Proposed Tank.
Any suggestions and comments are welcome in THIS thread.

Thank You.

[Aquattro]

One comment is that those shrimp listed will compete for food with the madarins. I'd skip the shrimp.

[tkhawaja]

I keep on getting conflicting information. I thought if I fed the tank enough the shrimp would go after the easy food instead of having to hunt for it. Also, the peppermint shrimp are supposed to be the "rabbits" of the marine world and would spawn on a fairly regular basis.

So, with regular feedings, pod piles, and refugium will the shrimp leave enough of the copepods alone for the Mandarin?

[Aquattro]

not in my experience. I had a peppermint in my refugium to get rid of the aptaisia, and it cleaned them out in about a week. Then over the next week, it decimated 90% of the pod population even though I fed it regularly. And I watched it hunt. ....there isn't really any work involved in catching pods, it just ran around and grabbed them like they were standing still.
While shrimp are entertaining to watch in a tank, I'd have to say that they aren't worth the damage they can do. Some people will tell you different, some will agree with me.
As for conflicting opinions, they're the only kind you'll ever get on ANY topic in this hobby.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by tkhawaja

Any suggestions and comments are welcome in THIS thread.

You've got deep pockets, my man

[tkhawaja]

Originally Posted by Beverly

You've got deep pockets, my man

On the contrary, after the initial setup my total allowance is going down to $25/week. I'm not planning to include ALL of those corals etc. That's just the initial list I came up with. Now want to weed it down to specimens that will work together to form a nice community tank.

I would like suggestions on which corals will work with the fish I have chosen. Or suggest better fish for a community tank.