Albertan22's 120g Reef

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by Albertan22

It occured to me that I need to start thinking about a stocking list. The tank is much to young right now for fish, but I've had a QT tank cycling in the basement for a few weeks that I'm hoping may be ready by next weekend.

I'm not exactly sure what I want, so I was hoping to get a few sugestions.

So far I'm thinking of an ocellaris clown pair, some kind of fairy or flasher wrasse, a mandarin (will not be adding until next summer) and a tang or two. I was thinking of going with a powder blue or powder brown for my tang, but I've since learned that they're very aggressive, especially in smaller tanks. I also really like purple tangs, but they can be pretty aggressive too... Any thoughts or suggestions?

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by ponokareefer

The clownfish would be a good fish to get, as would the fairy or flasher wrasse's. If you are thinking about getting more than one type of fairy wrasse, it is typically better to add them at the same time to avoid fighting. Also, make sure you have a completely covered tank if you are looking at getting wrasse's.
As for tangs, with only a 4 foot tank(same as mine), you are more limited in what you can get. You're limited to mainly the following 3 groups: Zebrasoma(but not sailfin), Ctenochaetus, and Acanthurus(only the smaller ones). There are some really nice ones of the 3 groups, like the yellow tang, lemonpeel mimic tang, kole tang, and chocolate tang. You would probably only want to get 2, maximum 3 tangs total, and I wouldn't recommend getting 2 from the same group, such as a purple tang and a yellow tang. I have read that a lot of people have issues with aggressive purple tangs as well, just so you are aware.

I'm thinking that the clowns will be the first in, after that I'm not sure what I'll get. Tangwise I've been thinking that I may go with a kole tang, and possibly a yellow tang if I decide that I have room after that.

Thanks for looking guys!

[Leah]

New pictures yet???

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by Leah

New pictures yet???

Not much has changed, but this thread is due for some more eye candy

Another hitchhiker. He's a filter feeder, some kind of muscle or barnacle I suspect, but I haven't gotten around to IDing him, any ideas?


My non-mantis catching bottle trap


A couple of pics of some of the nooks and cranies in my rockwork





Sump running with the reactor on it:



And the skimmer at work... It was pulling out a lot earlier in the cycle, but has slowed down now. I'm not surprised as there isn't much bioload in the tank.



I really like the way this tank looks even with the lights off!



And my basement QT:



The ammonia patch in my QT seems to be yellow this morning so maybe I can get some fish this weekend. I'm gonna do some water testing later this morning (after some house cleaning, blah!) and maybe I can get some clowns into QT today or tomorrow. I'm also planning on picking up some cheato for the refugium and a cup of sand from one of Blue Worlds tanks this weekend to seed a bit more life into my tank

[Albertan22]

For whatever reason, this morning I had a hunch that my rogue mantis had taken over the home that the first mantis had built. So I pulled the rock out and started poking around and what fell out was definately not a mantis!



I think this is the loonie sized crab I saw when I first put my rock into the tank. He's living in my refugium now along with a little ball of cheato I obtained today and the last little crab I pulled out of the DT

[Albertan22]

Woohoo! First fish



These guys will be in QT for 4-6 weeks, the main tank should be more than ready for them by then. Next step will be adding a cleanup crew to the main tank. Hopefully that will happen in the next week or two, we'll see how the cycle progresses I guess...

[Albertan22]

Found the smaller of the two clowns (the darker coloured one) dead this morning I'm not exactly sure what happened. Neither of them have been eating since I picked them up (I did see them eat at the LFS), but I figured I wouldn't worry as it's only been a couple of days. The larger one was always shaking and dancing around the smaller one, but the little guy always seemed to ignore the big one. I'm wondering if the larger of the two decided to kill the little guy? Or maybe it was just stress... Hopefully the one I have left starts eating. A big water change is also in order tonight as the death has caused an ammonia spike