Newbie looking for advise

[sperkins]

Hello,

I recently enherited a 95 Gallon Saltwater tank. It has a 20 gallon sump and currently has no live rock or live sand. Thre is approximately 50lbs of regular rock, a yellow tang, purple tang and manderin goby. The fish have all been together for well over a year and tolerate each other well. The manderin goby eats frozen blood worms and brine shrimp with no issue.I've done some reading and am trying to educate myself (what led me here). I'm looking at the long term and am trying have come up with the following potential livestock list and would like any feedback I can get.

I'm not planning live rock, coral or anemones for a least a year. Over the next year I'd like to potentially add:
2 cleaner shrimp
10 blue legged hermits
10 scarlet hermits

1 - Jewel Damsel
5 - 3 striped Damsels
2 - Percula Clowns (a pair)
1 - Multicolor Pygmy Angel
1 - Flame Angel

Any and all advise/feedback is appreciated.

Sharon

[minireefer]

The articles page has alot of great info there.It is more geared to reef keeping but over all will useful to you.If you want you add the live rock to the system for now it will help with large Bio-load your planning.The rock will also seed the rest of the rock in you system.The inverts in my opinion should be fine.The anmount of fish may be alittle to much.I am not a fan of any kind of damsels.They get mean and territorial.Also there kind of in the same family as clown fish so there might be some fighting going on there.If decided to put both angels in the tank try to do so at the same time.That way they possibility of aggression is minimized.Dawrf angels will not always get along well togather.

[Chris]

I would scrap most of hermit crabs and go with as many snails as you can, they clean much better and don't mess with corals.

[sperkins]

Thanks for the feebback. What if I replace the 5, 3-stripe damsels with 5 Banggai Cardinalfish and the Jewel Damsel with one of the following: Bicolor Blenny, Flame Pseudochromis, Black Cap Basslet, Clown Fairy Wrasse, Red Sea Cleaner Wrasse still keeping in the mix:
2 cleaner shrimp
10 blue legged hermits
10 scarlet hermits
2 - Percula Clowns (a pair)
1 - Multicolor Pygmy Angel
1 - Flame Angel

I'll add some snails as well, any suggestions on amount type? and I'll start to introduce some live rock as well over the next year slowly adding about 50-75lbs but likely won't start the live rocks for a few months.

I'll be added the fish one at a time about 4-6 weeks apart except for the Cardinal Fish and Clown fish which I'll add as groups. Order of additions I'm thinking of is: first batch inverts (including snails); 4 weeks later Cardinel fish, next Flame Angel, next Multi Color Pygmy Angel, next Wrasse/Blenny/Pseudochromis; last Clowns. Comments?

[minireefer]

Clown Fairy Wrasse are nice looking fish plus there usualy reef safe.when the banggai Cardinalfish or Kaudern's are juvenile and not sexually mature they will school together. Actually they often find pair mates during this schooling, and its quite a beautiful site to see 10 banggais all hovering together. A dominant male will force his way to the top of the pecking order, and will put a little stress on the other fish, but not too bad. However when two of them reach sexual maturity (male and female) and pair off, youÕll have a bundle on your hands. The paired fish will make short work of any unpaired banggai, and often drive them into hiding so bad that the unpaired fish will whither and die.So I would look for two juveniles and hope they pair off.As fare as snails go there so many types avaiable,turbos,cerith,nitrites,buble bee,and nassarius, to name a few.How many depends on the job they to need do.

[Asmodeus]

If I can say a few words being new to this forum. I would highly recomend the Live rock. Its going to help in the long run keeping the bio load in check. If you have no Live Rock you wont have any little creatures living in the rock to eat or convert the nasty's away in your tank. Unless you have a Sand bed. But the fish can't really house them selfs and hide to feel more safe.. JMO\

By the way nice score on the tank..

[djnzlab1]

HI,
I am very new to SW also, but the one common thing I ve read on many different forum is turn the sump into a reforgium, with a 4-5 in sand base. This will help with nitrite reduction, and provide a place for many food items to reproduce one good piece of live rock will cycle that sand very quickly. . light and live algae or plants will also improve the sumps function. I am using a 20 tal with a skimmer and my water has cleared in a couple weeks and brisstle worms are having a blast in the sand bed I ve heard they can really clean a lot of sand quickly .I put a pile of lava rock in the center to provide some hiding spots for critters I do have a few pieces of live rock in the main tank. And I have added a couple pounds of live sand to speed up the process.
This will greatly improve the quality of your water reducing the need for more frequent changes.
Doug

[Bifferwine]

I think you're on the right track with the fish. Definitely be careful of any damsels! They are highly territorial and will kill each other and other fish quickly and easily. The striped, blue, and dominoes are notorious for this. Not a very good choice for a reef tank, in my opinion. I have one that also kills corals that are placed in its territory. Wrasses are very pretty and relatively easy to keep, so that would be an excellent substitution. And cardinals are different looking and fill a unique niche in the tank (nocturnal, stay near the surface, carnivorous) that not too many other fish fill.

If you are going to add more fish, you will definitely need live rock. It is invaluable and will save you tons of time and money in the long run.