Starting small........

gm333

Where do you live? You can find this at petco and petsmart, here is what it looks like. Ocean Nutrition Dry Fish Food—Marine Algae Seaweed Selects - Marine Depot - Marine and Reef Aquarium Super Store

Tommy Gun

Thanks gm!

My wife found seaweek today and it came with a free clip that luckily fits into my rockwork pretty nicely so that it doesnt look odd when it is in the tank. I cant tell if it has been tasted or not yet, but we will see what it looks like in the morning.

gm333

Hope he likes it, I once had a cherub angel and he would take it from the clip, I dont think my potters likes to compete with the tang and fox face for a bite from the ol clip.

Tommy Gun

GM,

Would you have any recommendations for a larger, bright, red SW fish I can add to my collection so far? I have seen some large tomato clowns available near me, however I am leery about getting them because I am unsure how old they are and they would be pricy for a fish that only has a year or less to go til its off to the nursing home...

I am thinking pretty hard about either a yellow tang or a foxface for my tank. Knowing my stocking right now, what would you recommend as far as one of these? I know the tangs get big and could irritate the puffer, but I would like something that is less likely to spend most of its time hiding like my bicolored angel. I am also seriously thinking about going reef in about 6 months to 8 months so I would like to consider than for my stocking.

gm333

There are a lot of red colored wrases that are reef safe, the only problem is they are a little more expensive. Wrasse: Reef Safe
The bigeyed squirrelfish stays around 5-6" and is reef safe, plus looks pretty cool if you ask me. Big Eye Squirrel - Myripristis species
Both the yellow tang or foxface would be fine.
Check on these sites for other fish that would be compatable, took me 2mnths to figure out what fish would work and really liked. I still plan on putting more in after I get all the new equipment and refugium done.

Tommy Gun

Thanks for those links. I have been searching through a couple of sites to see what fish I would like to end up with here in the next couple of months. I have completely switched courses with wanting a lionfish (which limited me dramatically on stocking and reef options) to now wanting a pretty docile tank that is highly active. I saw a couple of months ago a super nice tank that had a black background like mine, nice white sand (sort of like mine) and just a ton of bright small fish in a reef tank. I really liked it a lot but was turned off by the costs of lighting. In fact, I am going to start a new thread tonight about my lighting and some possibilities for me adding light without adding too much heat to the water...

Anyways, thanks alot for your input and replies. I am getting a lot from them!

gm333

Your welcome, I tried the dwarf lionfish in my 46 fo tank, he ended up not eating and died, I saw him eat at the lfs, but I guess the 2.5 hour drive didnt suit him well. There are lots of ways to get lights for your tank without having to worry about heat issues im sure all of us here can bget you setup for the long haul(LOL)

Shawn D

I really like the flasher wrasses and was thinking about adding a couple to mine after its done cycling. Have you thought about a dispar anthias?

Tommy Gun

I am just now looking into some of these fish. I like the wrasse's, however they do look expensive, which would be ok later on, when I know my tank is good enough to support them for the long duration.

Have a look at my lighting sytem here:

Finnex Aquarium Supplies

I just replied to ggmichael's "lighting upgrade" thread about this system. I really like it alot, but I am unsure as to it being able to support a reef. At the moment, my tank runs a steady 80 to 82 degrees with a heater to make sure it doesnt drop below 78 (just to stop problems with large temp swings on the fish). Shawn points out that this system creates about a little over 2 watts per gallon, but I am unsure as to what that would limit me to. With tax time coming up in three to four months, I want to have some really good ideas on upgrades for my tank. I am looking mainly for colorful, active, and steady, meaning I dont have to babysit it completely. For now, my water remains incredibly good and I didnt notice even a twitch from the addition of 6 new fish (5 green chromis, 1 bicolor angel).

The problem with my lionfish was that it would ONLY eat live feeder fish. This made it a lot of work trying to keep enough of them quarenteened long enough for saftey as well as not overstocking my feeder tanks to keep up with the demand. I tried to starve him until he woud take silversides, but gave up because I got scared. My wife visited him at the LFS today and they said he still wont take anything but live food and one of them is a real expert on these fish. They have a reef tank set up with three BIG lionfish in it so he must know what he is doing to get that to work out right. I believe it is a 900 gallon tank and is spectacular!

Any info you can give me on how to get my tank ready for the long run would be greatly appreciated. If you would like, I could start a new thread with all my tanks info as far as the sytem I have and how I run it. Let me know if that would help or if you would like to just keep it going in this thread. I would like to have it somewhat organized though so I can refer back to your tips, ideas, and info as I go about getting this worked out. I really think it is a great tank for SW, I just need to refine my approach here and work out the kinks I am having as a beginner.

Shawn D

Tommy Gun about your temperatures. Do you have a glass lid over the tank, and how high above your tank do your lights sit?