Stocking Suggestions

[Richer]

Now that my holidays is just about over and I won't be taking another extended vacation for at least a couple of years, I figure its time to add fish to my tank. However, seeing how I'm still a newbie at this stuff, I'd like to put this through all of you to see if I'm on the right track... or if I'm bonkers.

Some background info:

The tank has been running in its current state for about a month. The rock itself has been running for about 2-3 months in a temporary holding tank. The xenia frag Harvey gave me has grown and split, and my pod population is very large. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate have been holding steady at zero before my vacation, and afterwards. So I think its safe to say that the tank is stable enough for a couple of fish. In the end, I would like to have a reef... at the moment, I'm thinking about keeping nothing too hard. Mostly mushrooms and zoos... and perhaps in the future a cap of some sort. I'm currently running a 2x96watt PC fixture, though I'm looking into upgrading to 2x175MH. The tank is 30 gallons (36"x12"x16" lxwxh) with a 15 gallon fuge stuffed with chaetomorpha. I'm also running a barebottom system. Currently, the only things living in my tank are 2 cerith snails, 2 nassarius snails, 2 astrea snails, and a load of pods.

This is what I want in my tank:
6-12 more cerith snails
? hermit crabs
1 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimps
2 false peculas
1 lawnmower blenny

What sort and how many hermit crabs would you all suggest? I think hermit crabs are neat, and would like at least a couple of them. Is there anything else I should add? More snails maybe? Or is there anything I shouldn't have in there?

Thanks for helping!
-Richer

[Stirfry]

in personal experience io would only have one or two fish(the percula are good starters) in there for quite a while untill you are sure that everything is stable and i have had bad experiences with hermit crabs they killed a sea hair and a tone of snails

i would recomend some astro snail
i would start off slow with shrinp because they are more sensitive the stuff then the fish are

go to this link

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-08/totm/index.htm

this is a butifull 65 gal tank with simple hardy and cheap corals with some exceptions

[Richer]

So how would you recommend I go adding things?

Does this order sound ok?

Snails + False Peculas
Shrimp
Lawnmower Blenny

Of course assuming that after each addition, the tank stays stable for at least a few weeks before the next addition goes in.

I guess I'll ditch the hermit crabs, maybe I'll get an emerald crab instead?

-Richer

[Quinn]

From what I know, crabs are opportunists, and you have to keep this in mind. In my experience, snails are difficult to keep alive, and I'm not sure how much of a dent they put in algae growth anyways. My next tank will only have hermit crabs and perhaps some turbo snails in it as far as cleaners go. Just my thoughts.

[Richer]

I haven't had a problem with snails yet *knocks on wood*. My cerith snails seem to be doing an alright job... the rocks that I placed them on in the beginning were clean of diatoms and such only after a few days, while the rest of the tank was still covered in it. So I'm hoping a few more cerith snails would do the trick in keeping my tank clean. I may experiment with one or two hermit crabs to see how it goes, if they start killing snails, I'll throw them in my refuge.

-Richer

[muck]

I have a couple Zebra or Left Handed Hermits in my 15Gal tank. I think they are pretty neat little critters. I also have four or so Trochus snails. The hermits haven't even bothered the snails at all. I do think it helps to get smaller hermits and snails that are a little larger. If you provide the hermits with plenty of new homes(extra shells) to choose from. You may not have any problems. Granted there are always some problem cases, but you do have the sump so you are all set... :mrgreen:

just my 2 bits...

[Quinn]

The problem is, how do you know whether the inevitable snail deaths were caused by hermit crabs or some other unknown factor? You may see your hermit crabs apparently eating a snail at some point in time, but it would be difficult to tell if they actually caused its demise.

[muck]

Quinn, always the advocate for the little guy. :razz:
Im with you on this one. Unless I see a hermit attack a snail it stays.
Only banishment to the sump for the trouble makers... :mrgreen:

[Quinn]

:mrgreen:

As always, there is also room for the argument, if the system is set up correctly, there shouldn't be a need for a cleanup crew (a remedy for a symptom), since there are no problems/illnesses in the first place. I don't know if in practice this is at all possible, it would need to be looked at by some of the scientific types on RC and RDO, but in theory, with proper preparation, problem algaes should be kept in check automatically. I suppose it would be hard to predict and prepare for all the varieties of nasties that inhabit live rock though. And not that I didn't have significant problems with cyanobacteria. Maybe I should leave cleanup crews out of my next system altogether and see what happens.

Rich with those animals I think you've got the stocking order pretty much sorted out, you could probably put the shrimps in at the same time or before the clownfish.

[Richer]

If I learned anything from my experiments with planted tanks, its that prevention is the best method of algae control, not algae eaters. I kept a clown pleco and a few amano shrimps just because I thought they were neat looking... same thing with this SW tank. I just want a cleanup crew because I think its neat... kind of ironic, coming from a planter. In my plant tanks, I killed snails without a second thought, and now in a SW tank, I want them. Heheh :lol:

So no one sees any problems with my planned stock and how I'm going to introduce them?

-Richer

[muck]

Maybe I should leave cleanup crews out of my next system altogether and see what happens.

I think it would be very hard and very time consuming to maintain the perfect system.
So let me know how things go... http://www.muiscontrols.com/ryan/eclipsee_Victoria.gif