Noobie Questions!

[JPeach]

Hey all,

I'm relatively new to reefing... I had wanted a salt water tank since I was a kid. In July I took the plunge and decided to set up a 14 Gallon Nano. The tank is looking great and keep trying to plan it out every day.

So far I have 14 Pounds of Live Rock ( from Golds ), 2 Clowns, 1 Flame Angle, 1 Dwarf Red Starfish, 1 Peppermint shrimp, and 2 Snails. One Frag of "toadstool Coral" and One Zoanthid ( about 14 Polyps ).

I Love this tank but I don't want to shock it by adding to much. These are my future plans any advise would be welcome.

add one piece of Coral every week for 5 - 6 weeks
Froggspawn
2-more types of Zoanthids
3 unknown at this time SPS?

1 - Coral Beauty, Will it fight with my flame angel? - add in 2 weeks
1 - Skunk Cleaner shrimp, Will it fight with the peppermint shrimp? add in 2 weeks
1 - Blue Mandarin - Add in 3 Months
1 - Maxima Clam - I realize it will out grow the tank... I have future plans... Will the flame angle attack it?

Should I add Hermit Crabs and more snails?

Any suggestions or tips would be great

Thanks

[albert_dao]

I'd scrap all of the non-coral livestock plans. Won't work in that size of tank. The flame will also need to be moved with time.

[whiteice669]

In my opion you are already at the max for a 14g ,dwarf angles will fight to the death in a small tank and most times in a large tank

[Zylumn]

See if Gold's will give you credit or $ back for the Flame Angel. I would not add ANYTHING else.
By the way welcome to the hobby. My advice would be take the Flame back and READ, READ, READ about this hobby.
Good Luck and keep posting your ?'s. Water Parameters, lighting , would be helpful.
Kevin

[JPeach]

awsome this is the feedback i was looking for...

The tank I have is an Oceanic Biocube 14.

Seems the 14 gallon will stay the way it is for live stock. I'll just add some corals and see how that goes!

[Doug]

Welcome to Canreef.

I will move this to the main reefing forum for you.

[Darth Wader]

I would also add some more snails. 2 snails really isn't enough for a 14 gallon tank. I would shoot for least 1 snail per gallon.

[justinl]

welcome to the hobby. my main advise to you is research on all purchases before you buy. research is THE most effective weapon you have to avoid screwing up.

remove the flame angel. you can leave in the clowns, but that will be all the fish you can add to a 14gal tank. so no coral beauty either, definitely no mandarin.

also, scrap the starfish. research starfish and youll find that they are, for the most part, very sensitive to water quality, and have poor survival rates in small aquariums. for most sea stars, we dont really even know what they eat. most of the ones whose diets are known, arent reef safe. if you want an easy to keep star who wont starve, look into brittle or serpent stars. just avoid the green ones (they might eat your fish/shrimp).

for corals, your main limitation is lighting. you could keep the large majority of soft corals as well as some lps (research!). I would discourage sps until you are more experienced. even then, the only sps i would keep under biocube stock lighting would be red montipora.

dont schedule coral additions. your tank is small and youll find that it will get filled up fast enough. which means that you can afford to be very picky. watch over the classifieds for reefers who sell their own stock. ime, usually the quality in their tanks are much better than the lfs (and usually sold cheaper ime). plus you can be sure that the coral you get from another reefer is healthy and you know its history (disease, lighting, parasites?) as well.

no clams. PC lighting is not nearly good enough for them.

adding another shrimp might work, but there wouldnt be much point. it may or may not fight the peppermint. I cant say. i wouldnt add 14 snails to the tank... maybe limit it at 6 and then see from there whether or not you need more. i dont really see the use of hermits in reefs. i found blue legs to be very annoying. apparently scarlet hermits are more reef safe though.

[Murminator]

14 G little small for a flame angel
http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=444&N=0

[tang daddy]

I think justinl summed it up quite well I would've advised the same

[fishoholic]

I think justinl summed it up quite well I would've advised the same

I have to agree. I personally wouldn't put a dwarf angel fish in anything less than a 30g.