just set up my 30g salt tank need suggestions on fish?

[Daniel475]

hey guys so started it up 3 days ago.. I have 25lbs of live rock in it , sand good filter etc... what kind of fish should i be thinking of putting in this tank? thanks alot
dan

[dsaundry]

At this point I wouldn't be putting in any fish, the tank needs to cycle first.

[Daniel475]

how long does it need to cycle?? and i was planning on waiting just needed some ideas on fish when im rdy to purchase

[lorenz0]

ussually a month, all depends on how your tank cycles. yes its torture

as for fish, i would only put like 3 or 4 fish in there. personally i would have a tailspot/bi-color blenny, royal gramma, and a clown/pair of clowns

[Flash]

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[Chase31]

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fail?

[Daniel475]

anything you can add to the tank to help it age faster?? like i know with a freshwater you can add some cheap fish to aged it up.. canu do the same with saltwater

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[Flash]

Yup! I failed!!! Lol silly blackberry!

I would honestly wait atleast 3 week before adding anything... Then teat you watern add a small clean up crew and wait a few more weeks. There is nothing fast about this hobby. But the results are worth the wait!

3 fish should be good! Clowns, a chromis, a shrimp and a few cool crabs and you should be good to go! Research your fish, some look good but get far too big for little tanks like a 30gl!

[Daniel475]

thanks alot.. what kind of clean up crew would you recommend?? I really like the lion fish what our they like? to big for a 30? im thinking of getting the hang of this for 6months or so then slowly doing a 125 or bigger

[freezetyle]

i agree with everyone above. let your tank cycle and mature.

here is a semi guide line of certain fish you can keep.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703

that being said still do research on the individual fish before you put them in

[Chase31]

i agree with everyone above. let your tank cycle and mature.

here is a semi guide line of certain fish you can keep.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703

that being said still do research on the individual fish before you put them in

this is a great thread +1

[Felix]

thanks alot.. what kind of clean up crew would you recommend?? I really like the lion fish what our they like? to big for a 30? im thinking of getting the hang of this for 6months or so then slowly doing a 125 or bigger

there is a good thread about lion fish on here somewhere so have a read, and I`d say definately too big for a 30g.

the one think I have learnt is time is the enemy try to rush and its back to the start again.

I have a pair of clowns in a 34g will introduce a anenmone in Feb or March , a watchman in April, May and I`d like a Coral beauty in June.
The coral beauty is a wish and may become a flashing wrase which might suit the size of the tank better.

May change the order? any advice?

I`ll think about going bigger 125 or 150 sounds good but its wallet dependant!

Felix

[SmallFry]

anything you can add to the tank to help it age faster?? like i know with a freshwater you can add some cheap fish to aged it up.. canu do the same with saltwater

You can, I did with my 27 gallon - I had a pair of saltwater acclimated mollys in there for a while. I did it because I started with dry rock and 2lbs of live rock that was out of the water for 5 mins max, so my cycle was so small as to be imperceptible and I was paranoid it hadn't cycled properly.

I don't think I'd bother to do it the next time. Some people think it's cruel, I'm not sure myself as they seemed pretty happy in there, but in hindsight I don't think it was even necessary.
The problem is also that the cheap fish are generally not the ones you want in the end and you then have to get them out (not nearly as trivial as it sounds) and find them a new home.


Fish wise I have a Tomato Clown, Coral Beauty, a Royal Gramma and a large cleaner shrimp in there, plus a couple of hermits and about 7 assorted snails. I reckon I've hit the limit until my 75G upgrade comes online :biggrin:

Again, in hindsight I'd avoid the Tomato Clown in a tank this size because he can be pretty aggressive (will go for my hand and on occasion draw blood) when he wants to be, and it's borderline whether there's enough space for the others to get out of his way.

If you have hermits, make sure there are plenty of assorted shells to avoid fights breaking out over accommodation - I got a big bag of them from the local craft place. Oh, and don't freak out like I did when they molt - it looks just like a hermit crab with no shell! Seriously, it took about 15mins of trying to coax it back into a spare shell before I worked it out! :redface:

Hope that helps..

[Daniel475]

thanks guys helps alot

[Reef_surfer]

im still pretty new to the hobby and i found the best way to get it cycled is put the rocks in there with the filtration and pumps leave the lights off the tank and forget about it. come back within a month and test it. i find the more you stare at it the more you want to fill it up sooner.

soon enough time will fly and you will have an awesome tank. i had a 33g with a yellow watchman w pistol shrimp, false perc, clarkii clown and yellow tail damsel

[Nihoa]

tailspot blenny ftw!

not my image obviously

http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/product/p-39334-tail-spot-blenny.jpg

what are the dimensions of the tank? is it a 30g long or 30g high? if it is long there are wrasses you could be thinking about. i had a twinspot hog in my 30g and it did fine. firefish would also work and they are way cooler than cardinals or chromis. there are gobies like the yellow watchman that are quite neat.

id recommend going to the websites of the big online stores like liveaquaria, saltwaterfish, the marine center, ocean aquatics, etc and looking through the fish and checking their min tank requirements. youll want to take an avg of what the diff sites say, some will say angels can go in a 20g, others will say 50g. unforunately you will need to balance the conservative estimates to the liberal.

[Nihoa]

have a look at this as well http://www.nano-reef.com/fish/

[Lydia]

Definitely research the fish before you buy them for your tank. I spent a good part of the morning taking apart my tank to get a strawberry dottyback out because it was WAY too aggressive with my Clown and Chromis. The dottyback is now in his own tank where he has no one to bully :P