Thinking of my first tank!
 

Ok I've done lots of research on fish but I'm still doing more mostly on coral.

I'm thinking of getting a 29g tank with live rock (about 43-58 lbs), 1 Ocellaris Clown, 1 or 2 Panda Gobies, 2 or 3 Green Chromis fish, and some coral but I'm not sure what (exapt I know I need Branch Coral for the Panda)

Also I'm thinking of getting a fake anemone for the clown (to make him/her to feel at home). =)

I dont think the clown will go into a fake anemone.

Welcome to Canreef! What type of lighting do you plan to use? That will determine what type of corals you can keep. I doubt a clown would host in a fake anemone but there are many other corals it will host in if you don't want to get a real one. My clown hosts in the frogspawn I have.

A 29g tank only needs about 25 pounds of rock. 58 pounds, you might need really skinny fish :)

yah... on my 80G, I got 85 lbs... I had to turf 3 or 4 pieces because they didn't fit right in the tank. ROT is about a pound per gallon, but even that dedends on how pourous the rock is... if it's volcanic, it's going to be lighter by volume ect.... so take that into consideration.

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I've seen people with small anemone's in 20 gallon tanks, so you should be able to eventually put one in yours, once you've got the tank nice and stable of course. I've also seen clowns host green star polyps (gsp), that could be one short term solution for your clown. They are also a really good beginner coral that don't require much light.

Oh I was told by some people that you should have about 1.5-2 lbs of rock per gallon.
And I guess I'm not going to get a fake anemone maybe I'll get frogspawn coral insted (I prefer not to get an anemone) but if I have to for my clown I will.
I was wondering what kind of Branch Coral should I get for the Panda. =)

Get a fuzzy mushroom or a similar soft coral i have an anemone and two clowns. The female is in the GBTA but the male is content hosting a candy cane coral. Here is an interesting article for maybe the best alternative Clown Host

I wouldn't worry too much about the pounds per gallon, just search for some really nice pieces to make a nice aquascape. It seems to many people just pile in a load of rock and end up with a rock wall in their tanks. Lots of openings and places to put coral is ideal :)


My two cents worth when it comes to aquascaping anyways :)


.. I should add that I think the lbs/gallon calculation is based more on the biological filtering of the tank rather than taking the visual aspects into account, I should ask if you are planning on running a sump and a skimmer? This would help reduce the amount of rock you "need" for bilogical filtration. You could also fill you sump with rock, thats what I have done in my tank. I think I have about 100lbs in my display tank but atleast another 50-60lbs in my sump.

Just remember, because you want the clown to host doesn't mean it will. :) Wild caught Perculas need a host anemoneshowever captive bred do not at least that has wbeen what i was told. Although In my experience the captive bred are usually willing to host anything..like powerheads i had one "host" the probe for my temp guage once.