Corals? And other questions.

[Joshifer]

Hi again. (Your gonna be seeing alot of posts from me since I like to ask alot of questions before trying something because I respect the life of all living things) I know theirs a contradiction here but the guy from LFS told me it would be ok to add a clown the next day after setup since I bought natures ocean live water. 12lbs of live rock with lots of feather dusters brittle stars and bristle worms in it). And Arag alive wet sand (had tiny snails and clams in it because i sifted the left over sand for about 20 mins to be sure i got all the animals out. and I used a capful of prime to neutralize any die off ammonia. So far the only dead thing I found was a red huge red feather duster it's tentacles are fossilized into the rock.or I could be wrong maybe it's alive or something else. But deffinatly a cream color tube and red sticking out stuck to the rock)

 

Sorry for the huge post

 

I know I'm less then a week into this but I'm curious about corals. I won't be adding them just yet ill let the tank establish a while.

But what would be a good beginner coral with movement ? I don't like the mushrooms too much.

And the light I have is the aqueon evolve 8 white LED and blue night light (I assume its their moonlight) I googled and saw a few people having success with this stock light. IMO it isn't very bright but at the same time isn't very dim. And the way I scaped my tank the light kinda spills downward hitting everything (besides inside my caves) I don't know their lumin levels so don't ask. But anyway what would work with this for a while with easy corals? Pet land has tiny clusters for $5 so it's not like I'd be throwing money away but again I don't like playing god and letting things suffer and die. (Also do corals emit ammonia? I assume if their alive they would. Especially if their dying/dead) again I won't be adding any for about a month. Once I learn how to keep them ill upgrade my lighting fixture. And Once I'm in this for several months ill upgrade to a larger tank hopefully Xmas I would love a huge wall unit 100+ gallon maybe with a 30+ sump. I just wanna start small I know In the long run it'll be cheaper going bigger but I want to be sure I can handle this before playing with God's creatures lives. I tend to my tanks religiously. Actually when theirs nothing to test or clean I just start poking around with random stuff because I'm bored. (Untangling wires rinsing the intake tubes and lids or reading the forums) lol sorry for the huge post. And since you read this far that means your passionate about this. What are some common hitch hikers I wanna be sure not to touch? So far I learned about bristle worms and their spines. Any other commonly found critters that'll hurt me or my clown? Also I know it's a small tank but would it be ok to add another small clown? This ones still small so the whole sex change thing hasn't occurred and he was alone in the pet store tank for over a month with a fox face rabbit. Thanks. Again sorry for the huge post.

 

*edit* I'm home 7 days a week i dont work im disabled. and when I do leave it's only for a few hours to run errands and I actually LIKE doing water changes because I know my fishies appreciate it. So I'm gonna be on top of all params at all times. The reason I'm saying all this is because I've had alot of people tell me i can't neglect them and I have to put my time into them thinking Im just going thru a phase ill later get over. I'm really passionate about this. I've kept freshwater for years and I can count my deaths. 3 and they were common carnival gold fish, so Their pretty much overly taken care of, Sorry again for the huge post and life story.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Joshifer

[AlanM]

So I am not an expert, but from about 2 years of reading some things you should think about are palytoxin from palythoas and some other polyps, stings from bristleworms, stings from spiny fishes, and mycobacterium marinum, which is apparently really rare but nasty infection possible to get if you are in your tank with open scratches. Plenty of people here put their hands in tanks all day long without gloves and do fine by washing afterwards. Some like to wear long gloves all the way up their arms. Some just put nitrile gloves on their hands. Kind of up to you.

 

I dont have good suggestions for what to grow with that light. I bet you upgrade it soon if you are going to try for coral in there to something like a PAR38 LED bulb from ledtric or boostled or rapidled or a bunch of other options. Maybe try some mushrooms, green star polyps, and pompom xenia and see what grows.

[zygote2k]

Ask to check out the WAMAS library. It has many wonderful books to read about that will have most of the answers to your questions.