Am I Doing Anything Wrong?

[jeffery]

hello i would like to intrduce my self . my name is jeff i have a 55gal reef tank
that i think looks good but would like to learn more about .i have been told that my choice of coral is not the best and eather is my choice of fish.
im runing one eheim 2227 wet/dry one hot magnum 250 one
seaclone 100 protein skimmer and a penguin 350 boi-wheel. i also have a maxi-jet 900 powerhead .my lighting is 4 65 watt PCs which are coral life 50/50s .and sunpac 50/50s.
i have the folowing coral and fish

1-yellow toad stool leather
1-devils hand leather
1-yellow fiji leather
1-colony of blue mushrooms
1-orange soft coral "looks like carnation coral" but it's not
1-kenya tree
1-orange spunge i got for free
1 vary large colony of zoos 'mushroom polyps'
1- large octo bubble coral
1-large hammer coral
1-pulsating xenia
1- colony of wood polyps 'waveing hand'
1-colony of branching star polyps
1-small frag of glaxy coral
1-open brain
1- LTA
2-BTA
1-vary large seabay anemone
3-feather dusters
lots of hurmit crabs
lots of snails
2-emrald crabs
1-skunk cleaner shrimp
1- fire shrimp
1-pepermint shrimp
1-crocea clam

3-blue demoiselles
2-green chromis
1-fox face
1-bristletooth tang
2-clarki clowns
1-tomato clown
1-scissor tail gobi
1-phychedelic fish
1-fire fish
3-moiles
all of these fish are quite small
besieds the tang, fox face and two clarki clowns

i could ues any advice i can get. so please feal free to inform. me not
insult me. thanks in advance ....

oh yeah i also have a 300$store credit to get some stuff but im not realy sure what to get .
jeff

this is my 55 gal tank

 

[Lynden]

I don't see anything wrong with your tank, it appears to be flourishing, if a little high regarding stocking levels. Who told you that your animal choices weren't good? It looks like a really good tank.

 

[jeffery]

some people on other sites told me that. my fish will not get along and that i was not setup to have the corals i have .
thanks for the comment
i dont get to many on it
do you think that i need to do anything with my system as far as filters and such

 

[Navarre]

Hello and welcome to TFF marine section.

Your stocking levels for a tank of this size seem quite high, also you have some compatability issues and size issues too...

The Foxface grows large.. very large and quickly too. Whilst you think its already one of the larger fish in your system, it will soon outgrow your tank completely. Although they are algae eaters you might find that it will begin to show signs of aggression as it grows and the territory seems ot get smaller. Be aware that this fish is also venomous.

The tang is also really a bit to big for this tank. Whilst a bristletooth is one of the smaller tangs I would recomend a tank at about 75 gallons or more for this type of fish.

The clarkiis and the tomatoe are a war in the waiting IME. Clarkiis willform a pairand as they grow they wont tollerate the tomatoe.. however the tomatoe also grows very large andis more than capable of looking after itself and it might even bully the other 2 clowns.

Anenomes in a tank is questionable e sadly but it happens. They have extremly poor survival rates and these types of anenomes can grow large and in a small tank they might well take over alot of the available space.

The orange coral... I cant see it very well but at a guess i would say it might be a Dendronpthya... If thisis the case then it has a bad choice of corals. They require special care and large quantities of specialist foods to survive..

The rest of the setup seems fine.
Sorry if im sounding a little negative but i wouldnt be acting as a responcible enthusiast if i wernt pointingout the dangers that lie ahead of you.

 

[jeffery]

this is the orange coral

 

[sianeds]

Your tank looks beautiful

I agree with Navarre on the compatibility issues and I have nothing to add except, be aware of the potential problems........and keep up the good work

To have such a lovely tank you must be doing most things right

 

[Navarre]

That is a beautiful coral. It looks a little like a sun coral but the polyps appear too small. It might be a dendro buti would expect to see more pink. Is this coral very soft to the touch or is it slitly prickly? or doesit have a hard base which it retracts into?

In either case i expect by its colouration that its not a light loving coral and wil need target feeding.

 

[sianeds]

I don't think it's a sun coral as I'm sitting 2ft from one and like you said the polyps are too small...

I would guess it's a type of tree coral...Scleronephthys spp. they tend to be more compact than dendro's and the polyps are more clustered also...

 

[boshank23]

wow thats 1 sexy coral, looks like some kind of bush coral to me. i have a pink 1 very similar but much much smaller.

to be honest it isn't going to take much to sort out your compatability problems, reserch the corals you have and cater for them in your daily routines, once that is done you will have a very nice set up there.

as said before, you must be doing something right

 

[Navarre]

Yeah i would go with that ID.

I looked it up in my Aquarium corals bible and they are remarkably similar.

Caring for them is almost identical to the dendro.
These corals dont need light to survies as they usualy hang upsidedown in deeper water under reef shelves.
They are strictly plankton feeders and have a voracious appetite. Feeding them in captive systems is usually impossible however some hobbiests by feeding planktonic lifeforms such as do have sucess with them by using things like phytoplankton. I personally dont think phytoplankton is enough for these corals however as its the wrong particle size to be digested properly.
good luck with it and keep us posted on its development.

 

[boshank23]

this is my chili coral, he does best hung up-side-down. its suprising the size of the food his polyps can take. mine eats brine and mysis administered in a syringe.

i would try and do the same for yours, perhaps you may not need to hang it? my chili coral swells up to 3 times his day time size and can really only do this up-side-down.

hope that helps a little?

 

[sianeds]

this is my chili coral, he does best hung up-side-down. its suprising the size of the food his polyps can take. mine eats brine and mysis administered in a syringe.

i would try and do the same for yours, perhaps you may not need to hang it? my chili coral swells up to 3 times his day time size and can really only do this up-side-down.

hope that helps a little?

now see I'd say that was a china coral...Siphonogorgia spp.

 

[jeffery]

this is what i came up with dont know if tis rite though
Scleronepthea, Neospongoides, Lemnalia

 

[sianeds]

this is what i came up with dont know if tis rite though
Scleronepthea, Neospongoides, Lemnalia

I'd definately go with the 1st . Am not familiar with Neospongoides but I'm pretty sure from the pic it's not Lemnalia

 

[boshank23]

this is my chili coral, he does best hung up-side-down. its suprising the size of the food his polyps can take. mine eats brine and mysis administered in a syringe.

i would try and do the same for yours, perhaps you may not need to hang it? my chili coral swells up to 3 times his day time size and can really only do this up-side-down.

hope that helps a little?

now see I'd say that was a china coral...Siphonogorgia spp.

its a Nephthyigorgia sp


look at the size of the branches compared to the china coral, my chili's are much fatter. perhaps its of a similar family as the names are quite similar.