Choice Of Corals/clean Up

[rhysiboy]

righgt i am completely cluesless of what clean up crew and corals to get for my 14g. could someone help out as allls i no i want is a zoonanthid coral and a cleaner shrimp. any advice or suggestions owuld be greatly appreciate.

 

[dixaisy930]

What type of fish were you planning on keeping, and what kind of lighting do/will you have?

 

[rhysiboy]

heres th lighting oh and id get the twin 36w daylight/ blue http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/Z497164.asp . oh and also i waws planning on keeping a pair of the hardier and more colourful true oceleris or percula i forgot which is the best one.

 

[dixaisy930]

I think 20 gallons is a minimum for two clowns, and 30 is really recommended.

As for inverts, definately have some snails in the mix. Personal favorites are nerites, astrea, nass, and turbos. I do believe some turbos can get big (for a snail). The nerites and astrea stay on the glass and liverock, while the nass will stay in the sand bed (well, until food hits the sand, then they come out). Scarlet hermits are also a personal favorite. I find mine to be more peaceful than my blue hermit.

As far as cleaner shrimp, I've heard good things about the blood cleaner. Very pretty, and a nice little (well, actually, they are pretty good sized lol). I have peppermints, camelback, and pistol. I believe the camel has a reputation for coral grazing, although that has not been my experience. I do love my pretty pistol shrimp. It's a digger though, and there's a chance you may never see it after you put it in the tank. I was lucky and mine chose to dig under a rock infront of the tank.

That'll get you started with info...keep asking though. I love rambling on about my inverts.

 

[CAC]

To be honest, that lighting isnt great, and at only 6,500k, whilst it may be better than some, it wont be great, especially without a reflector (i know that interpet dont make them, so it would need to be DIY)
I think you probably could have some zoanthids in there, and mushrooms, but as far as other soft corals go, i dont know (leathers etc).

One thing you can do though, in the tank with less lighting is go for some macro algea (Caulerpa genus)...
There are loads of differant species available, some with bright colours, and their inexpensive. Search Caulerpa on ebay UK, and youll see some of the species available. Also, they help keep nitrate levels down, and cost nothing compared to corals....And, if you wanted to, you could get a seccond hand metal halide unit off ebay, seccond hand, for about £80-120, or a seccond hand over tank T5 unit for about £40, so its not too much. But then, if you have better lights, then youll want nicer corals, and then with LPS' etc it gets more expensive...

Im sure you would be fine with a pair of clowns in that size tank, one of the top marine sites reccomends only 7g for one, and 10 for a pair, allthough i personally think 12g for a pair would be better...

About the shrimp, id personally stay away from the blood shrimp, allthough IMO the yare the best looking of all the available shrimps, they are apparently quite shy, and dont come out too much, but thats just what ive heard/read...

Mikey

 

[rhysiboy]

hmm okay i think ill look into better lighting as i would like to keep LPS. and ill look into the pepermints oh and for the lighting i showed that would come to like £50 so i may as well get better stuff


wait i just cheked out the interpet things and each bulb is 6500k so if i got the double then id be runnning 1300k so isnt that enough?

 

[CAC]

From what i can remember, even if you have more, its still the same colour temp, which is baisically just how many kelvins are in the light beam. The more you have, then the more wattage youll have, but not more colour temp (please correct me if im wrong...)
Personally, id spend the extra money, get some nice LPS' etc and some macro algea, grow the algea, and sell what you dont need one its grown. That way, you get some of the money back

Mikey

 

[SkiFletch]

Color temperature is just the way the human eye percieves light. 10000k looks more white to us while 20000k looks more blue. Its been shown that in MOST cases, a mix of 10000k and 20000k is what corals like best for photosynthesis and thus their health.

 

[rhysiboy]

yer okay. anyway im going to my lfs today or tomoro so ill chekout some ligthing. i think halides are out of the question. oh ive seen theese on ebay does it lok good at all? heres the 1st one

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/3x24W-T5-Lighting-ha...1QQcmdZViewItem

and the second
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/T5-AQUARIUM-OVERHEAD...1QQcmdZViewItem

which one should i chose?. remember im also on a budget and yes i know i wouldnt buy that one as i dont trust things that are a pound

 

[rhysiboy]

BUMP!

 

[SkiFletch]

A 2x24 watt fixture would probably be best. If you're only lookin to keep softies, you can have that 2x14 light, but if you want to get into LPS you'll need that 3x24 fixture.