Ok - That Was Quick - But What Now?

[ebliss1]

Hi all - first timer here. A buddy of mine has been running his 46 gallon reef aquarium for a year now and I wanted to get into it (the hobby - not the tank). He bought a hospital tank but it wasn't what he wanted - so he gave me the setup. I figured I had time to get it up and running the right way (you know, slow and boring until its ready for critters), but he decided to kick-start me.

Now, I have a 12 gallon Eclipse Instant Ocean. He gave me about half an inch worth of live sand from his tank, 2 small pieces of live rock (maybe half a pound) from his tank, 2 hermit crabs, a snail and a piece of his Xenia coral. The tank's set up and everything is still moving around (no dead floaters yet and hoping it stays that way).

My questions here are: what should I be doing next and when should I do it? I don't want to just start dumping more rock and critters into it without knowing that they'll survive.

I was thinking of having it end up like this:

1 Cleaner Shrimp
6 Turbo Snails (1 in there already)
1 Brittle Starfish
2 Hermit Crabs (2 in there already)
1 Cleaner Clam
1 Xenia Cutting (in there already)
1 Clownfish
1 Royal Gramma

Is that realistic?
What should I do to get everything set up to receive them?
Any particilar order I should follow (I've read that the gramma should go in last, but other than that, nothing much on order)?
How quickly should this occur?
Will the clown have problems if I don't get an anenome?
My daughter wants a seahorse, but I don't think I'm ready for them, am I right or are they hardier than I have read?

Any other tips and advice?

My apologies if I sound like everyone's worst nightmare of a fishkeeper (the whole jumping in without looking part and not knowing what to do and all), but I was kind of blindsided with the jump started nano.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JaminRat]

Welcome to the salty side of life and congrats on your new setup. 1st thing that shouts is you'll need more LR approx 1lb per 1USG or 1kg per 10L whatever you prefer. The normal scheme of things is to add the LR and wait for the nitrogen cycle to complete and then add clean up crew then fish and later down the line start adding coral.

I would suggest a good read of the pinned topics here and in reef chit chat and if you like pictures have a look at some of the journal threads. It should give you a good feel for the hobby.

I would recomend that when you buy more LR if at all possible you transport in water to minimise any die off and so reduce the effects of the cycle.

Would also be useful to know what equipment you are running and as always the more pictures the better (we all love to see other peoples setups).

 

[SkiFletch]

to the forums and marine reefkeeping

Yeah, gotta get that LR content up. And just like JaminRat said, when you go pick it up, I'd bring a bucket of mixed saltwater with you to to minimize dieoff. Might even want to use old tankwater from a water change

As for your stocking, a royal gramma MAY bully a clownfish in a tank as small as 12g. Tough to say but grammas can get aggressive. If you like the look of the gramma (long and purple) I'd consider a purple firefish as a much happier tankmate to the peaceful clownfish . As for snails, I'd reccomend Cerith, Trochus, and Nassaurius snails instead of Turbos for a nano. Perhaps one or two of each just to keep your variety of appetites in the nano.

 

[Mr Miagi]

The other guys answered everything well, so I wont be a bore and repeat everything! Welcome to the hobby nontheless though!

I dont know what is meant by cleaner clam, but id suggest you stay away from it, for now. Unleast until your tank is more mature!

As for the order of addition, place the clean up crew in first. That way you can get any algae under control, and if they make it, your set to add fish just about. With what Ski suggested, leaving the Gramma out, a clown fish and somehting like a Firefish could be added in any order, they arnt territorial when they arnt in pairs. If you were to get a Gramma, add it last, as the clown will be established, and it wont have a territory to defend.

Your correct, SH's (seahorses) require alot of dedication and more specific requirements, a no go atleast for now, unless you do some heavy reading, and know what your going to feed them, and even then your small nano is probably to small height wise.

The clown will do fine without an anemone. Some dont even host when they have an anemone in the tank. You dont have sufficient lighting, or a suficiently aged and mature tank for an anemone, but clowns might host in something else when you start adding coral. Ive seen them in Mushrooms, Leathers, LPS (Large Polyped Stony corals for you and I ) etc etc.

Hope we helped! Ben