Big addition to tank need some quick answers

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by Durty Dj's 916, Apr 23, 2014.

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  1. Durty Dj's 916

    Durty Dj's 916 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Hi there I have a 50 gal hexagon tank. Currently I have 7 fish in the tank, 1 percula clown, 1 sand sifter goby, 2 solar wrasse, 2 damsels, 1 flame hawk fish. I also have 1 tube anemone, 3 turbo snails, and a small frag of zoas. I use a fluval 204 canister filter and about 25-30 lbs of live rock and I am a little fuzzy on the substrate but i believe it was volcanic ash or volcanic rock or something along those lines. The tank has been up and running for 2 years now. My friend is moving away and cant bring his tank with him so i am inheriting all the live stock. so like an additional 20 lbs of live rock, some corals and 4 more fish. 1 damsel, a black and white clown, an orange clown and i am unsure of the last fish but he said it was reef safe (or at least in his tank). so as you can imagine I have some questions.

    Attached are some pictures. The first image Is of my currant setup and the rest of the images are of what i am adopting.

    1.) with 3 species of clown fish in the tank are they all going to fight over the single anemone and become territorial over it?

    2.) If they do fight over it can they stress out my anemone and kill it? would getting another one help the situation?

    3.) are all these combos of fish safe? is 11 fish to many?

    4.) Help ID the corals as he doesn't remember what they are I am new to corals and would like to know the proper way to take care of them

    5.) any advice on how to acclimate it all to my tank as i don't want to increase the bio load to the point of nuking my tank

    Thanks so much for your time I greatly appreciate any insight.
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. Av8Bluewater

    Av8Bluewater Giant Squid

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    2 looks like a toadstool
    3 looks like button polyps.
    4 can't tell maybe a leather.
     
  4. Billme

    Billme Eyelash Blennie

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    Hopefully others will chime in as I'm nube. But what occurs to me is that adding that many fish so fast will overwhelm your biological filtration.
     
  5. flynhawaiianz28

    flynhawaiianz28 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    I'm thinking that adding that many fish will tip the scales on the biological filtration of the tank. If you have a QT tank or a holding tank that you can introduce them slowly into your tank I would suggest something along the lines of that. 11 fish is going to be pushing it though in that size of tank. That is something that I always go by gut feeling first along with information and everything else relative to my own setup. Now as far as the clowns go, I'm not exactly sure about them being territorial over the anemone I guess that depends if they were trying to host with it or not. I would be more worried about your clownfish being territorial as far as tank space goes. I'm not sure how that plays out with clownfish of different species. Hopefully someone with some more expertise on clownfish can chime in on that one. I just know clownfish are the last ones you want to add to the tank in most cases. Every case is different though and I have seen some saltwater aquariums where I never thought I would see some species of fish mixed. The same might be true for your damsel when you try and put your friend's damsel in there. He may bully it or he may not. Sometimes it comes down to the fish as an individual, sounds odd but like us they have different personalities.
     
  6. DSC reef

    DSC reef Giant Squid

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    The corals are leathers and palys, I think that's gonna be to much fish in a tank with no sump. 50 hex has no room. Most likely will severely upset the balance in your tank and 3 species of clowns is playing with fire.
     
  7. Vinnyboombatz

    Vinnyboombatz Giant Squid

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  9. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    Moved to-----General Reef Topics
     
  10. Durty Dj's 916

    Durty Dj's 916 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    For sure in all honesty I only want to keep the black and white clown out of all 4 fish that I am inheriting. The other 3 I might sell to my fish store and get some store credit for a better lighting fixture for the coral as im only running with standard t8 lighting and need something brighter. Thanks for everyone's help. I completely agree that 11 fish is pushing it to the max plus corals and inverts.
     
  11. oldfishkeeper

    oldfishkeeper Giant Squid

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    you've gotten good advice. one important thing is what is the size of the clown (black and white that you want to keep)....is it a larger size? the size will help determine whether you can add it. the only way I would add the clown would be to get rid of at least 3 of your damsels. what size is the tank that your friend has? If it's bigger than a 50 then you could swap systems and keep his lights for coral. The corals he has are relatively "low maintenance" and "lower lighting" corals so I might add those to your tank. I don't know a lot about T8 so hopefully others will chime in on whether that can sustain softies and polyps.

    You really are at a max now with your current fish so if you take any, research adding clowns and you'll have to get rid of some existing fish. I wouldn't add anymore beyond the clown (since you mentioned maybe wanting to keep that one). I probably wouldn't take but a couple pieces of rock to add to your set up because it would limit swimming room.

    HTH.
     
  12. Durty Dj's 916

    Durty Dj's 916 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Ok great. So the Black and white clown is small. Plus i only have 2 damsels in the tank currently. I would be inheriting 1 but don't want to keep it. The 2 I have in there now get along great with the other fish plus they were my first fish i bought for the tank 2 years ago so im a little attached to them. Some of the corals are growing on the live rock so i will most likely just take the ones that have growth on them. I am really really stoked for the additions though ill be sure to take pictures and post them once it is all in the tank