Cody's 30 gallon hex reef

I figured i'd start a new thread for my tank.
It's my first reef attempt, and i've experienced some ups and serious downs.
I'm getting ready to see what I can do, and i'll keep track of it here
Tank Specs and equipment
Tank- 30 gallon oceanic hexagon
Lighting- 150 Watt coralife pendant 10K coralife bulb
Skimmer- Aqua C Remora with Maxijet12
Circulation- Maxijet12 modded soon to be Koralia
Heater- Don't have to use it much in the South =)
Live rock- A lot, maybe 70 pounds
Deep sand bed- About 7-8 inches, about 30 pounds
*Sometimes carbon in skimmer output
Livestock
Fish
2 Orange Skunk Clownfish- Amphiprion sandaracinos
1 Coral Beauty-Centropyge bispinosus
Inverts
1 Sand Sifting Star Fish- Astropecten polycanthus
2 Olive Snails-
1 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp- [
1 Pistol Shrimp-
10 Assorted Hermits
1 Turbo Snail
2 Red Footed Snails
1 Tonga Fighting Conch
Corals
Soft Corals
Clove Polyps- Clavularia sp.
Green Star Polyps- Clavularia viridis
Zoas, Palys
LPS
Candy Cane Corals- Caulastrea sp.
SPS
Acan
Full Tank Shots

​

Corals

​

I just ordered a hydor koralia 2 and am picking up a BTA tommorow depending on the store.
I would appreciate any scientific or common names and especially corrections to anything I have horribly wrong =)

Also, anyone else have Macroalgea in their display? I really like what I have, there is a huge pod population living in it and the micro has been under control since it got started, however, the corals stopped growing when the macro stopped. Is macro really that good at stripping nutes from the column?

 

Congrats CodyW on your starting a saltwater reef tank!!! Everything looks great and your equipment is admireable, especially for the size of your tank!
Now I am going to be Simon Cowell from American Idol! hahaha
And disagree with some of your choices of live stock and here is why!
First of all Coral Beauty's are technically not a good reef fish nor are any of the other Centropyge species with the exception of, and I know that I am going to catch some flack from fellow reefers on this one, the Flame Angel. Coral beauty's will nip at other corals especially zoos and star polyps!
Next, your Pistol shrimp(alpheids), they can be hosed in a reef tank thogu will attack and possibly kill other shrimp and crabs!!!!! They have also been known to eat small fish and bottom fish such as Wrasses while they are sleeping and Dragonettes as we as other members of their own unless it is a mate!
Next comes your Sand Sifting Star, the size tank, you have, is not adequate to house one. They require alot of room which which to graze and forage for food! The food found in your small tank will not suffice IMO, and in due time it will starve! Tanks of 100gallons or larger are more suitable for this particular Sea Star IMO.
PLease don't take this the wrong way, as all I am doing is critiquing your tank mates. I want to just let you be aware of their husbandry and compatability needs and personality is all. If i can tell you this and you can learn and at the same time keep your livestock alive and healthy, then I have done my job in helping you to be a successful reefer!
That being said, may I offer some suggestions of alternative and better suited reef inhabitants!?
Brittle and Serpent Sea Stars make wonderful additions as do the Linkia and Fromia species.
Regarding the shrimp, the Fire, Cleaner and Peppermints have a mild manner and are excellent reef mates.
As for the Angels, you may want to shy away from them, that is unless you really don't care about your polyped corals> you may get lucky with this one and if fed 3-4 times a day, it may not bother your corals! You may want to venture into the Wrasse family, inparticular, the Fairy and Flasher wrasses. They make wonderful additions to reef tanks, are mild mannered, come with amazing personalities as well as colorations that will make you ahhhhh!
Ok I am done-it is a very nice tank set-up and I wish you the best of luck!
I would aslo do some research on your next livestock to be certain it is right for you and your tank and its inhabitants!!!
TOM

 

Thanks for the reply Tom, It's been a journey.
Not that I don't appreciate the advice just wanted to let you know my take. This is probably the fifth set of inhabitants, we have lost very few fish and corals and most of the fish loss has been due to jumpers =( We started with damsels and they terrorized everything, we had a lemonpeel angel that ate everything, we had a cinnamon clown that outgrew the tank in a few weeks, also a hawkfish that killed all of our shrimp and gobies. That was before I really started researching.
The sand sifting star I was very wary of, but the g/f loves it, so when the petstore had one that was missing an arm we brought it home (we had also just upgraded to a dsb) it has been in the tank about 8-9 months and regenerated it's arm, I have no problem taking it back for credit if I am slowly killing it but it seems happy and roams the tank seriously maybe once every three months.
The coral beauty- It's a small tank and we really wanted an angel. The lemonpeel was stunning but ate everything. There were no corals for about 4 months with the coral beauty and then we started adding. I read and people said they were "less of pickers" than the others so we tried it. Really it would be nice if it would pick at something, that way the zoas and polyps might slow down a little =)
The pistol shrimp- Yeah that was probably a bad choice. But the cleaning crew is still represented well. I think the biggest loss was all of my nassarius, which were about 20 of my favorite additions. lol But the livestock is done except for maybe a prawn goby to lore the pistol out of the back of the tank.
Some of the only fish we've ever lossed have been wrasses, don't know why, I think it was the combinations that we had at the time. But (and this pretty much completes the loss fish list) 1 cleaner wrasse and 2 filamentous wrasses only stayed around for a little.
Don't take it as I'm a brick wall toward criticism, just my observations and I would love any comments.

 

How deep is your sandbed? I ask because the last think you want in a "true" dsb is a sand sifting starfish.

 

After tearing apart the room looking for a measurer its 6" at most and 4.5" at the very shallowest.

 

Yeah, the star fish is not a good idea as it will expose your anaerobic bacteria to air which will kill it.

 

I thought the sand bed needed to be stirred? Should I not be scared of solidifying my sand bed? I don't dose with kalk as this has always scared me. The olive snails release a lot more anaerobic I believe, every time they submerge into the sand bubbles follow.

 

Shaken...not stirred! hahaaha, just joking sorry!!had to say it!
Ok your substrate...it doesn't need to be stirred, however the cleaning of the substrate bed by such things as Conch, Cucumbers, Nassarius snails etc. helps to keep the detritus under control and hopefully suspend it in the pelagic are of your tank for removal by your skimmer. Diffusion or advection will occur and bring the detritus etc. into your substrate, like a vaccuum which is ok, just don't want to have to much of this getting into your substrate as it messes up gas exchange and may create an overpopulation of bristle or fire worms etc. IMO.
As for the hardening of your substrate which occurs from the oversaturation of calcium (calcium carbonate) that is precipitated onto your gravel! Bacteria will also deposit calcium carbonate that can solidify your substrate as well!

 

Only the very top layer of your sand needs to be kept "stirred", preferably by amphipods, copepods, snails and worms. A sandsifting starfish buries itself deeper than the top layer and also eats the "bugs" that are essential for keeping a DSB in good working order.

 

=( Looks like tomorrow I'll be trading in the star towards my BTA
The detritus on the sand isn't too bad, the tank is almost overpopulated with fire and bristle worms and there is still a huge population of 'bugs' in the sand, I see their molts floating around all the time. I'm hoping the new powerhead will help with the detritus as well.