New to reefing

Hello all, just as title states I'm fairly new to reefing and am excited to join a community of aquarist that may be able to help me make my little tank a successful venture. I currently have a 14 gallon biocube 14 lbs of live rock and 3 inch sandbed. Upgrades to tank include hydor circulating pump return outlet, 2 koralia nano powerheads, 1st chamber removed false floor with biocube skimmer, 2nd chamber with intank media basket running filter floss on top of phosfiltrum on 1st shelf, purigen on second shelf, chemipure elite on bottom shelf. 3rd chamber houses stock return pump with biocube uv sterilizer and temperature probe. Lighting is stock with addition of another blue led in open slot. My nano has a bit of a bioload with some stuff better suited for larger tank that I am working on convincing wife I need. My livestock includes
4 percula clowns
1 3 inch yellow tang
1 sand sifting starfish
1 fire shrimp
4 blue leg hermits
1 scarlet hermit
2 nassarius snails
1 snail of which I don't know what kind but he's probably my best cleaner and his shell has been growing
2 hitchhiker limpets. I don't know where they came from but they cruise all over my lr and seem to be doing more good than bad so I let them stay. My corals are all small frags that include
2 mushroom leathers
2 mushrooms
1 bubble coral that lfs gave me for free due to broken skeleton that is doing great and seems all healed up.
1 chalice
1 pink birdsnest that extends polyps but is lightening in color
few different small colonies of zoas
5 head acan
1 torch
2 head hammer
1 head frogspawn
4 head duncan that I think is about to sprout new head
1 colony green star polyps that is growing like crazy
3 head candy cane
1 small rbta
I don't have a good camera or I would post pictures but for now my phone camera just does not do my reef justice

 

Hi and Welcome Tristan.


Hopefully you've joined a reef forum for some guidance and to share. The learning curve is huge in this hobby, that is what makes it so wonderful.

I am not going to lie, anywhere you go you're going to get a ton of heat for that stocking. You already know you have too many fish, the clowns are going to kill each other in that tank as they mature and the Tang, well yeah not good. There is never enough sand in a 14 gallon to feed a Sand Sifting Star Fish, it is or will starve.

We all want you to succeed and enjoy the hobby. We critique because we want what is best for those creatures we now care for and are responsible for.

Involve the wife is she is open to it, that may help. A 14 gallon tank should have only two clowns max and no star fish for a long while if any and then only tiny ones. You could keep the Anemone and two clowns and pull it off with devotion.

Happy Reefing.

 

Thanks for advice, I'm always open to critiques. I believe fish store I was going to was only looking at profit and didn't care to help me succeed and kept telling me I could fit everything in there. I am now using a new lfs that is very knowledgeable and honest and they are the ones that told me I can not house all of that in such a small tank. I originally changed fish stores because I had a blue tang that died and went to ask them what I may have done wrong and they informed me of numerous things that I have done wrong with my tank. I have noticed the 2 female clowns chase each other on occasion. The lfs I now go to has told me I need to get at least 100 gallon tank started for my yellow tang and I'm planning on doing so. I do have one question about the clowns, one of females would go check out rbta when I first put it in and now none of the clowns go near it, instead one of the males took to the duncan and lays on it and chases other clowns away from it. Is this normal behavior, it doesn't bother my Duncan at all and I believe it is even growing new head

 

Clowns do the strangest things, they are awesome fish, sounds normal. Clowns may stress out large polyps coral, keep an eye on the coral. If the coral does not start expanding normally it's time to either remove the coral, or some fish. Moving the coral around in the tank seldom works, the fish always finds it.

Two female clowns can not reside in a smaller to medium size tank, one will kill the other. Multiple clowns can exist in a tank if there is one dominate female, one dominate male and the rest of the harem sexually immature males.

Good job on finding a more knowledgeable fish store source.

Look at your local Craigs list for deals on tanks and equipment.

 

Welcome to the forum. I have the 29gal cube. I have one return pump and one Koralia Nano. That's plenty. I already have issues with too much flow. Two Koralia's will create a hurricane in your 14. Skip the second Koralia and pick up an MJ1200 to replace that loud stock recirc pump.

Post picks. I'm excited to see your cube!

 

I wouldn't remove the powerheads unless there causing an issue, if not then let them be. I know we grow attached to our fish but tristan, you need to rehome some fish. Your tank is gonna suffer big time. I've been there, check out my first tank on this forum. Never buy a fish knowing it doesn't fit and hoping to upgrade when the fish gets to big. That's how disasters start. The best thing you can do is bring some fish to your new fish store or your gonna be battling some tank issues soon. Like corailline said, we're happy your here and want to see your tank flourish.

 

welcome to the forum! you've gotten some great advice and it is a good thing that you've found a new LFS. We do love to see pictures here it doesn't matter about the quality of your photos - it's just always interesting to see various tanks of various sizes with various livestock

 

Still waiting on those pictures! Would love to see your bio cube!

 

maybe I scared him off with saying various too many times in my post lol