Beginner Marine Aquarist - I Know It Is Often Asked But I Have Quite A Few Questions.

Awesome! Are you planning on keeping your CUC the same? I recently got some Mexican turbo snails. They're fairly large, and are great about eating the hair algae, so if you do go with the 12 gallon, I think 3 or so of them would be good, I'm currently keeping 3 in my tank (with about 12 other snails and some hermits) I'll see how they do, but so far I think I like them better than my trochus snails. Just another idea if you go for a smaller tank or if you'd like some other options.

 

I really am not sure on the CUC but ill see what they have in stock in a few local marine shops and ill go with that. I'm sure they have hermits and snails but I'm not sure what type of snails they have ill have to check next time I go.
Thanks

 

My 2 favorites are astrea and trochus. Workhorses. IMO my hermits don't do that much. Emerald crabs do amazing work but I'd only keep one.

 

I have astrea, trochus, cerith, and turbo snails. Wouldn't recommend cerith, they're like $0.99 at one of my local stores, so I sometimes just go in and buy 10 or 12, but they really don't last and they aren't too active. Astrea and trochus are basically the same to me, except one is just $1.25 and one is nearly $3, so I usually got with the astrea. The Mexican turbo snails have been my favorite so far, extremely active, love the hair algae, and mine are probably near the size of a half dollar, so they look pretty neat too. I wouldn't recommend hermit crabs, mine are ok at cleaning, they're pretty good about eating leftover food, but they can be really nasty to snails, it was more of a problem in my 40b, but now that they have about twice the amount of space and the snails tend to spend more time on the glass (where the hermits can't get them) it's less of an issue, but I've considered just putting the hermits in the sump to eat some of the stuff that settles back there or refugium (when I build it). A lot of people say that the trochus snails are the only ones that can right themselves, but I don't find this to be true. I've found any snail that I've purchased to be able to right itself (in a plastic container while acclimating) but they all seem to struggle with righting themselves on the sand, probably because it's not a totally flat surface, I find it's more specific to the individual snail rather than the type of snail it is, if that makes sense, so I'll usually just flip them back over if they fall, it's a bit of a pain with a tank that's almost 2 feet deep, but I don't find it to be a huge issue. I'll also probably be getting some peppermint shrimp when I go to pick up freshwater snails at some point, so I can also let you know how that goes if you're interested in some type of shrimp. Emerald crabs are a good option, but I'd be a little cautious in a smaller tank, I've heard of them eating small fish, corals, and other inverts when they're not fed enough/run out of algae. I personally just like different types of snails unless there's a specific reason to get some type of shrimp/crab, I'm going to try out peppermint shrimp for a few aiptasia I have and possibly an emerald crab for bubble algae. In larger tanks, I think you definitely need more of a variety of inverts in your CUC, but in smaller tanks, I've found just snails to be sufficient, that's all I kept in my old tank for a year and they did a great job at keeping things clean. As far as something like an emerald crab goes, I'd wait until you decide what tank you'll be using, in a 10-12 I personally wouldn't keep one, a 2-2.5 inch crab that's considered semi-aggressive in a 10 gallon tank sounds like a potential problem to me, maybe not as much as a problem in a 20-30 gallon tank. Sorry for the extremely long response haha.

 

Haha it's ok I love long responses as they go into quite a lot of detail so thanks! I don't really like shrimp I don't know I've heard that they molt too not sure how that works and if needed to take out of tank or just decomposes. For the snails I think as long as they won't die being on their back for a few hours it should be ok the only worry I have is on holidays as none of my family really comes to my house so I usually setup an automatic feeder etc.. I think crabs are probably a no if they pose a threat to my corals lol no one messes with my corals lol. Thanks for the response I really appreciate this hopefully I will come to a more clear decision closer to the time.
Thanks a lot

Also for the tank I really hope I get a minimum 20 gallon just because of that yellow clown font and I don't want to be overstocked in a tiny tank also I like to have some more room for corals

 

Oh yeah, I didn't even mention, my hermit crabs do sometimes try to go for coral, I've never had an emerald crab, but that's just what I've heard from many people, but my hermit crabs with go for coral even when there's tons of algae, that's a big reason why they're likely gonna wind up in the sump, they're sort of a pain, they get aggressive and you can't really get rid of them because no one will want aggressive hermit crabs that are worth $0.99. The snails will be fine, mine sometimes get left on their back for a day or two, the only time I've had them die from being left on their backs is when I'm away for days-weeks on vacation, I forget to mention flipping the hermit crabs over to the pet sitter who watches all my animals when I'm away, but it takes days for them to die from that, so a few hours shouldn't be a concern, unless you have aggressive inverts who try to eat them.

 

I think that if I do get a 20 gallon or larger tank I may get the emerald crab as I have always wanted one and probably a few trochus snails however, I am not completely sure and am open to suggestions!
Thanks

Just a question does anyone here watch CoralFish12g. His videos are quite informative for beginners like me.

Been looking around and emerald crabs seem very aggressive. Thinking about getting cleaner shrimp. Any things I need to know about these guys?

 

I'll probably be getting some shrimp soon, so I can share some personal experience there when I do. Skunk cleaner shrimp get about 2", but are considered to be peaceful, just be sure your water parameters are stable and your nitrates don't get super high, they are sensitive to those things. If it were me, I'd take the cleaner shrimp over the emerald crab in your situation. I think I may have watched a couple of his videos a year or two ago when I was first researching how to setup a saltwater tank, name sounds familiar, I used to watch quite a few videos, but I can't even remember who I watched anymore haha.

 

Yeah ill probably be getting a cleaner shrimp over the crab. Thanks

Does anyone know how I could propagate corals in the future. Can I just attach the coral cutting to a piece of rock with some string? Any other advice is much appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Are there any corals that are easy to frag and will get you some decent money?
Thanks

 

Does anyone know how I could propagate corals in the future. Can I just attach the coral cutting to a piece of rock with some string? Any other advice is much appreciated.
Thanks a lot

Its pretty simple. SPS you can just break off a good length of one and glue it to a frag plug. LPS are harder, you have to wait till it grows out, and then find a spot between heads and cut the hard part, then glue to a frag plug. Shrooms will split by themselves, xenia you just pull a stalk off and put it on a plug, GSp you can just peel off the rock and glue onto something. Easy to frag corals that will make you money = SPS. However, they are harder to keep and most grow slowly. Softies like leathers you just cut off a branch. Don't use string, use superglue gel. I use the Loctite Super glue gel. For bigger corals you can use 2 part epoxy

 

Can I put a toothpick through the base of the coral cutting and attach it to a coral plug by a rubber band?

 

No..... you would likely harm the coral and you would never be able to do that with a coral with ay kind of skeleton. why not just use superglue? Its easy, quick, and cheap. I think grantm91 who lives in the UK use gorilla super glue gel

 

oh so I can use any super glue? I heard somewhere that super glue is bad for the tank or something. If I cut off a piece of a kenya tree coral or a xenia would I have to do a water change after because of the slime that may be given off (if any)? Also do you think I should get zoanthids or not I would love to propagate them - is there any special technique or procedure I need to do with them?
Thanks a lot

any thoughts guys?

So I have found a nice tank. Innovative marine 30 gallon cube -

What do you guys think? Should I wait for their 20 gallon nuvo fusion to be in stock which is 188 pounds or is this good?

 

Personally I would always go with the larger tank just because it increases your list of options for stock and the tank will be more stable for water perameters.

 

I'd say go with the 30 over the 20.

On fragging, super glue definitely doesn't cause nything harmful. Every single reefer I know uses it. You'll hae a very hard time without it. And no again, you won't have to do a water change just for sliming corals unless you just sliced up palys. Then I'd mak sure I rinse them really well in a cup or set them for a little bit in a container of tank water floating in the tank. Zoas, just rinse them off. Zoas are easy to frag.

 

So if I cut the zoas in the tank I won't have to change the water? Also do you know any good beginner corals that will grow quite fast and are easy to frag?
Thanks a lot

 

You don't cut corals in the tank. You take them out and either cut with something like a dremel, or if its soft with a knife. Beginner corals that are fast and easy to frag = GSP, Pulsing Xenia, and easy zoas

 

Guys do you think I could use this filter if I were to go with my 12 gallon?

 

Yes

 

Do you know what I would have to put in there to mod it?

 

I assume you're referring to moding it into a chaeto reactor?

 

No....
I was talking about a sort of chemical/biological filtration area

 

I would suggest modding into a chaeto reactor. I have the ac50, I modded it so I have a filter floss area, a place for carbon if I want, a lot of seachem matrix, and then chaeto.

 

Ill see when I get closer to the time. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated

 

Its a very easy filter to mod to fit your needs. Here a mod I did on one years back. Culprit modded his to have an extra compartment for floss which is great as well.

Diy Aquaclear Refugium

 

Thanks a lot that was very helpful. Much appreciated,

Other than zoas because of their poison, could I cut some corals in the tank and then put them in a container to frag them? Also when I buy a frag of a coral how would I attach them to my rock from the plug?
Thanks a lot

 

You don't cut corals in the tank. You take the coral out of the tank, cut it aka fragging, and glue it either onto a frag plug or back onto your rock work. To attach corals from the rock, pop them off their frag plug, and glue it to your rockscape.

 

Ah ok thanks for the help!

 

Sorry for lack of responses, but I see you got some other really good advice! I would go with the 30 if possible, bigger is always better, but when it comes to picking a tank, it's really up to you to decide what you like. Like Culprit said, frag the corals outside of the tank, and just pop the corals off of their plugs and glue them down to the rock, or you can use that instant ocean green epoxy (I think that's what it is, not 100% sure) putty stuff, I don't really like it much though because it takes forever to cure and harden, so I would use super glue, but some people like the putty stuff. Some corals also come on little pieces of live rock (my zoas did) for those I would just glue down the chunk of rock with the coral on it.

 

Its ok and thanks for the advice! As for the tank I'm really not sure but the 30 gallon looks kinda ugly so I'm either going to get a used 30 gallon long IM which seem to be a bit common around here - wonder where people got them from - or I will order an IM 20 gallon and pay for the shipping.
Thanks a lot

 

Oooh, sorry I missed a few things here too.

Just wanted to chime in about the 'putty' problems. I can't speak for the Instant Ocean because I haven't used it. The AquaStik by 2 Little Fishies is great, and is available in different colors. It's a 2 part epoxy that you have to mix until it's all one color, then use it with the quickness, 'cause this stuff cures fast. Some corals will be fine with only superglue, and I prefer to use that alone when possible because it's easy to move the coral if necessary, as the superglue doesn't hold very well. In fact, I've had corals get knock off by snails when superglue was the only thing holding it. Other corals will need epoxy though, particularly those with stony bases like euphyllia. That flat bottom on the stony base does not glue well to lumpy rockwork in the tank.

My first torch coral was set with superglue only, and I had to lay it on thick to get the flat base to hold onto rock. By the next day, the torch had leaned over because the thick glue didn't set quickly enough. That led to me pulling the torch from the tank, and trying to scrape cured glue off the base so I could apply fresh glue. This was totally my mistake, but wouldn't have happened had the first placement worked out. While scraping glue from the base of the torch, I used too much pressure, not with the scraper, but with the hand that was holding the coral in place while I scaped. I squished it's skeleton... freaked out, tried to glue it back together and quickly placed it back in the tank. It was too damaged though, because it died within a few days. If that weren't bad enough, as the torch was dying it was loosing soft flesh and one of the lost tentacles ended up in the grasp of my Duncan coral, which tried to eat it! The Duncan took some damage from that and took a few months to come back to it's former glory.

Sorry for the long story, but if I'd had epoxy with that first torch, none of it would have happened. It was heartbreaking too, as I'd wanted a torch for months prior to getting that one, but I learned a good lesson. With the greatest thanks to HarryPotter , I now have another torch and it's about triple the size of my first one.

 

Glad to hear the news about your new torch they look amazing! I will probably start off with soft corals and frag them to get used to it and to see if I can make some easy bucks! Later on I may consider converting a spar 12 gallon I have into a frag tank if I get serious and want to make a lot of money!!! In the meantime do you have any soft corals that you recommend for me that will help me get started in the fragging business and also grow quite fast?
Thanks a lot

 

Sorry Jamie, I have the worst luck with softies. Xenia grows well for me, but while I do very well with LPS and pretty good with SPS, I have not done well with zoas in particular. That's my tank though, as others do very well with zoas. Some LPS corals, like euphyllia and duncans are easy enough to frag and have grown well for me since the beginning. A duncan was one of the first corals I got, and it was only 1 polyp at the time of purchase. It took a while for it to get comfy in the tank, but after a month it just went wild. I've had it about 7 months now, and it has 7 polyps. Fragging it is easy enough, but you'd need a Dremel or something similar to frag that stony base apart. Fragging xenia is easy too, as it grows on little stalks that you could separate. Thing is, xenia is cheap, and if you're fragging to make money, you'll want to invest in something that has higher value.

Ricordea and other mushrooms are pretty easy to frag if you're willing, and dependant on the color variance, you could make some good money off those. I've not done it myself, and it might be tough to stomach as you've got to slice them in half, making sure that part of the mouth goes with both pieces. Then, both pieces should be placed where they can attach to some rubble and heal. Here's a video.

 

Where did you get that putty stella1979 the instant ocean stuff I have dries hard as a rock in 30-60 minutes, but won't work unless it's 100% dry, which obviously doesn't work when you scape live rock, I actually got so frustrated with it that I just left my rock scape stacked with nothing holding it together for a year (actually wound up being good because I upgraded) but now that I think my current tank is permanent (for a while) I may actually create a permanent scape. Also for easy corals, my zoas have done very well, grow like crazy and even did perfectly fine in a cup of water under a cheap LED for a few days when I switched out tanks (not ideal, but the move was a disaster) and they also don't seem to mind my weird light schedule either, light was accidentally on until 1am the other day because I was out late, and some days it's only on for a few hours while others it's on for like 12 hours (setting a timer soon for the lights to avoid these things) but I think it gives you an idea of how forgiving they've been for me.

 

Thanks so much stella1979 I will definitely look into mushrooms and some other lps corals. I hope my tank gets full of corals even though 90 percent of the time it never happens with beginners lol. Thanks for the help much appreciated

Thanks Reeferxbetta I appreciate your help a lot and will probably also be looking into Zoas and I will be sure to take precautions because of their posions. They seem really easy to frag too so that's a plus on top of their amazing designs!
Thanks a lot

 

One more tip Jamie. If you're looking to make fragging easy from the get go, make sure you can easily remove the rock or plug the coral is on. Particularly with poisonous zoas, you do not want to frag them in the tank. At least not without some serious research into how the pros do it. Branching corals are a little easier to frag in tank, but zoas and shrooms are definitely easier and safer outside of the tank.

 

In the meantime do you have any soft corals that you recommend for me that will help me get started in the fragging business and also grow quite fast?

For me GSP and my Duncan grow like weeds. I got a 4 head Duncan about a month and a half ago... and it now has 5 new heads. But, everyone's tanks are different. I would just experiment and see what grows well for you.

Where did you get that putty stella1979 the instant ocean stuff I have dries hard as a rock in 30-60 minutes, but won't work unless it's 100% dry, which obviously doesn't work when you scape live rock, I actually got so frustrated with it that I just left my rock scape stacked with nothing holding it together for a year (actually wound up being good because I upgraded) but now that I think my current tank is permanent (for a while) I may actually create a permanent scape. Also for easy corals, my zoas have done very well, grow like crazy and even did perfectly fine in a cup of water under a cheap LED for a few days when I switched out tanks (not ideal, but the move was a disaster) and they also don't seem to mind my weird light schedule either, light was accidentally on until 1am the other day because I was out late, and some days it's only on for a few hours while others it's on for like 12 hours (setting a timer soon for the lights to avoid these things) but I think it gives you an idea of how forgiving they've been for me.

I got mine from my LFS. You can also order it online. They have grey and purple colors. . Just use a glue/epoxy sandwich. Glue on the outsides of the epoxy. Nart always used the aquastik, but then he ran out and tried some instant ocean - said it was junk.

 

Cool! I love the look of zoas! I like the corals that come on a thin piece of live rock, that's how mine are, I don't even really have to frag anything, I can just break the rock piece in half.

For me GSP and my Duncan grow like weeds. I got a 4 head Duncan about a month and a half ago... and it now has 5 new heads. But, everyone's tanks are different. I would just experiment and see what grows well for you.



I got mine from my LFS. You can also order it online. They have grey and purple colors. . Just use a glue/epoxy sandwich. Glue on the outsides of the epoxy. Nart always used the aquastik, but then he ran out and tried some instant ocean - said it was junk.

Yup the instant ocean stuff sucks, it'll harden (slowly) if it's completely dry, but just doesn't work at all on anything that's even a little wet… major problem for scaping live rock, although it does cure white, so I guess if someone was working in all white base rock that was totally dry it might be ok. It's kind of a bummer, instant ocean makes good salt, but everything else I've tried by them just sucked… I'm not even gonna get started with the seaclone protein skimmer.

 

Sorry Jamie, I have the worst luck with softies. Xenia grows well for me, but while I do very well with LPS and pretty good with SPS, I have not done well with zoas in particular. That's my tank though, as others do very well with zoas. Some LPS corals, like euphyllia and duncans are easy enough to frag and have grown well for me since the beginning. A duncan was one of the first corals I got, and it was only 1 polyp at the time of purchase. It took a while for it to get comfy in the tank, but after a month it just went wild. I've had it about 7 months now, and it has 7 polyps. Fragging it is easy enough, but you'd need a Dremel or something similar to frag that stony base apart. Fragging xenia is easy too, as it grows on little stalks that you could separate. Thing is, xenia is cheap, and if you're fragging to make money, you'll want to invest in something that has higher value.

Ricordea and other mushrooms are pretty easy to frag if you're willing, and dependant on the color variance, you could make some good money off those. I've not done it myself, and it might be tough to stomach as you've got to slice them in half, making sure that part of the mouth goes with both pieces. Then, both pieces should be placed where they can attach to some rubble and heal. Here's a video.

Are mushrooms soft corals? Also would I have to feed them and if so what would their diet consist of? Thanks for the clip you really have helped make my choices easier!
Thanks a lot

 

Mushrooms are soft corals, and you can feed them if you want to. Feeding is unnecessary for most corals, but it does increase growth rate when done right. You don't want to overfeed corals, as then they will have to spend more energy toward digesting food, and less energy is available for growth.

I know you're eager for corals Jamie, but it is important to get up and running and make sure everything is stable first. My own preference is to cycle then add a fish. Afterwards, test all parameters weekly. If you're cycle is set, nitrates are staying low, and alk/calc/mag are all staying steady, you could add some easy softies after a few weeks. Corals can take their time in adjusting to a new tank as well, and it's important to place them and leave them alone during this time. I wouldn't feed them at all for the first month or so.

So, when you are ready for feeding go ahead and try Reef Roids or Reef Chili. I mix roids with phytoplex and target feed corals once or twice a week. They love it!

 

Awesome!!! Thanks so much for your help I honestly can't thank you enough. I can't wait to get corals but I know it's not good to rush it so I'll make sure to take my time as my I think it was you that said nothing good in a reef tank happens quickly. I will hopefully look into getting reef roida for corals as well as a frag rack and plugs that I have already found looks like this is going to be an awesome set up!! Be sure to tune in around April time once I'm done with exams I'll hopefully open a new thread and upload loads of photos to keep all you guys updated.
Thanks for the help really appreciated

 

You're very welcome! Thanks for doing your own research too.

I think it was you that said nothing good in a reef tank happens quickly.

Just about everyone that has been running for a little while will say this. You will too before long.