1 clown or 2?

[jabberwock]

First of all, you don’t need to have a pair of Clownfish...a single Clown will be fine! I have two nano tanks with a pair of designer Clowns in the one tank and a single True Percula in my other tank.
Here is the problem I foresee with adding a pair of Clowns to your tank.
You may have an issue with your Firefish and/or Royal Gramma becoming scared or picked on by your potential newcomer/s. Clownfish are territorial! A mated pair would pose a bigger problem due to elevated aggression in their territory. A single Clown, not so much.
As for CUC, you may want to try adding a Black Diadema Sea Urchin and increase the amount of snails and species to what you currently have. Also, up the number of hermits too. Caribbean Red Legs and Scarlet Reef hermits are an ideal choice. Look into adding shrimp and a couple Emerald Crabs to your population as well.

Thank you! The Royal Gramma already bullies the Firefish. I had a couple trochus snails but they died in a few days. My hermit is a jerk, it killed one of my nessarius, so I am kind of anti-crab.

What kind of shrimp do you suggest?

 

[Coralreefer1]

Nitrates always test zero. I assume they are wrapped up in the algae. I am running purfiltrum too. I manually remove some from time to time, but I am also interested in feeding my lawn mower blenny, so I don't really mind the algae. Tank is 5 months old. Already been through cyanobacteria.

With regards to the Purfiltrum, are you removing it as it becomes exhausted and renewing it by treating with bleach or replacing it all together?

 

[jabberwock]

Maybe add some snails, hermits or emerald crabs. Could take care of your algae problems

Question if the hour, is the algae a "problem"? I know it can get out of hand, but it is a natural part of the system...

 

[jabberwock]

With regards to the Purfiltrum, are you removing it as it becomes exhausted and renewing it by treating with bleach or replacing it all together?

Yes

 

[Coralreefer1]

Thank you! The Royal Gramma already bullies the Firefish. I had a couple trochus snails but they died in a few days. My hermit is a jerk, it killed one of my nessarius, so I am kind of anti-crab.

What kind of shrimp do you suggest?

Peppermint, Cleaner and/ or Fire Shrimp are all suitable and can coexist with one another. Blue leg hermits are notorious for killing snails for their shell as they grow.

 

[Coralreefer1]

The stock biocube lights are not adjustable once they ramp up. They are also notourisouly weak. PAR in the high center of the tank is < 100.

I also have a Biocube. I removed the canopy and bought an AI Prime light to replace it. Very nice light that offers me flexibility in light intensity and kelvin(color).

 

[jabberwock]

I would do more frequent water changes and reduce light duration at least for awhile and see if you can kill off some of that algae. Adding more fish will lead to higher nitrates which will in turn feed the algae.

I am changing 64 ounces of water every other day.

 

[Jvesche20]

Question if the hour, is the algae a "problem"? I know it can get out of hand, but it is a natural part of the system...

It is natural but it’s also ugly and there are ways of controlling it.

 

[Jvesche20]

This may have been answered but are you using RO DI water?

 

[jabberwock]

It is natural but it’s also ugly and there are ways of controlling it.

My lawnmower blenny is a machine! Nom nom nom...

 

[Coralreefer1]

I am changing 64 ounces of water every other day.

What kind of water are you using when doing water changes? Are you running a protein skimmer? What and how much food are you feeding?
It seeems to me that something is off if you are still having an algae issue and you are doing water changes as frequently as you are.

 

[jabberwock]

This may have been answered but are you using RO DI water?

I am purchasing Red Sea water from LFS and topping off with fresh Ro/DI as salinity levels require. Keeping salinity at 1.026.

 

[Jvesche20]

Weekely water changes should be about 15% on avg if you have 30 gal that’s 4.5 gal per week to change. Round up to 5 if you like. Every other day is about 3-4 times per week. That’s only 1.5-2 gal per week. If I did my math correct. Still short almost more than double of what I would change

 

[jabberwock]

No skimmer, I feed about 1/4 of a Dr. Gs gut loaded mysis shrimp cube per day. They eat it all. I feed pellets occasionally instead to mix it up. I target feed reef roids twice a week, but only half the reccomend amount.

 

[Jvesche20]

I love feeding my corals reef roids

 

[jabberwock]

Weekely water changes should be about 15% on avg if you have 30 gal that’s 4.5 gal per week to change. Round up to 5 if you like. Every other day is about 3-4 times per week. That’s only 1.5-2 gal per week. If I did my math correct. Still short almost more than double of what I would change

Yeah, but it is an exponential equation. Run it out over 45 days and the micro water changes achieve the same percentages with more stability than the weekly ones.

 

[jabberwock]

I love feeding my corals reef roids

Me too. I mix it up with mysis sometimes for the frog spawn and the acans.

 

[jabberwock]

I really appreciate the discussion guys. I have had my eye on a black clown that is pretty big. A while back I had 2 baby clowns bring in ich and die, and I don't want to repeat that. So I am really looking for a low stress introductory process. I might have to stick with one clown to minimize stress to the tank mates.

 

[Jvesche20]

I really appreciate the discussion guys. I have had my eye on a black clown that is pretty big. A while back I had 2 baby clowns bring in ich and die, and I don't want to repeat that. So I am really looking for a low stress introductory process. I might have to stick with one clown to minimize stress to the tank mates.

Ouch! I made the rookie mistake of going to petco and buying a fish. Never again will I do that. They had a nice sailfin tang and it was an impulse purchase. I never buy from them I just so happened to go there and to get something and ended up with a fish. Well now my fish have ich and I’ve been curing them for 3 weeks now. I lost a diamond goby (jumped out of my QT) and a baby blue tang (got sucked into my HOB filter) the blue tang was my favorite fish he used to sleep under my glass cleaner every night. I was so sad when he died

 

[jabberwock]

Ouch! I made the rookie mistake of going to petco and buying a fish. Never again will I do that. They had a nice sailfin tang and it was an impulse purchase. I never buy from them I just so happened to go there and to get something and ended up with a fish. Well now my fish have ich and I’ve been curing them for 3 weeks now. I lost a diamond goby (jumped out of my QT) and a baby blue tang (got sucked into my HOB filter) the blue tang was my favorite fish he used to sleep under my glass cleaner every night. I was so sad when he died

It is always sad when they die...
I am sorry that you lost them.