29 Gal stocking ideas/help

[reefb]

Hey all,

New around here and to the reefing community and hoping I could turn to some more experienced reefers for help in setting up my first tank!

I've got a 29 gallon tank that I'm in the process of setting up and I'd like to eventually either turn it into a mixed reef system, but I am thinking of starting with mainly a variety of different zoas, soft coral and LPS and a bubble tip anemone.

For equipment, I don't really have space to run a sump or refugium, so I am trying to compensate for some of that with lots of live rock (45lbs), lots of water movement (~1400gph, between 45x and 50x flow), and I'm planning on running two power filters. For lighting, I'm going to use a Current USA Orbit Marine LED system.

I tried to make sure that everything here is hardy, fairly peaceful, and I hope they will all get along and play nice together. I'm hoping some of you folks can help me out on that front.

I've got my eye on four different zoa morphs and the following corals:
Soft:
-Pom Pom Xenia
-Green Duncan
-Pineapple Tree
-Starburst polyp
LPS:
-Caulastrea
-Branching Cyphastrea Decadia
-Alien Maze Brain
-Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
Anemone:
Bubble tip anemone

Fish:
2x Ocellaris Clownfish (hoping one or both pair with the anemone)
1 Watchman goby (hopefully pairing with a shrimp)
1 Royal Gramma
1 Sprineri Dottyback

Various cleaner snails, hermit crabs, a shrimp or two (hopefully one with the goby), possibly a crab, possibly some sort of sea star or sand sifter, still looking into these.

I know the fish load may be a bit high (~16"), and am willing to choose between the gramma and dottyback if need be, depending on fit.

I would also really appreciate some advice on a stocking order for the fish. I know you want to get the most peaceful fellows in there first and then work your way up the aggressiveness scale, but pretty much all of these are laid back (or at least I'm hoping), so advice on when and how I should put them in would be super super helping.

This is pretty much everything I can think of; if anyone has thoughts, comments or advice, I am more than welcome to it.

Sorry for the length, just wanted to be thorough!

Thanks!

 

[Logan A.]

Dont buy a sand sifting sea star for your size tank they get BIG stick with something like a yellow spotted diamond watchman goby for sand sifting.

 

[Logan A.]

The royal gramma and dottyback may disagree i would put the gramma in first

 

[Jesterrace]

Skip the dottyback, outside of the orchid they are mean buggers and even more so in a smaller tank. Also I agree that you will want to go with one of the more moderate gobies. A Diamond Watchman would be a definite no as you will have a perpetual sand storm in your tank.

 

[reefb]

Appreciate the insight Logan. Do you have any thoughts on the rest of the order? I was thinking of putting the clowns in first, followed by the goby, and, as you say, gramma and then dotty.

 

[reefb]

Thanks so much for your insight all, much appreciated. I still really like he idea of having a goby/shrimp pair in the tank, is there a goby that may be better suited?

If I skip the dotty, could I put either a dragonet or blenny in?

 

[SourAngelfish]

A Blenny would do very well, dragonet is a maybe, just be sure you can keep up with its feeding requirements. I have a 14 gallon biocube with a spotted dragonet, a tailspot blenny, and a geometric hawkfish.

 

[fishnchip]

Just wanted to give you a little warning about the Xenia. Be careful because it grows fast and I mean FAST. It will take over your tank if you're not careful (happened to me). So just make sure to keep it on its own little island. As for your fish, everything looks good. Just be careful with that dottyback because they're known to have quite the attitude. If you're looking to order your fish online, Cultivated Reef has a whole bunch of captive bred clowns and dottybacks. I got both my clowns from them and I just ordered an Orchid dottyback also. Highly recommend them!!

 

[reefb]

Definitely aware and was planning on the growth of the Xenia and zoas, for that matter. I am planning on trying to make a few smaller islands for all of them. I’m going to take it slow and add only one or two corals at a time, regardless.

To be clear, wasn’t thinking of a diamond watchman, but a yellow prawn/shrimp. As far as I can tell, they are a different species.

 

[Katrina71]

Tailspot blenny! Cutest little guys with attitude.

 

[nereefpat]

The yellow watchman is a good choice.

The clowns are fine.

Gramma is fine. I wouldn't mix it with a dottyback in that tank size.

Dragonnette is a terrible idea unless you want to build some sort of automatic live zooplankton feeder.

I don't think the order will matter much, in this case. But in order of aggressiveness, watchman-gramma--clowns.

I would start with those. Maybe down the line you could think of adding a small blenny.

 

[Jesterrace]

Thanks so much for your insight all, much appreciated. I still really like he idea of having a goby/shrimp pair in the tank, is there a goby that may be better suited?

If I skip the dotty, could I put either a dragonet or blenny in?

Definitely skip the dragonet and go with the blenny. The dragonet will generally starve to death since it is a finicky eater and requires lots of live rock with a long established copepod population to survive (and the ones trained to eat frozen foods can't always get to the food before other fish). Take it from a guy who had one starve to death in his tank, despite learning to eat frozen foods. I personally believe that 75lbs or more of live rock with a well established copepod population is the only suitable setup for a dragonet as that is the only way you know for sure you have a sustainable food source for it.

 

[eatbreakfast]

A dottyback will be a problem in that size tank.

Sand sifting stars kill all the beneficial microfauna in the sand bed.

The watchman goby is an excellent choice.

 

[reefb]

Hey all thanks for your help, been a busy few days so I haven't been able to check back. I think I've settled on a yellow watchman goby, royal gramma, and one clown. Depending on how the tank is doing, as nereefpat suggested, I'll consider a blenny. My live rock should be arriving this week, so I'm excited to get started!