What now???

AvaS · Oct 6, 2018

Hi , Happy Sunday and happy reefing! So I had to move about a month ago and of course took my tank with me. I decided to clean out everything( sand and rock) now bare bottom and empty and start fresh.(of course I kept media and levels have been stable and good for the past 6 weeks ). All I have now is a box of cycled water with one Picasso clown and a few tiny blue leg hermits. I want to try something fun with this tank! I have more than enough lighting ( Kessil A360 tuna blue, running the lowest lol so much power). I would like to know some creative stock ideas and scapes for the tank! A few ideas I have are:
•A species specific acan lord only tank with a variety of colors (or other species specific tank if anoyone has ideas)
•Get one bigger anemone and have it be just it and the clown
•Get one or two show pieces and have the tank just display those( any recommendations for cool show piece corals would be greatly appreciated)
•Or reset up tank and try to develop a mixed reef
Let me know if you like any of these ideas or have any other ones..
The tank is 7 gallon full view from lifeguard aquatics. It has been set up since January. The flow is moderate since I updated from the stock return pump in March. Like I mentioned I have the Kessil 360 running LOW on it right now and no skimmer. I have a heater on it and all perams have been stable for at least the past 4 months including after I moved the tank! I am young so not years of experience but I research and read about this hobby and learn every single day and have kept lots of softies and lps and have tried my hand at sps once or twice!
Thanks again
-Ava

Ori · Oct 6, 2018

All those ideas sound pretty cool! Personally I’ve always wanted to have a tank that’s almost only pulsing xenia, it looks awesome when there’s a lot of it.

AvaS · Oct 6, 2018

Ori said:
All those ideas sound pretty cool! Personally I’ve always wanted to have a tank that’s almost only pulsing xenia, it looks awesome when there’s a lot of it.

Thanks for the response! That could be cool with all of the movement! The only thing I would lack is color.. anyone else have any cool ideas!?!

oceaninabox12345 · Oct 12, 2018

You could do a dwarf seahorse tank, pipefish tank, i like just the anemone idea, a mixed reef would also be cool, but kind of restricted in such a small tank. Let us know which way you go!

AvaS · Oct 12, 2018

A dwarf seahorse pipefish tank could be cool! Are they super difficult to keep? Can I keep a few softies with them?? I haven’t thought of that yet but a super cool idea!

oceaninabox12345 · Oct 12, 2018

AvaS said:
A dwarf seahorse pipefish tank could be cool! Are they super difficult to keep? Can I keep a few softies with them?? I haven’t thought of that yet but a super cool idea!

I am currently working on keeping dwarves. They are amazing creatures but require some specialized care. You could keep massive amounts in a 7g though.. they say no more than 4 per gallon, but i know of people who have kept more. 7 gallons sounds perfect, maybe even too much. They only eat baby brine shrimp though, which is their downfall. I bought something from PJ reefs, which works amazing, and it feeds them fresh hatched bbs for 3 days straight. They dont need any special lighting, keep it on for 12 hours and they will mate. Need weekly water changes. People try to keep them without sand beds so they can get rid of all the gunk off the ground as they are messy, but im gonna try a sandbed and just have some snails to clean it up. Im not sure about softies.. i imagine you could, but youd have to be VERY careful about which ones you choose. Do some research and see what ya come up with! I can also DM you pictures of my setup for them too if youd like [emoji4] let me know if you have any other questions

AvaS · Oct 13, 2018

Nyke73 said:
I am currently working on keeping dwarves. They are amazing creatures but require some specialized care. You could keep massive amounts in a 7g though.. they say no more than 4 per gallon, but i know of people who have kept more. 7 gallons sounds perfect, maybe even too much. They only eat baby brine shrimp though, which is their downfall. I bought something from PJ reefs, which works amazing, and it feeds them fresh hatched bbs for 3 days straight. They dont need any special lighting, keep it on for 12 hours and they will mate. Need weekly water changes. People try to keep them without sand beds so they can get rid of all the gunk off the ground as they are messy, but im gonna try a sandbed and just have some snails to clean it up. Im not sure about softies.. i imagine you could, but youd have to be VERY careful about which ones you choose. Do some research and see what ya come up with! I can also DM you pictures of my setup for them too if youd like [emoji4] let me know if you have any other questions

OMG UR SO HELPFUL AND INFORMATIVE! I would love if you PM’d me pics of your setup! I would do some branches instead of softies since I would not want to risk it I guess. The tank is bare bottomed so I would probably just leave it that way so I can easily clean up dirt. The tank has been established for a while and I would love to look into trying this! Where did u get the seahorses? Local or online? I would love if PM’d me so we can continue conversation and if u included the link to the product from PJ reefs that would be great! Have a nice night and I hope to hear from you soon