boxerz

First of all, test kits are important especially when you just started your setup and you want to monitor the water parameters and make sure they are going in the right direction. And I don't think it is good advice for you not to get any test kits. Important water parameters for a reef tank, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, nitrates, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, pH. I will do a brief outline on these parameters as much more can be found on the many reef forums including here. For a properly cycled tank, the ammonia and nitrite should be 0 therefore, their test kits are less necessary for already cycled tanks. Those kits that you need in the long run IMHO are nitrates, alkalinity, calcium, ph and salinity. These parameters are just a rough guide and many reefers have varying parameters. Stability is important in reefing. Nitrates as close to 0 ( off the charts nitrate ,ie more than 100 ppm is definitey not acceptable because corals cannot survive and fish will die from nitrate poisoning sooner or later) Alkalinity(kH) 7-11 are the usual range ( important to keep it stable to a fluctuation of 1 magnitude if possible) Calcium 400-500 ppm Magnesium 1300-1450 are the acceptable range ph 8-8.3 (fluctuates throughout the day) Salinity 1.025-1.026 the usual natural range If your tank is not heavily stocked, the water changes are suffice to replenish you calcium, mag, kH and other trace element. Next doing up to 20% water change in a 2 ft tank at least twice a week is quite a lot, especially if the water parameters are inconsistent. You can reduce it to like 10% per week if you want. Make sure your salinity stays constant because corals are sensitive to this. As for target feeding, give some time for your bubble coral to settle down in your tank. Given the right conditions, they should recover quickly from any injuries. Feeding can then resume. Feeding a sick coral is not recommended because it can put additional stress on the coral and faster demise.

The "dirty" water they like does not literally mean water that is high in dissolved nutrients like nitrates. They like pretty pristine conditions and the factor that will determine their survival or not is continous feedings. Yes, they need to be target fed, at least once every 2 days or so. Cylopeeze seems to be the maximum food particle that the bigger gonioporas can consume so anything smaller are recommended. Their mouths are at the tip of each and every polyp. And yes, the red ones have higher rate of survival than the green ones but they are definitely more expensive. If they do not expand in moderate wave, try to move them to a slower wave region. Lemon mentioned an important fact which is gonios are found in turbid nutrient rich water in the wild. where minuet food particles are abundant. The important phrase is minute food particles are abundant. So you can gauge how often they actually feed themselves. Hope this helps you.

I have gsp in my sump for like months, no extension but still alive I believe.

A pic will be great.

Does not look bleached. More like a good white hammer to me.

It is very misleading to stock fish base on the power of your filtration. A 100000 litre tank running a sufficient volcano skimmer and you use the same skimmer for a 1000L tank and you think you can keep the same amount of fish ? I don't think so and swimming space is a very important factor. Please do not stock up fish the way LFS do (they have no intention of holding their fish for long) and seeing that that will be how the fish will be in your heavily stocked tank. Too crowded and the fish lose sense of their natural behaviour and conform to their given dimensions....stress will take them out after some time.

IMO if you are trying out clams again, you should get bigger specimens, 5 cm at least because smaller clams have lower survival records.

It does not look good. Keep it at low light and low flow. It should recover. Remove your tang or your sun depending what you want to keep since your tang is not peaceful with your sun.

They should not be dying in that temperature range. It is "relatively" ok. There must be other factors contributing to your fish demise. How long do they stay in your tank ? Do they eat ? Are they good when you bought ? Any agression ? Know the source of your fish and how they are captured. Fish captured using cyanide don't last although I believe most of our LFS do not import fish collected through this way.

why throw away, I don't think they are harmful to your inverts.

A little is ok but not too much.

ok means the SPS are surviving but not thriving.

Take note that the reflectors must be of individual reflectors otherwise there is no point getting a T5.

Any opinions are appreciated.

I suggest you do not stir your sand because it can create a mini cycle.

Nice tank there. The aquascape is nice. However, I would considering giving up the hippo tang to another reefer with bigger tank capacity because blue tangs can grow big and they need lots of space for swimming. In a 3 ft tank it is just not big enough IMHO.

For me I use the veggie clip that I use to clip the seaweed.

Is the base of the anemone leathery in texture ? If it is, it is probably the long-tentacle/leather anemone. They are natural hosts for percula but NOT oscellaris. However, in cases of anemone hosting it is really up to the individual clowns whether they want to or not. Even if they do, clowns do sometimes move to several hosts. Meaning they maybe be hosting in the anemone but sometimes move to your bubble and then your goniopora, etc. Generally they will stick to one host but they may move about from time to time. So if you take out your maroon, it will definitely be better for your gonio but putting percula in, there is NO guarantee it will not host your goniopora. At the very least there is a chance that it will not and it is better than letting your maroon stay and stick to your goniopora if you really want a clownfish.

why not breed it for the fact that you are doing the environment and the hobbyists a favour and not for the profit itself ?

dottybacks are aggressive fish and they are highly territorial. Mine fought with my six wrasse and chromis and I took it out.

I posted about your goniopora in your other tank thread but I think I should post here incase you miss it there. Your maroon should not be hosting in your goniopora if you want your goniopora to live. I have observed that your goniopora has reduced in extension and your clown hosting in it could be the a reason for that. To keep your goniopora alive you need to do frequent target feedings because their living requirements exceeds that of most LPS which can survive purely on lighting. There is a website all about goniopora coral but it seems like it is inaccessible now...

Also cardinals in pair will end up a disaster if both are males. If you see them chasing and biting a lot, that most probably is the case and it would be better to take out the stronger one, ie, the one that is always doing the chasing.

They are considered hardy and easier to keep compared to other reef fish but in a tank they will reduce their own numbers to a number suitable and comfortable for themselves. This is heavily dependent on your tank size and the environment in the tank. Tanks smaller than 3 ft usually end up with 1 chromis. (Apparently this chromis aggression thing does not seem to apply to the LFS tanks where they are kept in) Other than this aggression between themselves, they are very peaceful towards other fish. And yes, you are most likely not able to keep it in a group for now.

Your water level decrease you should be topping off with the same amount of pure water that decreased to keep up with the salinity you kept it at.

It is true that not all are taken from the wild but certainly not that most banggai in LFS for sale are captive bred. Agression inbetween species are more likely especially for his 3 bangaii depending on the gender of the fish.