Still motoring along with my 75-gallon FOWLR tank. I was thinking of adding a few easy corals but wanted to get some advice because of some specific conditions in my tank: 1. water flow is very high. I've got two Koralia 3 powerheads in the 75. The water flow completely ripped up a featherduster I put in there, even reaiming the heads and hiding it in a cave. I'm beginning to think that the high flow is the stress that's caused some ich problems previously, but not sure. 2. The tank has compact flourescent lights. I am not going to be able to change the light canopy without tremendous effort. So that's all the wattage I have to work with for now. The canopy problem also keeps me from changing one of the powerheads, although I could power down one of them. So somewhat dim tank, very high flow. What kinds of coral would work in here?
What fish do you have in your tank. Some nip corals such as the zoo's. There are a lot of corals like the leather's and platy's, zoo's as well. Is there a flow control lever on the power heads to back them down a bit?
fish type I don't think I have any coral nippers: in tank now: 1 oscellaris 1 striped shrimp goby + 2 tiger pistol shrimp assorted small hermits and snails in QT tanks: 1 canary blenny 1 scooter blenny 4 chromis
koralia 3 has no flow adjuster I may play with how the two powerheads are pointed, but a few other users have had problems with high flow. http://www.petstore.com/ps_viewItem-idProduct-HD19301-tab-4.html I think I've selected somewhat small fish for my 75G and so they're getting blown around some. I noticed one reviewer with a 55G thought two were great, another with a 150G thought the flow with two was great, so go figure.
If you have good flow with one then you could go with that and save the other for later. Depending on your filter system, you are probably getting some flow from that too. There are a wide range of corals that can be grown under compacts if they are put up high. Some hard corals will live, but won't thrive, other's the growth will be slow. I really like the idea of the smaller fish in the tank. You can have more fish that way and those tanks are more interestingt o me. I'm going to smaller in my 125. No nipper's in the fish you have. I'll be thinning out some corals in my tank soon. I'll send you a list when I do it and give you some to get you started.
I'm surprised you're getting too much flow out of those. I know a lady that has 2 of the model 3's and a model 2 in her 75 and it's perfect. You may try taking the cone-shaped "fish guards" off the front of the powerhead to widen the stream of water coming out of the unit. That may help a little. Some of the best beginner corals are mushrooms, leathers, kenya trees, and maybe some zoanthids. Send me a pm when you get ready to add some, I also have some colonies that are getting a little big for my nano that I need to frag. =)
clownfish trying to mate with the goby My lonely oscellaris is trying to invade the shrimp goby's home. I think it's a mating dance, since he's just trying to sit on top of the goby. No charging. Goby doesn't seem to bothered. I'll try to post a video of this stuff. Now I've got a 75 gallon tank with the two shrimp, goby, and clownfish are living in 1/2 gallon of it.
beginning corals, updated advice? Ok, I took your advice on beginning corals for my high flow - medium light tank. I swapped out a Koralia 3 for a 2 and it's helped some. I think the high flow comes because my tank is drilled - my return pump adds quite a bit of turnover. Mushrooms and sun polyps are not doing too well and got blown apart. I had some zoos but moved them to a pico tank because they're too small. I've liked a toadstool leather, colt coral, and frogspawn a great deal. The frogspawn is growing fast! Any recommendations for big cheap corals? My sandbed sees a lot of action thanks to two busy pistol shrimp and perhaps the brittle starfish, so I'm not keen on throwing in a brain coral.
