My Maroon Clowns are too aggressive for my main DT ( I know I was warned... ). I have a 10 gal tank setup as a stand alone refugium and was wondering how long I can keep them there without them getting stressed over the lack of space. I know they aren't supposed to be in a tank smaller than 30 gal but I am getting a 40 ( hopefully ) in the next few days that I plan on connecting to my main display tank. Once I get it setup I will move them into it, but I don't want them to stress out and die before I get it setup. Thanks in advance!
If they are not causing too much trouble I would leave them till I got the new tank set up. 10 is way to small for them even for a short time. If they are stressed from the smaller tank, moving them again would stress them even more. Maybe next time you will listen to the advice you ask for and save yourself some headaches. Not flaming, just pointing out the obvious. We all get caught up in the idea of a "good deal" or "I can make that work" Believe me if you can think of it someone has already tried it. Just in our nature I guess.
OK, "I told you so" is something I hear a lot. I guess I'm a little hard headed lol. Do you have any advice on plumbing the 3 tanks together? I have read that you can split the return pump to go to each tank, or you can setup the overflow to run into the second tank and then into the sump. Which do you think would be better? Also I've read the refugium only needs to have about it's volume of water passed through it every hour. Which tank would be better to have that water come from? Or should it be both? Thanks a lot for the advice Norman, like I said, I'm pretty hard headed, but I'm also pretty good at admitting I'm an idiot when the occasion arises.
In Skrill's defense I think we are all a little wired to learn from mistakes ourselves. Regardless of how much we're told it's a bad idea. If he didn't learn from this it would have been from something else... Maybe now is a good time to go set up my QT tank.... hahaha!!! Thankfully for the wonderful people on this forum I haven't had an "I told you so" moment yet but it's coming, I can feel it!!! lol
I without a doubt deserved it, Norman told me point blank I would have the problems I'm having with the clowns when I asked him about it before I got them. But my eyes like them so I didn't listen and now I've got a couple of jerk fish... lol. But now I have an excuse to get a new tank, ( going to pick it up tonight!! ) cuz the wife doesn't want to get rid of them, but she wants more peaceful fish. Maybe that was the plan all along......hmmm
Maybe your jerk fish can hang out with my emo fish!! HAHA! It's amazing (and very funny) to me that our fish have their own little personalities. I've spent the last hour watching my little clown goby try to convince my frogspawn to be his friend. lol He's other wise a loner in my tank so it's a big step for him. ha! Sorry that you're having to suck up the "I told you so"s but at least you're big enough to admit it. The fish are quite beautiful though and I can see how it would be hard to listen to advice against them, even if it is well founded. Never easy to have someone advise you not to do something you really want even when they are telling you because they had to learn the hard way!
Norman is right that a 10 gal is too small for them. The trouble with " I told you so advice" is that the critters we get are the ones that suffer in the long wrong.
The maroons are still in the 75 and they have actually stopped pestering the other fish. I've got the 40 gallon now and should have it setup by the end of next week hooked into the same system that is setup now. Then they have their own home that's suitable and I can get my peaceful fish.
Well, I'm always for the "I need another tank" excuse and glad I could help you out with that. From watching the forums closely I believe that the recent new members are doing a very good job of setting up and stocking their systems, though I believe some are rushing the process a bit. We will see how that goes in the coming months. Isn't this an interesting and challenging hobby?
I'm hooked for sure, my wife and I were talking about it last night after I got back with the tank and lights, and we have spent all of our "entertainment" budget on getting our tanks setup in the last couple months. But after hooking the lights up last night and turning them on, it's all worth it. The colors of the fish are much more vivid, we even had a kenya tree that I guess has been hanging out in the sump that I found. We mounted it to a rock and it looks like it is still alive after 2 months with nearly no light. It opened up a little last night and hopefully when the lights come on this afternoon it will come out again. We are going to slow down now. After looking at how much we have spent in the last couple months, we are gonna take a break, possibly get a better protein skimmer, live rock, and some salt to get the 40 going, but no more livestock, unless we can get a butterfly for the aiptasia problem we have, for at least a couple months ( gotta stand strong! ). I want to have both DTs plumbed together with the 10 gallon as a refugium in the middle. Once I get that setup, then we can continue to build our new centerpiece. We don't even watch TV anymore, just the tank!
Get some aptsia X, your tank is not aged enough for a butterfly other then maybe a kleins, definently noy a copper band as not only does he require an aged tank, but also a seasoned reef keeper and one who well pander to his needs after the aptasia are gone.
I have bought some Aiptasia-X and have used it on the few that dare show their heads now. I do understand the care requirements of several fish, and I also know that a copperband in my tank most likely wouldn't survive. My thoughts were more geared toward a kleins as you suggested. I spend a lot of time with this tank, testing the water, looking for miscellaneous pests, tweaking equipment, and just staring at it mostly. I hope I am attentive enough in the future to have a copperband, however I do understand "not yet." I HAVE rushed the setup of this tank, and from this point forward I will slow down. It is an incredibly exciting hobby, with endless possibilities. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a wonderful hobby for my family and I. Live and learn. I know now that rushing things now is a good way to crash the tank later, and I don't want to kill fish anymore than anyone else. I don't plan on adding anything that will die in our tank. If something were to die, I would be devastated, and I will NOT be doing anything to cause it.
