Does It Work - 25G First Tank

[harlequinfanaticyert]

Hello, I’m hoping for your help

I’m about to start my first tank and I wanted to get a gauge on practicality. It’s my first tank and I’m going for relative simplicity, I would love any advice.

I’m going to get a 25 gallon peninsula aio. Due to size and other factors I will not be using a sump. I’d like to have a single kind of coral, either gsp or Xenia, on my centerpiece rock. Lots of open sand, primeHD light. Stocking will be 2 clownfish and 2 harlequin shrimp. I understand the feeding complexity with harlequin and have a process to get food but I am not familiar with their general sensitivities or aggressors (clown?).

Any other easy corals? Is this a good first tank? Will there be any obvious issues? Ie. gsp and clowns don’t mix, harlequin will beat up clown, stuff like that.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Your stocking list sounds fine.

Harlequin shrimp eat seastars, I suggest not to get these unless you have the ability to feed them, if you can't provide them with enough sea stars to eat, then consider getting other shrimps. People have to breed the food for harlequin shrimps, so pass on this for now.

Clownfish will be fine with gsp and almost any other coral. Clownfish will be fine with any shrimps, they don't bother inverts. The shrimps will not bother the fish either.

The AI Prime is fine for that size tank for gsp and xenia's, basically will work for any soft or lps coral, and maybe some lower light sps corals.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I think you'll regret xenia and gsp, there are so much better corals, but once take over your rock you'll have no room and they are very hard to remove.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hello, I’m hoping for your help

I’m about to start my first tank and I wanted to get a gauge on practicality. It’s my first tank and I’m going for relative simplicity, I would love any advice.

I’m going to get a 25 gallon peninsula aio. Due to size and other factors I will not be using a sump. I’d like to have a single kind of coral, either gsp or Xenia, on my centerpiece rock. Lots of open sand, primeHD light. Stocking will be 2 clownfish and 2 harlequin shrimp. I understand the feeding complexity with harlequin and have a process to get food but I am not familiar with their general sensitivities or aggressors (clown?).

Any other easy corals? Is this a good first tank? Will there be any obvious issues? Ie. gsp and clowns don’t mix, harlequin will beat up clown, stuff like that.

Just be aware Xenia and gsp will grow fast and can overtake your rock. Some other easy corals to consider are mushrooms, toadstools, Duncan’s, candy canes, or zoas to name a few

 

[harlequinfanaticyert]

I think you'll regret xenia and gsp, there are so much better corals, but once take over your rock you'll have no room and they are very hard to remove.

What corals would have similar structure and aesthetics with ease of growth? The idea behind gsp or Xenia is that their fast growth and hardiness will allow me to focus on stability and encourage me in the hobby

 

[harlequinfanaticyert]

Just be aware Xenia and gsp will grow fast and can overtake your rock. Some other easy corals to consider are mushrooms, toadstools, Duncan’s, candy canes, or zoas to name a few

I love the toadstools and Duncan’s.. I’ll look into them. If these are easy I’ll likely opt for them over an invasive or aggressive species

 

[BristleWormHater]

What corals would have similar structure and aesthetics with ease of growth? The idea behind gsp or Xenia is that their fast growth and hardiness will allow me to focus on stability and encourage me in the hobby

You could absolutely still grow them. I would just do it one a secluded rock. Xenia tends to end up escaping it's secluded rock while gsp doesn't, so I would still never bur xenia in my tank but maybe gsp. You can absolutely run a stable tank with any coral, you need to have good testing, feeding, and lighting to do that, to me it's well worth it in the long run. You could do alveopora it looks similar and better imo. Stability comes with age, so start with some soft corals like gsp, mushrooms, Kenya tree, toadstool leather, just be aware that all these corals grow faster and could take over the tank, so isolate them. If your softies do well, try some lps after a few months. When your tank is around a year old try some easy sps if you want like policipora, stylophora, montipora caps, and more just do research.