I am living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, a member of the Minnesota Aquarium Society (MAS), and working toward my first marine tank. I've kept FW fish and amphibians before. But I want to make the leap into SW. Here is a run down of my plans.
I'll be converting an acrylic 42 gal bowfront, with a 10 gal as a sump. That's in place as a FW, but the sump will be reconfigured. I've got a skimmer and roller mat for the new sump set up. There is only one return (I know, redundancy is good, but I'm sort of stuck with that).
I'm planning on biome cycling the tank. I have a 20 gal QT ready to go for all livestock. I like breeding fish, so right now I'm planning on clowns, and another yet to be determined fish I can breed. Plus, I'd like to do softies and some LPS in there eventually. As well as, snails, shrimp, and assorted invert CUC. I am looking forward to the challenge of breeding marine species! I'll have a separate breeding setup dedicated in my basement.
At the moment, I'm at least a month out from putting the tank together. I need to BAP out and give away the cichlids that currently live in the tank. The thing I am researching now is the habitat needs for the fish, and the first corals I want to put in. This, I hope, will allow me to assemble the scape into something appropriate for the species I'd like to house.
I think I have an idea of what I need for the clowns, but I can't decide on a second species that would play well with the clowns, and I could breed. Top contenders are royal gramma (Gramma loreto), orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani), and striped blenny (Meiacanthus grammistes). I'd be open to other suggestions as well. One of the things I am struggling with though is understanding the tank habitat each of the species prefers, so I can pick one and design the rockwork to fit for them. Any suggestions on where I can look that up?
Also, I'm trying to find a fairly comprehensive guide to aquarium corals, either website or book, with cultivation useful information, so tht I can better fmiliarize myself with those too. I'd greatly appreciate suggestions on that as well.
Lastly, I'd like to thanks all of the contributors here over the years who have build this forum into the incredible resource that it is! I look forward to learning more.
I'll be converting an acrylic 42 gal bowfront, with a 10 gal as a sump. That's in place as a FW, but the sump will be reconfigured. I've got a skimmer and roller mat for the new sump set up. There is only one return (I know, redundancy is good, but I'm sort of stuck with that).
I'm planning on biome cycling the tank. I have a 20 gal QT ready to go for all livestock. I like breeding fish, so right now I'm planning on clowns, and another yet to be determined fish I can breed. Plus, I'd like to do softies and some LPS in there eventually. As well as, snails, shrimp, and assorted invert CUC. I am looking forward to the challenge of breeding marine species! I'll have a separate breeding setup dedicated in my basement.
At the moment, I'm at least a month out from putting the tank together. I need to BAP out and give away the cichlids that currently live in the tank. The thing I am researching now is the habitat needs for the fish, and the first corals I want to put in. This, I hope, will allow me to assemble the scape into something appropriate for the species I'd like to house.
I think I have an idea of what I need for the clowns, but I can't decide on a second species that would play well with the clowns, and I could breed. Top contenders are royal gramma (Gramma loreto), orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani), and striped blenny (Meiacanthus grammistes). I'd be open to other suggestions as well. One of the things I am struggling with though is understanding the tank habitat each of the species prefers, so I can pick one and design the rockwork to fit for them. Any suggestions on where I can look that up?
Also, I'm trying to find a fairly comprehensive guide to aquarium corals, either website or book, with cultivation useful information, so tht I can better fmiliarize myself with those too. I'd greatly appreciate suggestions on that as well.
Lastly, I'd like to thanks all of the contributors here over the years who have build this forum into the incredible resource that it is! I look forward to learning more.
