Should I Get 2 Black/White Clowns In This Scenario

Reef Psychology · Apr 17, 2023

TL;DR Should I get a pair of black/white clowns in 26G tank with a Springer Damsel, Purple Firefish and Royal Gramma as tankmates? Or wait a month for another pink streaked wrasse with bad shipping history?

My year old pink streaked wrasse jumped out after I left the lid 1" open after feeding. dang I really like him. Mainly SPS tank fairly young at 1/yr running on Aquaforest's Probiotic (only dose probiotics 1/wk) method plus All-for-Reef so I'm always struggling to keep nitrates (but not phosphates) up. With 3 fish, 2 scarlet hermits, and 8 snails, I can't feed enough to keep nitrate above ~1 much less target of 3. I dose nitrates everyday (2.3ml). I can't shut off the skimmer b/c it's CO2 scrubbing and I'll dip to 7.7pH (it's 8 right now). AfR is likely what is suppressing my nitrates and I'm not willing to change at this point (yeah, I know kalk would solve much of these issues but I don't like using in this tank as evaporation is too high and I don't want to get another doser).

IME that after a year or two even false clowns can start getting aggressive toward tank mates in smaller aquariums. So, should it wait 2-3 months for another pink streaked wrasse (qt'ed) or just get a couple of easy to care fore clowns?

biom · Apr 18, 2023

I have 26g tank also, similar number but very young inhabitants and 3 baby clowns. My philosophy is if some or the inmates become aggressive or too big goes to the bigger system / LFS
I don’t think AFR is causing the nitrate problem. I am dosing AFR and my nitrate is 5-10 and I am dosing phosphate. It is probably this “probiotics” stuff

Reef Psychology · Apr 18, 2023

biom said:
I have 26g tank also, similar number but very young inhabitants and 3 baby clowns. My philosophy is if some or the inmates become aggressive or too big goes to the bigger system / LFS
I don’t think AFR is causing the nitrate problem. I am dosing AFR and my nitrate is 5-10 and I am dosing phosphate. It is probably this “probiotics” stuff

Should have said carbon dose 1/wk and everything else daily as per AF instructions. It’s just 1 drop per week to keep bacteria active. AfR is also a carbon source so it probably has a similar effect as other carbon sources, but to what extent I don’t know. After a year doseing 10+mL/Day probably as an accumulative affect.

biom · Apr 18, 2023

Sorry i'm not aware of AF probiotics method, but made a quick search and find out it looks like copycat of KZ ZeoVit, if yes and you are also having zeolites in your aquarium this is main reason having low nitrates, because this how zeolites work. I'm not big fan anymore of any Zeo methods especially in small tanks.

Reef Psychology · Apr 18, 2023

biom said:
Sorry i'm not aware of AF probiotics method, but made a quick search and find out it looks like copycat of KZ ZeoVit, if yes and you are also having zeolites in your aquarium this is main reason having low nitrates, because this how zeolites work. I'm not big fan anymore of any Zeo methods especially in small tanks.

Yep, you're right I do run Zeo Mix (1/4 dose), Phosphate Minus (1/4 dose), Life Bio FIl, Amino, Build, Energy, & Vitality, Power Food, Pure Food, Growth Boost, & Fish V. Feed 3-4 times a day too. Massive input. That's why I want more fish. I love to mess with my tanks so AF keeps my hands busy so I keep them out of the tank lol. This is an experiment tank. Never done LNS and I know it has fallen out of favor. It's like riding the edge, but can't deny the results. Maintaining them is a challenge.

Attached photo is of Kermit the Frog acro after around 3-4 months of growth. Hallmark color change too.

biom · Apr 18, 2023

Very nice acropora and good growth.
I use to be the same personality - cant able to keep my hands off the tank and doing experiment after experiment

Sometimes with great results but often with massive failures. I use to be Zeo follower for years with some very good results, but Zeo is not only way to have extreme growth and colors - corals from my avatar were grown without any zeolite, media, amino and special food. Only some microelements because I was not doing waterchanges at that time.
Keeping corals at the edge is quite risky business I've learnt - my overgrown tank crashed because nutrients fall to real zero, corals starved and AEFW took their chance...
I am sure you are aware but Energy is analogue of ZeoSpur and contains copper - main purpose is to reduce (kill) zoox in coral tissue and make the corals look more pastel but at the same time makes the coral "skin"more vulnerable to predators. I never used ZeoSpur because of this unknown copper concentration and achieved pastel colors mostly with increasing the light (slowly and especially in blue spectrum)

Reef Psychology · Apr 19, 2023

biom said:
Very nice acropora and good growth.
I use to be the same personality - cant able to keep my hands off the tank and doing experiment after experiment Sometimes with great results but often with massive failures. I use to be Zeo follower for years with some very good results, but Zeo is not only way to have extreme growth and colors - corals from my avatar were grown without any zeolite, media, amino and special food. Only some microelements because I was not doing waterchanges at that time.
Keeping corals at the edge is quite risky business I've learnt - my overgrown tank crashed because nutrients fall to real zero, corals starved and AEFW took their chance...
I am sure you are aware but Energy is analogue of ZeoSpur and contains copper - main purpose is to reduce (kill) zoox in coral tissue and make the corals look more pastel but at the same time makes the coral "skin"more vulnerable to predators. I never used ZeoSpur because of this unknown copper concentration and achieved pastel colors mostly with increasing the light (slowly and especially in blue spectrum)

Thank you. I like to try new things. Back in the day I used a wet/dry filter and plenum to see what would happen.

Yep, I knew that AF additives are analogues to KZ products. Neither company is very straightforward about what is in their products though. Magic in a bottle some say. Still may use Flatworm Stop as I hear good things about it.

Still on the fence about clowns though. After a year all the fish were so good together, adding something now seems like tempting disease and aggression. Thanks for the input though. Much appreciated.