Tank temp & stocking ?s

[dreams]

i have pretty much put a list togther of the fish i want to keep, but have a couple of questions......all my choices are based on personality & temperament......here is the list:

2 ocellaris
2 firefish
2 pearly jawfish
1 green clown goby
3-5 spotted cardinals
1 blennie (undetermined)
1 scott's fairy wrasse
1 spotted madarin (eventually)

first question....when i had mentioned wanting the green clown goby, someone told me i couldn't have one because of temp requirements.......the only fish on my list, from what i can tell, that may have different temp tolerances is the jawfish.....that range is from 72-82.....all the rest appear to be in the 72-78 range.....anyone else have different info on my g.c. goby concern?

which brings me to my next question......i keep my tank at 82, 4 degrees the recommended temp for most of the fish i want.....but i think that is a typical marine tank temp......that 4 degrees is not a big deal?

my next area of concern w/ my list is tank levels....most of the fish i want are bottom dwellers......will cause me any issues?

i had also considered adding a six-line wrasse, but read that they are big bullies....comments?

lastly.....am i over-reaching w/ my list? (110g w/ mego-flow 4 fuge).....am i over-looking anything that i may need to consider as far as my choices go?

sry for the long post.....i just want to make sure that i have every detail of this planned out....i don't want to be tempted by the last minute purchases.....my goal is a very peaceful tank w/ some odd/fun/funky personalities

any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated

[dreams]

okay, since i didn't get any "that is not a good idea"s, then i will assume it is all good and move forward w/ this plan

[gwen_o_lyn]

Wendy-- check this out... I wrote you back on this.... during my lunch today... and I was getting a gazillion run time errors and the message never went through and I had to get back to work so I didn't have time to re-write my response... I will try though...

[gwen_o_lyn]

Your temp at 82 is fine, however that doesn't give you much room for temp swings. If you hit 85, you are in trouble, but if you aim for 80 and go up 3-4*, you are still ok.

I also mentioned that you're prolly over your bioload if you get all those fish. I wouldn't get that many fish unless you have a 100g sump.

[dreams]

lol...i just knew it was too easy......eh!

alrightie....so, i am fine w/ the green clown goby then?

my skimmer is going to be the turboflotor 1000 multi...i have no clue how many gallons that mega-flow is gunna hold...i've looked, but can't find #s on that...i am converting that into a fuge....my sandbed is about 7.5" (down from about 8.5, i haven't added my live sand yet)....i was considering doing dead rock, but am now reconsidering that

if i go really slowly, that won't be enough natural filtration?.....is there a fish/es in my list that have heavy waste?

will do on the temp thing

[Amphibious]

dreams,

someone told me i couldn't have one because of temp requirements.....

I don't know who told you you couldn't have a Clown Goby because of your target temp but they are off base. My tank runs from 78 low to 84 high and I have one without incident. Here's a pic, is it the fish you are talking about?



I bought this as a green clown gobie. He's cute and really a clown. Get one, you will love their antics.

i keep my tank at 82, 4 degrees the recommended temp for most of the fish i want.....but i think that is a typical marine tank temp......that 4 degrees is not a big deal?

I agree with gwen-o-lyn on this one. Aim for 80.

most of the fish i want are bottom dwellers......will cause me any issues?

No issues.

i had also considered adding a six-line wrasse, but read that they are big bullies....comments?

Your list contains many timid fish and the six line could potentially cause some problems. However, in my experience, many fish become bullies over food and that's a sign that the aquarist is not feeding properly or enough. Fish in the wild tend to eat until full and then rest and ignore food because their full. (Ask any fisherman) Aquarists tend to feed a little now and then during the day or evening when it's convenient for them. They seldom feed their fish to the point of being full because they are afraid of, over feeding their fish. Have you heard this misinformation??? It is impossible to over feed your fish because when they are full they will stop feeding. It's when the aquarist dumps more into the tank than the fish can eat that's the problem. That's over feeding the tank, not the fish. If you were invited to my house for dinner could I over feed you??? No!!! Same difference.

am i over-reaching w/ my list? (110g w/ mego-flow 4 fuge)

Not in my opinion. All of your choices are fish that don't reach over about 4" some under that. Go fill your dreams, dreams.

Dick

[fat walrus]

well said Amphibious, would you be kind enough to explain the benifits of high temp with parasitic countrol?

[Amphibious]

fat walrus,

Sure, as i understand it. The life cycle of parasites speeds up as the temperature increases. so, theoretically, the faster their life cycle the shorter the time making their nuisance existence in our tanks. But, high temp alone will do little to eradicate them. You have to couple that with another trick and their are two. First and the most effective is UV sterilization. I've used them religiously for 30 + years. The second is a lowered salinity, eg, 1.020. Some common parasites have an exoskeleton and at the lower salinity don't have the ability to produce a strong exoskeleton making them weaker and perhaps not able to borrow into our fish. I've used these methods successfully for years. However, in the last 10 years or so I've gone to more powerful UV sterilizers and stopped keeping my salinity lowered.

That's what I remember about this subject.

Hope this helped.

Dick

[fat walrus]

thank you Amphibious. i think the the hardest part of the equation to understand is the relationship between temp and uv. my lfs convinced me the importance of vu, but he is alone in our area. everyone is so paranoid about killing phyto or pods that uv is taboo. i think now that he kwows what he is talking about.

[dreams]

thanks dick

the goby i want looks like this little guy....the person was someone one one the forums...i was pretty bummed when they said that



and yes, i was told i was overfeeding my fish.....for a while i did listen to that line of thinkng....now, i feed them until they are done eating....when they start spitting the food out, i am done feeding

[Amphibious]

dreams,

Ahh, yes, he and my little guy are cousins. You shouldn't have any trouble with him in your system. Make sure he's eating before you buy him although they are seldom a problem. They are cool little fish.

I just moved from Madison to FL, Where do you live in WI?

Dick

[dreams]

i am in grand old kenosha......:-)

is there a LFS you would recommend in the area?....we have one here and 2 in racine ( i didn't even know about those until quite recently).....one of them is run by a kid (by my standards, anyways).....seems to know his stuff and carries some pretty rare stuff....he also actually listened to me when i talked, first time that ever happened

[Amphibious]

fat walrus,

Here's a link to an explanation of why a UV will not hurt the Pod population in your tank.

Amphibious' 135 gal Reef

Scroll down to post #40. They are numbered in the upper right border of each post.

Hope this helps.

Dick

[Amphibious]

Dreams,

What are you and I doing up at this ungodly hour of the morning???

I'm going to bed. Sweet Dreams! Oh, there is a double meaning there.

[Amphibious]

Opps, meant to add, I'll talk to you tomorrow about LFS.

Good night.

Dick

[dreams]

night dick, be well:-)