choosing a saltwater tank

[CarmieJo]

Originally Posted by aprillynd

I currently have a 29 gallon bio cube and I have had it for a year now. I love it, but I can't wait to get into a bigger tank size. Unfortunatly, due to time constraints with college and my life, I have to stick to what I have for now.

I have a problem with bristle worms and I'm thinking of getting an arrowhead crab for my tank. But, I also have a hawk fish that I was told would take care of the problem of the worms. It doesn't seem to be doing anything except wait for me to feed it every day.

I do have a lot of items in my tank and I seem to have a problem with a lot of ditriss buildup. I change the filter religiously-once a month as instructed and I have even purchased additional powerheads for the waterflow to be stronger in hopes of helping this problem. Do I need to change the filter more often? or should I cut down of the amount of food I feed the fish? I only use about a pinch of flakes and of course I also feed them brine shrimp and Mysis. I don't have any crabs in my tank yet. I was also thinking about getting an emerald crab to help with my bubble alge( I have to keep pruning everyonce in a while to keep it under control).

So, what do you think I should do?

here's what I have in my tank:

2 chili coral-which I believe was once piece when I purchased it online.
2 blue striped goby
3 purple firefly goby
1 purple tang
1 hawkfish
1 large piece of green star pollops--it spread very well.
a lot of mushroom coral
Feather dusters that are just popping up everywhere by themselves-I didn't buy them. I think they were attached to the coral.
1 small starfish - I didin't buy it.
1 brittle star-I didn't buy it. They just pop up.
2 sponges-one purple and 1 orange finger sponge.

Of course there are other things in there that I don't know what they are that just grow from my coral. I do believe that a 14 gallon bio cube is cheep, but expensive in the long run. I learned the hard way when I first started out by putting together a tank. Oh boy, was that a mistake! If I were you, I'd go for the much larger tanks, but you have to keep up with the maintenance or things will get out of hand.

I think that you may be getting bad advice from your LFS. First I agree that your tank is overstocked and a purple tang, no matter how small, should not be in it. I would look at trading in some of your fish to reduce the bioload.

Bristleworms are a beneficial part of your clean up crew. You don't want to get rid of them. If you have an overabundance of them it is because there is too much food available. Feed less and you will have fewer.

How much and how often are you feeding each food? Unless you are buying enriched brine shrimp it is not very nutritious, the mysis is far better.

With the heavy bioload I would suggest changing the filter weekly. The extra powerheads are good. More flow helps keep detritus in suspension so it does not accumulate. How much live rock do you have in your tank? What are your water parameters? Do you dose anything?

It is not unusual for hitch hikers to show up even after a tank has been set up for a while. The feather dusters are very common filter feeders. I am guessing that the starfish are small mini-stars that come with LR.