+Mcjudge Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 I haven't posted in a very long time. Just been trying to switch tanks and get everything up and running. Let start with the fish I currently have. 4 purple dartfish 3" each 1 yellow tang 2.5" 1 deep sea chromis 2.5" (he seems to be the bully of the tank) 1 white lined combtoothed blenny 2" 1 orange striped prawn goby 2.5" 2 ocellaris clowns 1" each 1 Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse 3" among many other inverts Fish I would like to add: 3 ignitus anthias 1-2 green mandarin 1 angel (potters, flame, or Bellus) I have a 140G 48"x24"x27", my reef creations 36" bio sump, avast marine vibe running zeovit, skimz sk222, 2x mp 40's and 1 maxspect gyre xf150, brs deluxe reactor running rox carbon, Reef genesis renew running 2 gallons a day water changes, return pump is a gold snapper/dart with a manifold. Lights are radions but I don't think that matters. I want to add a 40G breeder for a refugium for an offset light cycle and pod creation. I am a first time user of zeovit and am kind of in awe but it seems like stocking limits are greatly increased. The tank has been running since October, 5 months total. Algae, except for bubble algae has completely receded. Nitrates are 0 per my red sea kit. I still have some phosphate which I think is leaching from my old rock and maybe as well because I like to overfeed.(2 cubes a day mix of misis,worms,krill,cyclops) Corals are fine except for a frogspawn that I think was getting too much flow. (put it in the back seems to be recovering. My thought was get the refugium running and then add the mandarin, 1 month and anthias, angel last. Thoughts recommendations comments in general anything are welcome. Thank you for your time. -M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Should be fine as far as bioload / aggression issues. Biggest hurdle is going to be keeping the mandarin and anthias fed long term. With your current stocking, there's going to be negligible food for the mandarin, refugium or not, so it's going to have to eat frozen or pellet food. Anthias will need fed several times per day to stay healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mcjudge Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 Ok great advice. I do have a apex AFS and I do go home at lunch everyday to feed. (I also have an aging dog that needs to be let out) So mainly its about food and whatever aggression levels present themselves. I am finding most of the aggression seems to be over food and as long as they get fed the fish seem to bother each other less. Thanks Jess! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 +1 Jestep You have five active planktonic predators and all of the remaining fish would eat one if it went by. Adding the anthias adds two more. Keeping a Mandarin might be difficult unless you raise copepod rotifiers. Raising your own pods is a million times cheaper than buying pods and it's pretty easy. Here's an article to help you along. The angel shouldn't be much trouble to add. Potter's are known to pick LPS on occasion and I've seen a few on the forums that pick clams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 With that load you're going to have a hard time keeping one mandarin alive, much less two. You'll have to constantly augment the pod population or they'll starve. I had two in my 230g for about 6 months and think the male finally starved out (couldn't find him). Better safe than sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 +1 For too many pod predators. The only reason I'm on board with this is because of the the zeo system being used. If you want ample enough pods for everyone to be happy - your environments going to end up relatively 'dirty' for a ULNS. If you went full on FarmerPod, I believe you'd be just fine. With that load you're going to have a hard time keeping one mandarin alive, much less two. You'll have to constantly augment the pod population or they'll starve. I had two in my 230g for about 6 months and think the male finally starved out (couldn't find him). Better safe than sorry. mike what!?!? The breeding pair? [emoji32] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 +1 For too many pod predators. The only reason I'm on board with this is because of the the zeo system being used. If you want ample enough pods for everyone to be happy - your environments going to end up relatively 'dirty' for a ULNS. If you went full on FarmerPod, I believe you'd be just fine. With that load you're going to have a hard time keeping one mandarin alive, much less two. You'll have to constantly augment the pod population or they'll starve. I had two in my 230g for about 6 months and think the male finally starved out (couldn't find him). Better safe than sorry. mike what!?!? The breeding pair? [emoji32] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah. Male went missing about a month ago. Never found any sign of him. Given that he wasn't all that old and that they had been exhibiting mating behavior I can only imagine he starved, I can't think of any other trauma or event and have had no other losses. His loss coincides with the eradication of hair algae in my tank. I believe that the vast hair algae had a ginormous pod population. Without the algae, the pods lost cover, and the pod population sustaining the pair couldn't keep up anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Did someone say breeding pair? https://youtu.be/7S6NZl5s-z8 Too bad they were lost in the marine velvet attack of 2014. :-( I think you're fine with a single mandarin but I wouldn't add it for at least 8-12 months. I don't see any other issues with your fish stock list other than be careful with angels, depending on what corals you want to keep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mcjudge Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Thanks for everyone's responses! Sorry to hear about your breeding pair Mike. I do have an aquamedic pod reactor. So maybe get that thing up and running and the fuge for a few months before I bring those other fish on board. Maybe wait a bit longer in between adding to see how the pod populations react. I think I would be more than happy with just one mandarin. As for the coral question as far as the angel is concerned: mainly SPS, some lps and a few softies. That being said all of my fish so far only seem to be eating the food I feed them. The Tang picks at the rocks he seems to be hitting the algae more than the pods. The pods have to be in the water column for them to get eaten. Not sure if that information matters. I know the mandarin will scour the rocks like an old six line wrasse I had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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