Valentini tankmates 30g
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:57 pm
Hi,
I have been keeping reef tanks since the 90's and have a couple of my fish that long. I decided to set up my old 30g as a FOWLR a while back, and my only fish in there is a Valentini puffer that has been there for about 6 months. The tank has no sump, a CPR bakpak2 skimmer, pengun 330 HOB filter, and VHO lights. The substrat is a very thin layer of crushed coral. The same setup supported a reef an multiple fish for about 16 years, but was shut down for a couple of years, so the current LR is only about 9 months old. It is supposed to be FO, but I thros in frags that break off in my main tank on occassion - leathers, 'shrooms, frogspawn, montis, birdsnest - but all expendable.
In spite of what I read about puffers being messy, mine is actually pretty tidy and picks thorugh her rock to get pieces of food thst drop. As I result, I have little hair algae, and do not register nitrates or phosphorus.
I would like to add another small fish or 2 a something that I can't put in my main tank which has mixed corals, tridacnid clam, ocelaris clown, flame hawk, Randalls goby, one spot Foxface rabbitfish, solaris wrasse, green mandarin, orchid dottyback. I am finding that there aren't a lot of non-reefsafe fish that can go in a 30g.
At the moment my top contenders are a coral beauty angel - but I think the tank is too small. I know that cherubs are smaller, but I had one of those for over 7 years and would like soemthing different. Or a long nose hawk, which I have seen suggested here. I love my flame hawk, who I have had since 1999, so I would never chance putting another hawk in the main tank with him, and the long nose and flame are different enough that I don't think they really duplicate each other.
That said, if I add a long nose, I may be maxed out for the tank, so I want to make sure I am not missing out on another idea. I kinda feel like I would like something a little faster moving to balance out the tank. The 30g isn't big enough for a wrasse, plus not having a sand bed really is limited there.
Also, my lFS guy is very particular about only sourcing fish thst are healthy and from sustainable sources, so I have been waiting about 2 months for him to find a long nose.
Any suugestions are welcome.
Kim
I have been keeping reef tanks since the 90's and have a couple of my fish that long. I decided to set up my old 30g as a FOWLR a while back, and my only fish in there is a Valentini puffer that has been there for about 6 months. The tank has no sump, a CPR bakpak2 skimmer, pengun 330 HOB filter, and VHO lights. The substrat is a very thin layer of crushed coral. The same setup supported a reef an multiple fish for about 16 years, but was shut down for a couple of years, so the current LR is only about 9 months old. It is supposed to be FO, but I thros in frags that break off in my main tank on occassion - leathers, 'shrooms, frogspawn, montis, birdsnest - but all expendable.
In spite of what I read about puffers being messy, mine is actually pretty tidy and picks thorugh her rock to get pieces of food thst drop. As I result, I have little hair algae, and do not register nitrates or phosphorus.
I would like to add another small fish or 2 a something that I can't put in my main tank which has mixed corals, tridacnid clam, ocelaris clown, flame hawk, Randalls goby, one spot Foxface rabbitfish, solaris wrasse, green mandarin, orchid dottyback. I am finding that there aren't a lot of non-reefsafe fish that can go in a 30g.
At the moment my top contenders are a coral beauty angel - but I think the tank is too small. I know that cherubs are smaller, but I had one of those for over 7 years and would like soemthing different. Or a long nose hawk, which I have seen suggested here. I love my flame hawk, who I have had since 1999, so I would never chance putting another hawk in the main tank with him, and the long nose and flame are different enough that I don't think they really duplicate each other.
That said, if I add a long nose, I may be maxed out for the tank, so I want to make sure I am not missing out on another idea. I kinda feel like I would like something a little faster moving to balance out the tank. The 30g isn't big enough for a wrasse, plus not having a sand bed really is limited there.
Also, my lFS guy is very particular about only sourcing fish thst are healthy and from sustainable sources, so I have been waiting about 2 months for him to find a long nose.
Any suugestions are welcome.
Kim