standard 29 rebuild ideas

[fermentedhiker]

So I had a standard 29 gallon mixed reef going for around 2 years before a complete crash. It was a sumpless setup at the time with an Aquamaxx hob1. I also had another standard 29 beside it running a wet/dry filter that I modified to work like a small sump but it just never look great.

So I decided to build a sump from a spare standard 29 I had and plumb both tanks through it. It's been a battle getting them both back and I'm not totally there yet. Currently beating back a hair algae outbreak in both but it's getting a little better every week.

The first is pretty much fully stocked fishwise at this point;
2 oce clowns
1 bicolor blennie
1 randall's prawn goby
1 pink streaked wrasse

Iverts;
small BTA
candy striped pistol shrimp
2 scarlet hermit
1 zebra hermit
1 lettuce nudi
a handful of snails.

Corals so far;
hammer
electric green torch
duncan
green long tentacled plate
lavender hairy mushroom
rainbow monti

I plan on adding an Acan and a Favia later and I'd like to add more inverts(porcelain crab, pom pom crab, various shrimp)...time will tell.


My quandary is the other tank, which has no fish at this point.

current inverts;
blood red shrimp
yucatan cleaner shrimp
Porcelain anemone crab
2 scarlet hermits
1 zebra hermit
1 harlequin serpent star.
a bunch of snails.
1 rock flower anemone

Corals so far;
florida ric
yuma
ORA red gonipora
utter chaos paly
st thomas mushroom
carlgreni mushroom
purple stylo
space invaders pectina
black tube coral.

I'll be adding more florida rics, more rock flowers, more calgreni and st thomas. Farther down the road I'm hoping to take a try at a couple acros in the spots with highest light and flow
Sorry for the ramble. My problem at the moment is I can't really decide on what if any fish to stock it with. Part of me just wants to make another nano community different kind of blennie, goby, wrasse and maybe do a yellow assessor as the focal fish. I could also go with a bunch of damsels(the saltwater equivalent of a mbuna tank). I'm am a bit tempted to dedicate it to a single specimen predator tank. Something like a wartskin angler or leaf fish, japanese redfin waspfish, or a fu manchu lionfish(always thought they were gorgeous).

Thoughts or ideas welcome.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I had to look up your yucatan cleaner shrimp. It's really cool. I imagine you'd need to move it if you went with the predator tank idea.

I suggest a possum wrasse if you do another nano community. They are such cool little fish.

Or, a pair of jawfish make a nice display - they are so rarely offered an ideal tank environment to really dig. When they're given that, they are really neat to watch. Could probably do a non-sand-dwelling goby/blenny with them, or the assessor.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Jawfish are definitely cool but this tank doesn't have a deep enough sand bed and also has too much rockwork at least currently. I have toyed around with the idea of getting one of those reef crest dropoff tanks and doing a subtropical tank with a dsb in the dropoff for a bluespotted jawfish and catalina gobies...........but that is another discussion entirely

Yeah if i stay nano possum wrasses are high on the list.

and yes if I go the predator route I'll have to remove the porcelain crab and shrimp to the other tank.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Well I've decided to stay with nano sized stuff for this tank. Still not sure what all I will add, but I'm leaning towards a yellow assesor, tanaka possum wrasse, and a dusky yellow blenny. Beyond that I'm not sure if I'll add anything else. I welcome suggestions. I'm always willing to research new fish

 

[fermentedhiker]

I'm rethinking this again...........ugh

Thinking about a Japanese redfin waspfish and a yellow assessor. Not sure about adding anything else though? Possum wrasse and blenny still possible?