Fish compatibility

[pommie]

Hi I'm new to this hobby and appreciate any advise you can offer.

I'm in the process of setting up a Fish and Live rock only tank.

The Tank is 24" x 12" x 18"

I have approx 3.5KG of Live rocks

I have about 3" of Sand and crushed coral.

I have a Via Aqua multi Skimmer

I plan to add the following fish when my tank has cycled.

1x Clown fish

1x Regal Blue Tang

1x Moorish Idol

1x Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish

2x Skunk Cleaner Shrimps

1x Blue legged hermit crab

I wanted to check if my tank is adequately setup for this stock?

Are the above fish compatible with each other?

Would you recommend I add or remove anything?

Also I was considering buying an Iceprobe Chiller, do you know if its possible to fit it into the Multi-Skimmer or would I need to drill holes in my tank?

Once my tank has fully stabilized and I was considering purchasing a sea anemone. Assuming I have installed the chiller, what type of lighting would I require?

Many thanks

[hotlemond]

exclude the tang and moorish idol, they need bigger space to thrive. you need more live rocks there, 10 kg is a good start. Add in more sand critters.

never seen the real ice probe b4, so cant help here.

[veliferium]

maybe u can get the clip-on MHs produced by Dymax

[tineng]

Iceprobe chiller will not be able to support MH....ironically, because you tank is small, it gets heated very very fast under MH.....I don't recommend you keep anemone because there are a lot of limitation in a nano to allow you to keep them in a cost effective way.....

small blue tang maybe, if you get the 2 inch ones and give up the tang for adoption very 4-6 months....

for butterfly and MI, dunno, never tried them, but don't think you should try....

maybe go for some gobies, or pipefish or those nano-tank fishes.....this link provides some good selection....

[pommie]

Thanks for the advice. The guy at the LFS did actually tell me to go back this weekend and add in another load of rocks, so I'll add another 6kg.

Do you have any suggestions as a replacement for the Tang and Moorish Idol?

Are both of these completely out of the question? Is it not possible to have young, smaller fish for a temporary period?

Also what sand critters would you recommend?

Are sea slugs ok to keep? I remember seeing a bright blue one at PR the other day?

Thanks

[hotlemond]

i find serpent stars, dwaft hermits to be good scavengers. If you can get your hands on some nassarius snails then it would be wonderful, helps to stir up your sand too.

[pommie]

Ive been reviewing other tank setups on this site and notice that there are several 2ft tanks hosting blue tangs. If I left out the moorish Idol and replaced with a neon blue goby woudl that be ok?

Thanks

[acura007]

Tangs really grow fast n they do need space to swim..

[daimy068]

Hi,

Try to leave out blue tangs and moorish idol. Blue tangs will outgrow your tank pretty soon. Also, if you're planning to keep corals, leave out the butterfly fish.

Good to see you're adding more LR but not the sea slug (think you'd mean the nudibranch). They have specific feeding needs (sponges) and are not advisable in tanks.

Cheers!

[weisoon]

pommie

please read up on the requirements of moorish idol before actually buying this fish. They have a poor survival rate and the difficulity level in keeping this fish alive is high. Not an easy fish to keep. Your tank is too small.

[pommie]

Dont worry, I wont be adding anything to the tank until Ive obtained expert opinions & read up via online articles.

The BT and MI will definitely be left out.

Ive just purchased another 6.5 Kg of Live rock, so will add that tonight and keep monitoring the levels.

The more I research the more I realise that I should have gone for a tank double the size with a totally different setup, I guess that will be my goal once Ive established a stable setup with this one and learnt from it.

I dont think I will have adequate lighting or chilling this time for any corals so I will probably stick with the butterfly fish.

If any of you want to suggest a couple more fish that maybe suitable and compatible with my setup I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again for the help.