my new tropical marine tank

[Bitis gabonica]

hey to all you marine keepers, this is my first marine tank have had it running for a couple of weeks, its a seabray 4ft tank with fluval filters, uv stereliser, protein skimmer, marine bulb lighting, sand, coral, heating etc etc i have a couple of clown fish in there and all is going very well. Im going to be adding a couple of more fish, not too many; dont want to overload it. I have been testing the levels and all is well. Going to get a regal tang and copperbandedbutterfly was gonna get a yellow tang too but have been told they are aggresive and can fight with the cbbf; any one know any other good marine fish to go with mine?

I have 2 other questions is anyone can help?

can the uv bulb in the stereliser be changed without disconnecting it from the filter pipes etc?

and whats the best foods for these fish i stated above and best time to feed. what foods to avoide etc.

thnx for your help!

[andy007]

Hi
Personally, i wouldn't bother with the Copperband. The 2 lfs near me who do actually sell them, have told me they are particularly difficult to keep alive for any length of time time due to the fact they are grazers and require a very very mature tank with lots of natural growth on the rocks.

Hawk fish are nice I have the Scarlet Hawkfish and he's quite a character.

Do you have Live rock? If not, and you didnt use mature media, i wouldn't add anything else yet, otherwise its gonna be an expensive venture.

[Bitis gabonica]

ive been told cbbf are a good starter fish and the only difficulty is the feeding habits??? lol no i havent got live rock been thinking bout gettin some..... i do have mature media tho.

Originally Posted by andy007

Hi
Personally, i wouldn't bother with the Copperband. The 2 lfs near me who do actually sell them, have told me they are particularly difficult to keep alive for any length of time time due to the fact they are grazers and require a very very mature tank with lots of natural growth on the rocks.

Hawk fish are nice I have the Scarlet Hawkfish and he's quite a character.

Do you have Live rock? If not, and you didnt use mature media, i wouldn't add anything else yet, otherwise its gonna be an expensive venture.

[andy007]

Cool

If you do want one, make sure you see it feed at the LFS. Ask them to show you, as they can refuse all prepared foods and starve. They do really require a 75 gallon tank, with lots of hiding holes and swimming areas. Although not a huge fish, 8" max, the have a long swimming stroke so require space.

Also, if you intend putting any corals in like Zoas, the Cbbf will pick at them.

Another fish which is really nice is the Coral Beauty (Centropyge bispinosus).

[t-bo]

Congrats on the new tank, any pictures yet?

I think you would bet better off with a Yellow rather than a Regal Tang in a 4ft tank... I would defeinately get live rock in there too, helps massively with filtration and general fauna... looks great too

[The Chillinator]

I agree, go with a tang from the Zebrasoma genus instead. They are much hardier and somewhat cheaper than Acanthurus/Paracanthurus tangs. Another species worth looking into is the Kole tang (Ctenocheatus strigosus).

[Bitis gabonica]

nah not really keen on these fish hawkfish or kole tang, how come the yellow is a better choice than the regal? i have heard yellows are more aggressive? hmmm perhaps I better not get a cbbf then if the tank is a bit small, just ever since i did work experience with marine fish ive always wanted one lol maybe a fish for the future wouldnt want to kill it! thnx for the tips guys I shall have to get myself some liverock out of curiosty what one is better I hear there are different typs from different places and some is treated and some is not ???? is this tru or.......

also can anyone shed some light on the best foods for a fish only tank? which foods to avoid and when is the best time to feed??? I hear daphina is good but bloodworm isnt or is it the otherway round lol im feeding my clownfish on marine flakes atm would like to try something else.

thankyou everyone and I shall put some pics up in my album
1 more thing lol does anyone know how to chnage the uv stereliser bulbs in the uv8 unit things can it be done without turning the fliter off and disconnecting the pipes?

[The Chillinator]

Zebrasoma tangs tend to be less susceptible to diseases such as marine whitespot (Cryptocaryon irritans). Also from a temperament point of view Acanthurus/Paracanthurus tangs including the Regal tang (Paracanthurus hepatus) are more aggressive.

There are several different types of live rock, however the best stuff is the Fiji or Indonesian live rock. It is less dense than Carribean or Florida live rock and therefore has a larger surface area for biological filtration and you will need less of it. Live rock either comes cured or uncured (another term for cured live rock is 'seeded'). During the curation process, organisms are allowed to die off completely before they have a chance to pollute the aquarium. I would recommend that you purchase cured live rock.

When replacing UV tubes you will need to turn off the power and disconnect the pipes, then all you have to do is follow the instructions.

[owlbassboy]

copperbands are notorious for just dropping dead as no one ever bothers to treat them for parasites that nearly all of them carry.

the reason people say go for a yt instead of a rt if the yt needs less space.
personally id source out a chevron tang. bit pricier but absolutely amazing looking and your tank wont look like a scene from nemo lol

[Bitis gabonica]

lol thnx. Does the live rock need feeding like you do for plants add treatments and food supplements etc and is the marine blue/white lights ok for liverock or do they need different lights?