Hi, my name is Tonya and I'm new here. We are setting up a tropical reef tank and I have some questions. We have done saltwater before so have some knowlege through trial and error. We have a 75 gal with good filter, protein skimmer, heater, undergravel filter, some live rock, crushed coral and sand. We need more live rock, but have to do a little at a time. Our tank is cycling and everything is withing normal range so far. We are getting some algea growth. We want to try some invertabrates, eventually soft and hard coral. We are not sure what species can go with what.
Last time we had some crabs to eat the algea, but they ended up killing alot of fish too. What kinds of fish or invertabrates are best to start with? Last time around, we rushed things and didn't find out enough about what species can go with what. Will anenomes eat starfish? Will starfish eat coral and what kinds? Will anenomes eat coral? What about different kinds of small eels? Or shrimp?
I have a bunch more questions but will save those for later. Of course we are going to go slow.
Thanks!

blue linkia starfish are awesome and work with coral and live rock. I had one and it was beautiful, just make sure your water parameters are PERFECT, mine got sick and I had to take it back to the LPS. I believe blood red shrimp are good with coral and live rock, about 90% sure, but they cost about $30. The good thing about this shrimp is that it will actually clean your fish of paracites and set up a home/fish cleaning station, it is truly amazing to watch the fish stay still while they clean them. I think that most anemones eat coral. Oh also all those little hermits and snails will be fine. Get as many as you can of those.

choc chip starfish wil eat coral and pretty much anything they cn get ahold of, including anemones. they rule for starfish i think is that if its bumpy/thorny, it probably isnt safe with corals. as far as i know, most anemones are safe with coral, except for condylactus anemones....and pretty much any other atlantic anemone species. they dont eat the coral, but they roam about the tank alot and can sting and damage coral. all anemones will do this initially, but most (except atlantic species) will find a place in the tank they like and stay there eels will eat shrimp and other inverts without shells (crabs shrimp ect.). while small, eels are fine with fish, but once they start to grow up, anything small enough to fit in their mouth...will be dinner. as for hermit crabs, i reccomend blue leg hermits. they stay small, arent aggressive, and are bright and active. they dont bother any of my stars or urchins and pretty much stick to themselves. a good way to get rid of algae is to buy snails. they arent usually as interesting as crabs, but they are efficient. turbo snails are what i use. i also got Nassarius snails to sift through my sand and eat fish poop and whatnot. Lionfish are very cool, but they will eat any fish that will fit in their mouth...and will eat your $30 blood shrimp. lions are safe with coral, anemones, sponges, snails, hermits, and im pretty sure they are okay with tube worms too, but i may be wrong. before you buy any fish or decorative inverts/corals, think about wheather you really want a peaceful reef with shrimp, coral, and many small peaceful fish. or if you want a more predatory reef with just a few larger, predators like lions and eels. or if you just want to go the other way and not have a reef, and just keep a few interesting specemins of fish/inverts.

If you go with a lionfish the usual rule is whatever can fit into its mouth is considered its prey. I don't know much about eels, but I would imagine most smaller fish would not be safe. A general rule is if it is a predator make sure the other fish are bigger or same in size. A puffer fish would be cool. Picasso trigger fish also.

ok, so I had a chance to talk with my hubby over the weekend and went to the petstore and found a few knowlegable people. We decided to go with the passive tropical reef tank. No lionfish in the near future here. Our tank is still cycling and I noticed the nitrate levels and ph is bouncing around some. Not too much but it's not steady yet. We are getting a brown algea growth on the sand. It's been probably 6 years since we had saltwater and I forgot some stuff. Is the brown algea because of the higher nitrate level, or is that just the tank cycling? Over the weekend I added 3 and 1/2 lb live rock, 2 chromes, 2 turbo snails. Should I just let the tank keep cycling and keep checking the levels or should I add something for the nitrates? I couldn't find anything about that in my books.
btw, singapore, thanks for the welcome! It's fun going through all the posts and pictures!
I have something that came in on one of my live rocks and I can't figure out what it is. I can't find any pictures of it. Hopefully someone can help me here. Are there different kinds of tubeworms? That's what this looks like except the whole thing is a dark red. The base even looks a little fuzzy.
Thanks!

live rock is really only rock...whatever kind...or fossilized coral, with algae, and critters on it. ive got some peices that are figi, some base rock, some lava rock, and some fossilized coral. i even made some with cement and play sand. it is all covered in purple coraline algae, and it all has critters on it. to me, it doesnt matter.

as for the brown algea, its from the raised nitrates caused during the cycling period. i just got rid of my brown algae problem with a few astrea snails. to get it off my sand i bought a sand sifting star and nassarous snails. i thinks sea cucumbers would do the trick too. the chromis will help to cycle the tank a bit faster.

liquid nitrate removers dont really work in the long run. they only cover up the problem. once your tank is done cycling, the nitrases should lower. and ur protein skimmer will help with that. marine plants also lower them. xenia corals also lower it. plants and xenia are natural ways to filter the tank.

yeah its prolly some sort of worm...or maybe a cucumber. but prolly a worm.