New Reefer In Central Jersey

[Hef]

Hi Everyone, I justed jumped head first into this hobby this week after reading up on everything here over the last month. I'm in Fair Haven NJ, right next to Red Bank. I bought a 75 gallon set-up from a guy here in Jersey and moved it on Sunday. I'm happy to say everthing seems to have survived ...so far...I've got some nice coral specimens and a few great fish. I found some Southdown Sand at a Home Depot, bought 150 lbs and put it in the tank along with the original sand. Kind of sandwiched it all together. So I have a nice DSB. I'm afraid it's not very Live though. I posted in another thread on the Newbie Forum how I'm worried about a beautiful Mandarin I put in there yesterday. Yea I had to make a purchase for my new tank. They warned me about it's inablity to find food, but with 125 lbs of live rock and sandbed they thought I could support the little guy. Now I've read here about how many of them die of starvation. I dont really know how much live stuff I have in the tank for him to eat. I've tried to look at night with a flashlight for critters running around on the sand but dont see anything. I have seen a couple but not many.
Any suggestions on what I can do to increase the population.

Thanks
Hef

[katspaw]

Hi Hef,
Welcome to the beautiful hobby of saltwater keeping. Manderin Dragonettes are one of the hardest fishs to survive. They need a growing popualtion of pods to live. And a tank that is at least a year old to support them. And if you have a wrasse in your tank, then forget able it. The wrasse eats the same food ie.. "Pods". Most advanced aquaruist that have kept these fish will have a refugium attached to their tanks. A refugium is a safe place for the pods to multiply. Being that pods are not good at swimming they get swept into the main tank to eaten by the fish there. Also manderins have not been know to eat frozen foods, Not that it hasn't happened, but it is rare. Before yours dies, Please take it back to the LFS and try to stay with some of the easier fish for a newbie. As your experience grows, then you can move up to the more difficult species offered on the market. A good book to learn about the different fish is Robert Fenners, " The Consceintous Aquaruist" I would suggest you buy it and read read read. When you moved this tank, did you use the orginal saltwater or did you make up fresh saltwater?? Just wondering!

Tracey

[Hef]

Tracey, yes we took all of the water, I used about 50 gallons of it. I had another 30 gallons of new water ready at home to top it off. The move went very well. Everything was back in the tank within 4 hours. Not much of a temp. change, the tank was real cloudy for about 12 hours from the new sand but it has cleared up real nice.
This was an established tank, which is why I think there is enough live stuff to support the addition of the mandarin. I respect your concern for the little guy, but as to taking him back, I never see him so catching him would probably be immpossible. I've been trying to read up on the Pods that it eats. I'm still confused as to where they come from. I'm thinking of building a small Refugium. My LFS offered to give me some of the stuff out of their Reef Tank Filters to put in my tank. They think it might help increase the population.
Any thoughts on that.

Kelly

[katspaw]

One place comes to mind
http://www.ipsf.com/
they will have everything you will need to get your pod population going. I have used them and Dr. Mac has some stuff also but Indo is the best place I can think of. Their 9 for 99 special is really a good deal. HTH

Tracey