Large tank stocking questions

[jon321]

Building a new house, and while Im at it we are putting in a 777g 3 way viewable tank. Filtration and structure is all planned. I am wanting it to be a lionfish reef. Mostly just hardy soft corals and shrooms as I cant afford VERY good lights for this tank.
I have alot of experience with tanks 10-75g, but this is FAR larger. Do stocking ratios apply equally to such a large tank? Im looking at 2x radiata lion, 2x antennata lion, 2x zebra lion, 2x lunulata lion, and 6x volitan lion. Is that too much? Or even, is that far too few fish? I know there are a few people here with experience stocking such a large tank. Probably the hardest part will be finding that many lions all in a similar size range...I already have a radiata, antennata, and zebra all about 3".
thanks,
Jon

 

[dmitry]

I actually don't have an answer for you, but it sounds like a really cool tank if you pull it off. Just make sure you never stick your hands in it without wearing thick gloves!

 

[psusocr1]

i only have a 300 gallon tank(430 gallons total) but here are my opinions to try and help out
IMO not to jump on you but if you dont have money for good lights(which arent that neccessary for softies anyway) my big question is filtration and water changes.
your going to need MASSIVE filtration for that kind of stock list, i mean huge protein skimmers and probably in the range of a 250-300 gallon refugium if you want to do it right.
water changes would be 200 gallons at a time if you do a 25% water change so in salt aloneyour looking at alot of money plus a 200 gallon mixing station.
ALSO the reseaon for CRAZY filtration would the massive bioload all of those lions will put on your system..
i would say you need at minimum about 1000 pounds of live rock as well
these are just my opinions but it sounds liek an AWESOME project and wish you well with it!!

 

[jon321]

Thanks for the input. And those reasons are EXACTLY why I dont have enough money for better lights. Besides, I can get lazy and I know lots of lions=higher nitrates so softies will tolerate that much better. Filtration will not be taken care of by me, but will be installed by pros. Huge custom made skimmer, large fuge, dsb, and lots of live rock in fuge. Ive got 100 mangroves on order, but will probably get rid of some as they grow. My main question still revolves around the stocking tho. Will the stocking list I have planned 'fillout' the tank? Do I need more lions? Less lions? My filtration wont be anything rediculously overpowered, but it will be what a 700g tank needs.
Jon

 

[psusocr1]

once again i think the stocklist is o.k but it all depends on the filtration, if your tank will hold that many messy eaters or not. and also it will take a good 6-8 months if not longer to stock all of those lions if you stock one every 2-3 weeks give or take as to not stress a new tank out with the bioload

 

[iluvswfish]

We might be able to answer a little better with the dimensions of the tank but, you may also have to just add them slowly until there are enough fish to fill out the tank. I think this would be a really sweet tank. This reminds me of a tank at Seaworld Orlando they used to have (might still, haven't been in a while) with a bunch of Volitans. It was at the end of the Shark Tunnel and was called "Dangerous Reef". The only thing is, it won't be a very active tank unless you get some dither fish because Lions aren't very active. They seem to hang face down on the rocks most of the day and hunt some at night. As far as not having the greatest lighting, I think that would be preferable in this case. The lions I've seen tend to hang out in the darker areas of the tank anyway and the less intense light would give it a neat scary predator type feel.

 

[madman33]

if you want more activity but still want to give it that dangerous poisonous feel what about some fox faces or maybe some anglers(not so active but a change) or the glass eyed squirel fish sort of have that dangerous bada$$ look to them. I also agree that the number of lions depends on the filtration more than the tank size.