Aggressive reef

flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by gilbert
http:///forum/post/3280583
Uhhh.... I haven't heard of any of those except the Passer angel... What are they, and what are their differences in temperment?

Best book I ever purchased...it will help you allot in what you are trying to do. I am also posting a page so you can see the type of info it has to offer

 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
Wow, that looks great! But, just so everyone knows, I can't actually do this (yet). I was asking all of this for faaar later into the future... Sorry if anyone thought I was actually doing this now... I don't have the money, room, income, or job a larger tank at the moment. I can't do this 'till I can get a job, at the least.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Yea, the books are a great guide and source of quick info, but be sure to do your own research. For example, in the pages Flower posted, it suggests that Acanthurus nigricans is much more hardy then Acanthurus japonicus. The reality is the exact opposite. A. japonicus are much hardier then A. nigricans. Also most tank size info, typically is regurgitated info from the 80's. Most people today would suggest a Powder Blue/Brown tang needs a tank, more along the lines of twice the size of that 75gal the book suggests.
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
Well, that much I knew. My dad has a fairly small Kole tang in his 60 gallon and it can get from one side to the other in about a second. And powder blues/browns are bigger, too.
 
prime311

prime311

Active Member
Be prepared for a lot of work if you want to do aggressive and reef. Bioload holy cow, will have trouble keeping chemical levels reef safe and cleanup crew might become food.
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
The size that I would like to have when I have the money to set this up (many hundreds or thousands of gallons). But at the moment, and probably for several years, I don't have the money for this...
 
kylev

kylev

Member
Im starting a 280g aggressive tank in the near future with mainly angels and tangs and plan to push my luck with a few corals here and there to see what works. Im thinking i'll start with just trying basic mushrooms and zoas and go from there, so if you'd like I have a dairy up and will post results as they happen.
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
In a smaller tank a lion may sit on your corals. I lost every coral in a smaller tank because he killed everyone by "sitting" on them everyday.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Ive read several posts and a few articles on lionfish after I owned my 13"er. Lions are commonly put into the Aggressive catagory becuase they eat smaller fish. But they are really docile and more afraid of things than other fish that are considered aggressive. They arent territorial they just live on things that are smaller than them. Many of the aggressive fish will make short work of a beautiful lion in no time. You will know if the lion is threatened if he backs up into a corner or against a rock and points his head down towards the sand with his spines facing the predator.
Predators will actually bite thier venmous spines right off leaving them defensless and injured.
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
I think I've read that too. Fish like triggers nip at their spines. But wouldn't that hurt the trigger, too?
 
prime311

prime311

Active Member
I just want to reiterate that keeping an aggressive reef is definitely possible. There are many fish that don't eat corals, and just because you have a fish that might eat X doesn't mean your fish will and you can experiment. I will personally guarantee though that you will need to do more upkeep and maintenance and spend more money on that tank then you will on any other kind of tank because of these issues that people don't think about when they do it:
1. You need much better lighting for Corals then you'd need for aggressive, and big is whats best for the cool aggressives, but its also $$$$ when it comes to reef lighting
2. Eclipsing the tank i.e. keeping it covered for several days to kill algae blooms which is one of the best ways to keep aggressive tanks clean looking becomes a much less appealing option
3. You have almost 0 chance of keeping snails which are by far the best cleanup crew with the majority of aggressive fish
4. You will have massive issues keeping Nitrate levels reasonable and will need to put serious investment into any way possible of keeping them down and do very frequent water changes
5. Again on the size thing, a larger tank will be more difficult to keep temperature balanced and you need to think about this when you are setting up sump and return.
6. FEEDING TIME WILL BE HELL(just sayin, be ready for this to suck massively if you need to feed corals with aggressive fish).
7. Expect to be putting your coral back up a lot because big aggressives dont give a crap what they knock over
So I'm not going to say it can't be done, it definitely can be done. It will be a lot of work and if you have the patience for it then you will have an amazing tank, but be prepared for what you are getting yourself into.
 
gilbert

gilbert

Member
How will the temperature be less balanced in a larger tank? The more water volume, the more stable, right?
 
prime311

prime311

Active Member
Potentially yes, but it depends on where the heater is and how much flow you have through that area. You need to make sure you don't bottleneck the more heated water. You also need to consider the surface area of the water, since more surface area means more evaporation means faster cooling.
 
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