my tank (and what I want to do)

[krautburner]

hello all,
I have taken over a tank from a friend (who has moved)
it'sabout 50 gal, has an overflow with sump filtration, and protein skimmer.
has about 50-70lbs of live rock, and a couple inches of very course sand/crushed coral
the tank was well established, setup for over 3 years before we moved it (5 miles)
we only changed out about 2/3 the water
all levels have been fairly stabil ever since moving
sea life:
currently, it's got 1 cinimon clown (which will get traded at my LFS)
about 5 scarlet hermits, and 10 blue legged hermits
and a handfull of snails
also 2 good sized mushrooms and 20-30 tiny ones
my intentions:
a nice (hopefully easy) reef tank
I'd like to get 2 clowns (possibly mated) and an anenomie for them to host
probably Gold Striped Maroons (or false percs)
a small tang (I'd like something Blue (or maybe Yellow)
(I was told to put the tang in last due to agression)
maybe a "reef safe" puffer (like the Hawaiian Blue Puffer or the Valentini Puffer)
and some kind of a Blenny, maybe a Lawnmower Blenny
as well as more of a "cleanup crew" possibly one of the reef packages from here
I was thinking "30-90 gal pack" or "big 20 +1 (or +2) pack" or "market leader"
also,
what about Copepods?
what do you guys think about this combo?
am I overloading the tank?
should I be worried about what order to add the fish?
could I get everything from the site here at the same time?
Russ

 

[teresaq]

How long is your tank. Tangs need at least a 6 ft tank.They are active swimmers.
Maroons are the more agressive clowns.
The puffer may eat all snails. I have had two, one ate snails the other didnt, its hit or miss with them.
here are some other sugestions.
blue reef chromis
midis blenny or canary blenny --- one or the other
fairy wrasse

 

[krautburner]

well,
my clown got traded in this week,
I picked up a Blue Hippo Tang and a Yellow Tang
I will probably be picking up a pair of GSM clowns in the next month or so.
I also just orderd a few things from the site here: 1 each
30-90 gal reef pkg
fighting conch
lettuce nudibranch
mushroom polyp - green ricordea
cleaner shrimp
copepods (pack of 200)
redlip belenny

 

[teresaq]

you never did answer my questions. How long is your tank. That tangs will not be able to stay in your tank long. they both get very large.

 

[krautburner]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/2460959
How long is your tank. Tangs need at least a 6 ft tank.They are active swimmers.
Maroons are the more agressive clowns.
The puffer may eat all snails. I have had two, one ate snails the other didnt, its hit or miss with them.
here are some other sugestions.
blue reef chromis
midis blenny or canary blenny --- one or the other
fairy wrasse
- tank is like 2.5-3' long
I've actually never seen a tang in a tank any longer than 48" in my life
- I intend for the GSM's to be one of the last things to go into my tank
- I'm not too worried about the snales, they seem to be breeding a little
and they are cheep
the yellow tang got purple/red looking rash/bruises down his sides and lost his tail in about a week
then died a couple days later
I picked up a blue hippo tang about 4 weeks ago
blue hippo is doing well, was hiding for a long time
but is now very active, always hungry

redlip belenny was hiding alot,
then dissapeared after about 2 weeks,

never found the body

I picked up a Dragon Goby a week ago,
he is a little skiddish, but looks healthy
I havn't seen him eat tho

 

[niskyvaulter]

I know that you can do what you want since its your tank, but the blue (regal?) tang will get to about 10 inches, and will be unsuitable for a 2.5-3' long tank. I really advise that you bring it back to the lfs.

 

[krautburner]

as far as 10" regal tang,
wow,
I've seen quite a few of these tangs in people's tanks
never seen larger than 6" in my life (not even at a store)
I'm planning on upgrading my tank soon (possibly in the next couple weeks)
probably a 75gal

 

[rotarygeek]

Listen to these people. Nobody is trying to hurt/critisize you. They are just looking out for the fish. Tangs get fairly large over a period of time. the reason you haven't seen a large one is probably becuase LFS have a much easier time selling a smaller fish that looks like it will be fine in a smaller tank. When you start to add fish, you should look at how long they will get as an adult, not how long they are now. And another big factor is if they are big swimmers or not. Like a Volitan Lionfish is a large fish, but stays in a pretty small area for his size. You could get away with keeping one in a 55 gallon, but a smaller tang wouldn't be ok in there for too long. They just don't have enough swimming room and get stressed out too easily, and when tangs are stressed, they tend to break out in ich. Hope you take this as constructive criticism and not think we are trying to tell you what to do.