Thinking of Turning Tank to Aggressive Setup

[euphoria]

My first question is:
Is FOWLR the only setup one can have w/ aggressive fish? Is there anything else to put in there to make the tank look a bit more colorful and natural?
I know corals are a no-no, but what else can be put in there besides LR?
Right now the ONLY thing that's making me iffy about starting an aggressive setup is lack of color in the tank (except for the fish themselves).

 

[cincyreefer]

I really like aggressive tanks with some live rock, and some fake corals called Living Color with it. They look incredibly real, and definitely add color if thats what you are looking for.

 

[euphoria]

Ya I want as much natural stuff in there as possible while also making it aggressive fish safe.
Right now I have a 60 gallon reef tank. I don't know if I should keep the 60 as the reef tank and setup a 180 gallon FOWLR aggressive tank, or vice versa?

 

[moraym]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago and didnt get much.
It seems the only way to add color to an aggressive tank is:
- purchase VERY high quality LR with a lot of purple/red coralline algae
- fake corals, sometimes they look real, but they are quite expensive for what you get
- some people add bleached corals, a few strategically-placed bleached items for a little white touch, or some barnacles to break up the look of only LR
- find some marine plants and algae that look good in a display tank and that your specific fish wont bother. Adding a touch of green to a display tank has a very nice effect, but I haven't found any marine plants that survived long in any of my tanks.
Good luck, and please take some pictures if you end up using any of the above suggestions, as I'm still trying to figure out this issue myself.

 

[evilss]

get the 180 for the aggressive. you will have more options. plus you can keep your reef. jmo

 

[fishy411]

You can Keep a semi-Reef with Corals but it is More work than it is worth and Vastly limits your stocking choices. I would Just get some Fake corals. Living COlor corals look really nice. Also you could Pick Colorful fish! Maybe some sort Fo colorful Wrasse or a Nice Russells lion. There are lots of colorful triggers and tangs.

 

[euphoria]

This projec is going to happen in September, so I"ll post pics then, but I'm doing my planning from now on, so I won't rush later on.
As far as fish, I really want to keep variety of triggers, puffers, lionfish, and an eel.
As far as inverts, I have no clue what type of inverts will survive in an aggressive tank, so any input on that one will be appreciated.
I haven't found any HIGH quality LR around my area. They are mostly all white/brown looking w/ little coraline growth on it.
My other question is, whether or not any types of tangs or angels will survive in the same tank as triggers, puffers, lions, and an eel.

 

[cincyreefer]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about paying high dollar for "good looking" live rock. It can be very difficult to keep good growing coralline in aggressive tanks since there isn't nearly as much lighting, and there isn't much of a need to keep phosphate levels extremely low in an aggressive tank. Otherwise, the LR will pretty much have the same filtering capacity even if it doesn't look colorful.
As for the tangs and angels... They can survive in the same tank given enough room, but generally are happiest when they are the only tang or angel in the tank. Also depends on which species you are mainly looking at.

 

[edwar050]

the best way to do LR in my opinion is to go with base and like moray stated above high quality with alot of coraline. The mix is the way to figure out. My 55 is 1/2 base and 1/2 high quality with tons of coraline. I've had it up for 2 months now and the red and purple coraline is starting to take to the base. Just try to find some porous base, no point in buying overly heavy base

 

[lion_crazz]

Alright, I don't know if anyone's caught onto this, but I just wanna let you know that there are very few triggers that will be compatible with lionfish. Nigers and blue throats are about the only two. Most others usually rip lions apart. So either pick lions or triggers, unless you like nigers and blue throats. I personally think blue throats are really cool looking. The variation of puffers, lions, and eels is fine though. In a large enough tank, a nice wrasse will look great in there too (lunare or dragon?)
Next, in no way am I saying that anyone's tanks or ideas are wrong, but I just wanna offer how I have my 75 gallon aggressive tank set-up. It's been up and running successfully for a year and almost a half now, and I have close to 90 lbs. of live rock in the tank (no base rock). I purchased the rock very brown and ugly, however, now, my rock is almost all covered in coralline (I did not upgrade my lighting). To get the coralline to start growing, I used Marc Weiss' Coral Vital, and it really took off. Plus, I use Oceanic salt, which has a very good calcium level. I also have three pieces of 'fake coral'. I probably would have taken it out long ago, but my fish love using them for shelter and hang-out. They are the favorite hang-outs of my lawn mower and hawk, so I just left them in there. They do add a nice bit of color to the tank, though, and they do not look like they don't belong. As for a filter, I use a wet/dry that I turned into a fuge. I took the bio balls out because I have so much live rock, and I put a clump of chaetomorpha into the wet/dry, with a 60watt power compact light on the wet/dry (the light cost me $15 at Home Depot). I run a Mag pump in the wet/dry, with two AquaClear powerheads in the tank for extra circulation. And as for a substrate, I have a 1/2 inch of aragonite in the tank (just enough to cover the glass).
In the tank, I have a volitan lion, striped puffer (who is the pig of the tank), arc eye hawk, engineer goby (excellent cleaner of my aragonite), gudgeon goby, lawn mower blenny (excellent live rock cleaner), 11 mexican turbo snails and blue leg hermit crabs, one chocolate chip star, and two serpent stars. I am in the planning process of setting up a 210 gallon fish tank, hopefully to have done between September-December of this year.
Hope this helped a little bit. To answer your last question, I would not go with any angels, but there are definitely a few tangs that could go in a large aggressive tank.

 

[scubadoo]

Originally posted by cincyreefer
Personally, I wouldn't worry about paying high dollar for "good looking" live rock. It can be very difficult to keep good growing coralline in aggressive tanks since there isn't nearly as much lighting, and there isn't much of a need to keep phosphate levels extremely low in an aggressive tank. Otherwise, the LR will pretty much have the same filtering capacity even if it doesn't look colorful.
As for the tangs and angels... They can survive in the same tank given enough room, but generally are happiest when they are the only tang or angel in the tank. Also depends on which species you are mainly looking at.
You can keep more than one tang in a tank...expecailly 200 plus gallons. The key is keeping tangs with different body shapes. A yellow tang and a sohal tang would be quite happy together. A yellow tang and a purple tang may not be happy together as their body shape is basically the same.
Just remember these animals have their own unique personalities...so there is no absolute as to compatability.

 

[griffin]

i dont think u really need color as long as u have cool fish cause today the the LFS i was walking in one of the aisles and there was a lionfish there and it was big and i didnt expect him to have it and i just looked at it for a while even though it wasnt moving cause its soo cool.

 

[edwar050]

Ill 2nd that griffin, I like fish more based upon there personality than based upon the looks- It souns like you want to totally go all out agressive with a lion, tang, eel, puffer, etc. IMAO it would be hard to keep many live corals. A large red general star would be a cool star although a bit risky depending on tank size. I personally like semi agressive reefs, my friend has a nonagressive moray " real rare still trying to figure out species", maroon clown, royal gramma, flame angel and naso tang with tampa LR. Very nice looking tank and he has clams, brain coral, and sponges- Those species mix well, although the naso will get to large-

 

[euphoria]

I definitely want a aggressive setup w/ no corals. What kind of inverts can I keep w/ fish such as lions, puffers, triggers, and eels?
I love stars, can I keep any type of stars?