1000 gallon tank for a beginner!

[twentyleagues]

Yeah, everybody starts with clowns, myself included. They are hardy, easy to find, and a great first fish. They are also pretty fish and usually a ton of fun. My first fish is a bonded pair of clowns that will be here on Thursday.

Scratch that, I forgot I bought a neo dottyback local this weekend lol. I was planning on making the clowns first and then found out about a local store opening a couple of weeks ago.

Ahh Dottybacks love them but man they can be little jerks.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Do you have an idea of what you want? If so go with the least aggressive and let them get established first. Maybe while awaiting your fish you can add some pods and phyto. Reef by steel and Dinkins have great products. I am not going to say these were the success to having no ugly stage in my dry rock reef but I am sure they didnt hurt. I gave them a few weeks to establish before adding anything known to eat them aside from corals.

In general, yes, but not an actual stocking list and I did want to try and put more aggressive fish in last. I think that would out a pair of clowns in later since they can be territorial. I do think I'll stock up the tank on pods and feed with phyto while I'm quarantining. I like that idea.

 

[mch1984]

Ahh Dottybacks love them but man they can be little jerks.

This is my first one and yeah I can tell he's going to be a handful. He even tries to intimidate the hermit crabs. Luckily the clowns will be here Thursday so they can get settled in together.

 

[twentyleagues]

This is my first one and yeah I can tell he's going to be a handful. He even tries to intimidate the hermit crabs. Luckily the clowns will be here Thursday so they can get settled in together.

Hopefully.
My orchid I had years ago wouldnt let anything live in the tank. He would pull hermit crabs from their shells. I had a neon for a while too not much better killed at least 1 cleaner shrimp.

 

[SaltyWalty]

Hopefully.
My orchid I had years ago wouldnt let anything live in the tank. He would pull hermit crabs from their shells. I had a neon for a while too not much better killed at least 1 cleaner shrimp.

That’s interesting, I have three biota orchid dotty backs in a tank together and they are the most model citizens! Never hurt a thing, they are very personable! Also right up front waiting for me to feed them and super interested in whatever I’m doing in the tank.
I guess it really is dependent on the individual fish

 

[mch1984]

Hopefully.
My orchid I had years ago wouldnt let anything live in the tank. He would pull hermit crabs from their shells. I had a neon for a while too not much better killed at least 1 cleaner shrimp.

He hasn't attacked anything yet, but swims up to them gives them a dirty look lol. He may just be investigating but well see.

That’s interesting, I have three biota orchid dotty backs in a tank together and they are the most model citizens! Never hurt a thing, they are very personable! Also right up front waiting for me to feed them and super interested in whatever I’m doing in the tank.
I guess it really is dependent on the individual fish

This guy does that, swims up to the glass when I'm around to say hi. Not afraid at all.

 

[twentyleagues]

That’s interesting, I have three biota orchid dotty backs in a tank together and they are the most model citizens! Never hurt a thing, they are very personable! Also right up front waiting for me to feed them and super interested in whatever I’m doing in the tank.
I guess it really is dependent on the individual fish

There are three that look similar fridmani or something orchid and I believe another. Its possible I had a different one or you do. I bought it as orchid that does not mean thats what it was though. Looked like the pics online. I had this same thing on forums years ago when I said how aggro it was. I was told to try the neon, and it was almost as bad. They sure are pretty fish though. I have stuck with the royal gramma to get that same pop of color or the assessors for the over all body look, these seem less aggressive although I did have a gramma that was fairly aggro.

 

[backbayreef]

Awesome build - I've been stalking this thread and glad that you're almost there! No doubt the next challenge would be coral placement and upkeep of such a tall tank! My tank is only 2.5ft tall and that's already challenging, let alone 5ft!!!

Also, great job on the plumbing work -- very clean!

 

[EliMelly]

I would consider pre Qt fish as well to make life easier :)

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Tonight I collected water samples and will be mailing them off in the morning for a baseline ICP to see how the tank looks. With the rockwork along the back and sidewalls there's that lingering question of if there's something that could leach out and prevent me from successfully growing corals.

I have been working on a tentative stocking list for the tank. I welcome folks to take a look and see if I'm missing any obvious red flags or if anyone has other suggestions to add. Also, how would you go about introducing everything as far as the order of fish quarantined and placed into the tank.

Clownfish x2

Hippo tang
Yellow tang
Desjardini sailfin tang
Scopas tang
Powder brown tang
Purple tang

Lyretail anthias (1 male, 5 females)

McCosker's flasher wrasse
Leopard wrasse

Yellow watchman goby
Firefish goby x5

One spot foxface
Banggai cardinals x5
Royal gramma x6

I would love a flame angelfish and emperor angelfish but I'm not sure it's worth possibly losing corals for.

I would plan on adding a mandarin dragonet pair and possibly a copperband butterfly fish at some point later once the tank is more established.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Hopefully.
My orchid I had years ago wouldnt let anything live in the tank. He would pull hermit crabs from their shells. I had a neon for a while too not much better killed at least 1 cleaner shrimp.

Sorry to butt in, but mine killed my Gonodactylaceus ternatensis.
Now I want to put a peacock mantis in there to replace it.

 

[EliMelly]

Tonight I collected water samples and will be mailing them off in the morning for a baseline ICP to see how the tank looks. With the rockwork along the back and sidewalls there's that lingering question of if there's something that could leach out and prevent me from successfully growing corals.

I have been working on a tentative stocking list for the tank. I welcome folks to take a look and see if I'm missing any obvious red flags or if anyone has other suggestions to add. Also, how would you go about introducing everything as far as the order of fish quarantined and placed into the tank.

Clownfish x2

Hippo tang
Yellow tang
Desjardini sailfin tang
Scopas tang
Powder brown tang
Purple tang

Lyretail anthias (1 male, 5 females)

McCosker's flasher wrasse
Leopard wrasse

Yellow watchman goby
Firefish goby x5

One spot foxface
Banggai cardinals x5
Royal gramma x6

I would love a flame angelfish and emperor angelfish but I'm not sure it's worth possibly losing corals for.

I would plan on adding a mandarin dragonet pair and possibly a copperband butterfly fish at some point later once the tank is more established.

Hello,

I have never had issues with my flame angels. If you had copepods and dose some phyto you should be good to add the mandarin and Copperband fairly early.

 

[backbayreef]

I would be cautious of the powder brown/blue — they are total ich magnets!!! My last powder brown had ich 3x and I gave it away from QT. You’ll need to figure out how to catch fish w/o a divers suite / tearing up the tank.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Everything that goes in will have to be quarantined because, you're right, it's almost impossible to get a healthy fish out of such a large tank. With that protocol in mind, would a powder blue or brown tang really be at risk once it passes quarantine?

By the way, I do own a wetsuit and have had to use it to get fish out before...

 

[backbayreef]

Everything that goes in will have to be quarantined because, you're right, it's almost impossible to get a healthy fish out of such a large tank. With that protocol in mind, would a powder blue or brown tang really be at risk once it passes quarantine?

By the way, I do own a wetsuit and have had to use it to get fish out before...

If fully QT’ed, then of course. Maybe you have better luck than me or my QT procedure sucks — I’ve had nothing but bad luck with powder brown/tang — very beautiful fish, yet I can’t keep them. Good luck!

 

[EliMelly]

A solid suggestion would be purchasing all fish from @Dr. Reef and after putting them through an observation stage for 14 days or so just to triple check. I haven’t had any issues with QT with them.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

My baseline ICP has returned. This was sent to ATI so that the display tank and RODI were both tested.

One big reason I have sent off an ICP was to see if anything was being leached into the water from the surrounding rock structure that would make it difficult to grow corals. A number of abnormalities noted though as I have looked at each individual element I don't see anything that I think would absolutely prevent me from growing corals.

KH is low but this was taken only a few weeks after completing my cycle. I am working under the assumption that is why it is so low and water changes can bring it back up. Otherwise, it can be dosed.

Mag and Sulfur are a little off but I am hopeful regular water changes can also bring those in line.

Bromine, Strontium, Barium, Vanadium, and Zinc are elevated but prior posts from Randy Holmes-Farley regarding similar issues don't appear to be big issues within a reef tank.

Silicone/silicates and Iodine both test high and I am unsure where this came from. It is a brand new tank with new sand. Could that account for the silicates? I am at a loss for where the iodine comes from.

Testing of the RODI water reveals everything is undetectable except for Zinc which is lower than what the tank is testing out at.

The only thing in my RODI tank that could potentially leach zinc would be my tethered float switch provided to me from Buckeye Hydro but it appears to be well-sealed (no water drains from it when I lift it out of the water to inspect). Everything else appears to be plastic.

My next big purchase was going to be lights for corals. Does anyone see any red flags that would prevent me from growing coral where I should pivot and look at a FOWLR tank instead? Thanks!

 

[EliMelly]

My baseline ICP has returned. This was sent to ATI so that the display tank and RODI were both tested.

One big reason I have sent off an ICP was to see if anything was being leached into the water from the surrounding rock structure that would make it difficult to grow corals. A number of abnormalities noted though as I have looked at each individual element I don't see anything that I think would absolutely prevent me from growing corals.

KH is low but this was taken only a few weeks after completing my cycle. I am working under the assumption that is why it is so low and water changes can bring it back up. Otherwise, it can be dosed.

Mag and Sulfur are a little off but I am hopeful regular water changes can also bring those in line.

Bromine, Strontium, Barium, Vanadium, and Zinc are elevated but prior posts from Randy Holmes-Farley regarding similar issues don't appear to be big issues within a reef tank.

Silicone/silicates and Iodine both test high and I am unsure where this came from. It is a brand new tank with new sand. Could that account for the silicates? I am at a loss for where the iodine comes from.

Testing of the RODI water reveals everything is undetectable except for Zinc which is lower than what the tank is testing out at.

The only thing in my RODI tank that could potentially leach zinc would be my tethered float switch provided to me from Buckeye Hydro but it appears to be well-sealed (no water drains from it when I lift it out of the water to inspect). Everything else appears to be plastic.

My next big purchase was going to be lights for corals. Does anyone see any red flags that would prevent me from growing coral where I should pivot and look at a FOWLR tank instead? Thanks!

Your tank has a lot of depth so it’s important you get the right lights as figuring out proper lighting and par will be more difficult.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Your tank has a lot of depth so it’s important you get the right lights as figuring out proper lighting and par will be more difficult.

I agree. I am expecting a several thousand dollar purchase to adequately light the tank so I wanted to make sure nothing in the water would kill things first (a $45 dollar purchase)! Seemed like a good way to start.

 

[twentyleagues]

So that was the saltwater test was there anything weird or high in the rodi? I see you said you got tests for both.
Silicon/silicates I am guessing could be from the new sand but possibly from the rock on the walls. Same for the calcium maybe? Also weird your kh dropped so drastically But I guess that depends on what your salt mixes to if it isnt a high kh mix the cycle could have dropped it. If the cycle created 21.16 ppm of nitrate that would use close to 2.3dkh. Could be a bit of precipitation too. What does the salt mix to? Zinc being that high is probably not great I would see if @Randy Holmes-Farley has anything to say on that matter. Might require another icp they can and do get things wrong at times I would hate to be wrong and have those rock walls leaching stuff though.