120 Gal Stocking Questions

Slyler · Oct 28, 2016

Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions that I would like to hear some advice on please.

To give some background information I currently I have a 72 gal bowfront, it has a HOB skimmer, and a Fluval 405 filter with Carbon. the tank has been running for 2 years now, and everything is going great. I recently purchased a 120 with a sump and will slowly be gathering equipment to move everything into the 120. Currently I change about 15% of the water weekly. When I move everything from the current 72 to the 120 I could make some changes and this is where my questions come from.

Stocking list is currently:
1 Tomini Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Blue Tang
1 Royal Gramma
2 Clownfish
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Yasha Gobies
1 Pistol Shrimp

Inverts:
Snails (Mexican Turbo Snail, Banded Trochus Snail, Turban snail, and Nassarius Snails. ranging in the 3-7 of each range) 3 leg leg crabs, Tuxedo Urchin, Pincushion Urchin, two Conch.

The three tangs all currently get along with each other. I know the Blue Tang should be housed in a bigger tank, but 4' will be the longest tang that I can get and I wonder if long term I should remove him and re-home him when I switch tanks? I don't want to loose him as he is a great fish, comes to the front of the glass and follows me around staying right in my line of vision making me watch him all the time. Him and the Melanurus are buds, they swim circles around each other and it's quite entertaining.

I am also looking at adding a Leopard wrasse at some point as well, possibly a couple other wrasse (I have just read the entire Wrasse Lovers thread) and now want a few of them. I wonder what everyone things about the stocking levels of the 120 with what is currently in the tank, would this be able to happen?

I have had the Gobies and Pistol Shrimp for almost a month, I got them into a burrow at the front of the tank, but they have since moved, to behind my clam, or into the big cave, and I haven't seen them in about 2 weeks. I see piles of sand moved every now and then, so know that at least the pistol shrimp is alive. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them back to the front of the tank? Now, or when I move everything into the new tank?

If anyone has any suggestions on successfully moving tanks, or in general, please let me know!

Since there was just a ton of text, I figured the least I could do is add a couple pictures of the tank in it's current state, sorry they are phone pics. I would like to start being able to fill the top of the tank with some sps as well.

eatbreakfast · Oct 28, 2016

Slyler said:
Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions that I would like to hear some advice on please.

To give some background information I currently I have a 72 gal bowfront, it has a HOB skimmer, and a Fluval 405 filter with Carbon. the tank has been running for 2 years now, and everything is going great. I recently purchased a 120 with a sump and will slowly be gathering equipment to move everything into the 120. Currently I change about 15% of the water weekly. When I move everything from the current 72 to the 120 I could make some changes and this is where my questions come from.

Stocking list is currently:
1 Tomini Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Blue Tang
1 Royal Gramma
2 Clownfish
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Yasha Gobies
1 Pistol Shrimp

Inverts:
Snails (Mexican Turbo Snail, Banded Trochus Snail, Turban snail, and Nassarius Snails. ranging in the 3-7 of each range) 3 leg leg crabs, Tuxedo Urchin, Pincushion Urchin, two Conch.

The three tangs all currently get along with each other. I know the Blue Tang should be housed in a bigger tank, but 4' will be the longest tang that I can get and I wonder if long term I should remove him and re-home him when I switch tanks? I don't want to loose him as he is a great fish, comes to the front of the glass and follows me around staying right in my line of vision making me watch him all the time. Him and the Melanurus are buds, they swim circles around each other and it's quite entertaining.

I am also looking at adding a Leopard wrasse at some point as well, possibly a couple other wrasse (I have just read the entire Wrasse Lovers thread) and now want a few of them. I wonder what everyone things about the stocking levels of the 120 with what is currently in the tank, would this be able to happen?

I have had the Gobies and Pistol Shrimp for almost a month, I got them into a burrow at the front of the tank, but they have since moved, to behind my clam, or into the big cave, and I haven't seen them in about 2 weeks. I see piles of sand moved every now and then, so know that at least the pistol shrimp is alive. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them back to the front of the tank? Now, or when I move everything into the new tank?

If anyone has any suggestions on successfully moving tanks, or in general, please let me know!

Since there was just a ton of text, I figured the least I could do is add a couple pictures of the tank in it's current state, sorry they are phone pics. I would like to start being able to fill the top of the tank with some sps as well.

In the long run the blue tang will outgrow the tank. This will be your easiest and least stressful time to remove it.

A leopard wrasse is great, but can be a challenging species. Let the tank settle and you should be fine. You should also be able to handle a few other wrasses as well. Whenever you add a new wrasse to an existing one, be sure to use a social acclimation box.

Try and place the pistol near rock work toward the front of the tank and have small rubble in the area. This will encourage the pistol to build the burrow in the area. It doesn't always work, but it can help.

Slyler · Oct 29, 2016

Thank you eatbreakfast. I appreciate the input! It's kinda what I feared about the blue tang, and was hoping I was wrong. Glad I will get some final time with him before he moves on!