240-gallon stocking

[fishfish2]

I recently got a new 240-gallon aquarium. here are the fish I want to put in it

2 yellow tang
blue tang
purple tang
2 clownfish
mandarin dragonet
regal angelfish
majestic angelfish
3 Bartlett anthias
3 lyretail anthias
Midas blenny
firefish
royal gramma
blue reef chromis
flame angelfish
2 skunk cleaner shrimp
2 fire shrimp
3 porcelain crabs
1 tuxedo urchin
20 nassarius snails.

are all these fish compatible? is this overstocked?
btw care level is not an issue as I'm not doing the maintenance. i hired someone to do it for me.

 

[blaxsun]

CUC will really be dependent on the size and number of fish and how your tank is established, but I would probably be looking at two dozen trochus snails, at least a dozen turbo snails, probably a dozen astrea snails and at least a dozen blue and scarlet hermit crabs at some point - in addition to the porcelain crabs, tuxedo urchin and nassarius snails. An arrowhead crab is also useful.

In terms of fish, I might look at a sailfin tang and naso tang (instead of one yellow and the purple), but it's more personal preference. I wouldn't introduce a mandarin until you've established a thriving colony of copepods - or it will most likely starve in short order. A flame hawkfish is also a great addition, and you might want a dottyback and a few wrasses to deal with pests.

 

[fishfish2]

i heard about the hawkfish. dont they eat inverts?

i would also love to get dottybacks but I heard they are agressive

 

[DeepintheReef]

i heard about the hawkfish. dont they eat inverts?

I’ve never had a flame Hawkfish big enough to eat my cleaner or skunk shrimp

 

[fishfish2]

I’ve never had a flame Hawkfish big enough to eat my cleaner or skunk shrimp

ok. I think i will try the hawkfish

 

[Grsfish]

i heard about the hawkfish. dont they eat inverts?

i would also love to get dottybacks but I heard they are agressive

I’ve had 2 orchid dirty backs and haven’t had any aggression and adds a nice purple color

 

[jwilkey2468]

I’ve never had a flame Hawkfish big enough to eat my cleaner or skunk shrimp

Would you recommend growing out the cleaner shrimp before putting the flame hawkfish in the tank?

 

[jda]

Anthias are savages and like to kill each other until only a few are left. Mandarin are cool, but need a really mature tank to thrive - even the captive ones do better with pods and things for them to eat. I would wait on a mandarin.

You are going to need more snails than that, but you can figure that out as you go.

Hawks can be big-time bullies. I would avoid them unless you really just have to have one.

Few words of advice, to either take or leave... first, you will be doing some maintenance. You will be there every day and they will not. They might do all of the dirty stuff, but you will still be doing some. Second, none of this is as important as the rock that you choose to start with - get some real live rock.

 

[reefnfun]

I have a 240 as well. On the CUC you need to think in terms of 50's and 100's on snails and crabs. 20 of anything will not control the algae. It took me time to learn what the scale of a 240 really is in terms of real estate in the tank.