Help Planning Fish - Red Sea Max e-170 (45gal)

[Daniel Vickery]

Getting ready to dive into the saltwater aquarium hobby and have been researching fish for a 45g tank with the Red Sea Max e-170 (will add the 10g sump also). Would love to hear people’s thoughts and views on compatibility for what I’m currently thinking about. Any watchouts Here? I’m a little concerned this would be Overstocked a bit...

1. Dottyback - orchid or Allen’s
2. Gamma - royal/fairy basslet
3. Assessors - blue assessor
4. Hawkfish - red spotted
5. Jawfish - blue spotted
6. Cardinal fish - banggai/longfin
7&8. Damselfish - Clark’s or Percula pair
9. Damselfish - yellowtail blue
10. Wrasses - Fairy or flasher
11. Blennies - Red Sea mimic
12&13. Dartfish - zebra dart goby x2
14. Goby - old glory or rainfolds
15. Goby - neon goby
16&17. Goby - yellow watchman or orange spotted or Randall’s pair with shrimp.


Thanks for your thoughts and experience!

Daniel

 

[All Delight]

Looks like alot of fighting

 

[VietExtender]

Yup, looks like it’s gonna be crowded. I’d say choose your most favorite 5 first and go on from there. I’d recommend the long nose or flame hawkfish. Jawfishes are one my favorite fishes to watch [emoji13]. Banggai cardinal and I’m assuming orange diamond spotted goby is okay as well.

 

[Daniel Vickery]

Based on these how many would be a good target steady state to avoid overcrowding and fighting? Are there any here that especially don’t get along with the others?

 

[VietExtender]

Based on these how many would be a good target steady state to avoid overcrowding and fighting? Are there any here that especially don’t get along with the others?

Gobies usually tend to fight each other so I wouldn’t get multiple of those. I would stick with five fishes first and see how they get along. Then you could slowly add one fish at a time.

 

[Sipec]

Based on these how many would be a good target steady state to avoid overcrowding and fighting? Are there any here that especially don’t get along with the others?

I’d suggest starting with the clownfish, i just started my first tank and they’ve been pretty bulletproof so far

 

[ethankap]

I have the same tank (and just upgraded to the under tank sump). My stocking list so far:

- Lawnmower blenny
- Midas blenny
- Orange spotted goby
- Six line wrasse
- Two ocellaris clowns (tiny ones)

So far they are all doing really well and my bioload is super low. With the sump upgrade I have room for more.

Plan is:

Male / Female mandarin dragonet and a long nose hawkfish to round it out.

My tank is mixed reef (some SPS, LPS, zoa and softie). It's been up a little over two months now.

 

[Daniel Vickery]

Agree, seems like 5 is s Good starting point, maybe ending up around 8-9 if on the smaller end. But which ones? Feel like a pair of clowns and a goby are required...

@ethankap how do you like your tank so far? Any feedback would be appreciated, would buy it again? I’m about to pull the trigger on one...

 

[4FordFamily]

I agree that’s far too many fish for a 170 (I have one as well).

I recommend starting with 5, as mentioned. I think the best wrasse for our tank is a possum wrasse, perhaps a hawkfish, a goby, a dottyback, and one other fish would be pretty good.

I’d avoid damsels, especially in small tanks they can be evil!

 

[VietExtender]

I have the same tank (and just upgraded to the under tank sump). My stocking list so far:

- Lawnmower blenny
- Midas blenny
- Orange spotted goby
- Six line wrasse
- Two ocellaris clowns (tiny ones)

So far they are all doing really well and my bioload is super low. With the sump upgrade I have room for more.

Plan is:

Male / Female mandarin dragonet and a long nose hawkfish to round it out.

My tank is mixed reef (some SPS, LPS, zoa and softie). It's been up a little over two months now.

I’d avoid mandarins with a new tank. They’re really picky as they only eat copepods. They usually grow in population in a mature tank. There are two options if you really want to go down this road.

1. Buy copepods online and wait a few months for the pod population to increase.

2. Buy a frozen food trained mandarin from algaebarn that costs like $80 without shipping.

 

[ethankap]

I’d avoid mandarins with a new tank. They’re really picky as they only eat copepods. They usually grow in population in a mature tank. There are two options if you really want to go down this road.

1. Buy copepods online and wait a few months for the pod population to increase.

2. Buy a frozen food trained mandarin from algaebarn that costs like $80 without shipping.

I'm setting up the ATO as a refugium next weekend using a nano overflow, pump and magnetic fuge light. My LFS has a nice ball of chaeto for me to start with and copepods to buy, so I'll get a population started before doing anything with a mandarin.

They have two in the store currently in a frag tank and are food training them, so will keep an eye on it. No rush. I more want to experiment with the fuge first.

 

[ethankap]

Agree, seems like 5 is s Good starting point, maybe ending up around 8-9 if on the smaller end. But which ones? Feel like a pair of clowns and a goby are required...

@ethankap how do you like your tank so far? Any feedback would be appreciated, would buy it again? I’m about to pull the trigger on one...

Love the tank, and very happy now that I upgraded to the in-cabinet sump. It's taking a bit to dial in the water levels though, especially as I have a Vetra S1 pump which is adjustable flow. But being able to put a Magnus Curve 5 in, the Green Killing Machine UV filter and the heater in the bottom, plus the increased water volume is really nice. The tank looks great, water is super stable and maintaining everything is just less cramped.

The skimmer that came with the E170 was fine, but bulky, hard to take out, and clean. And the media rack while nice, was also messy if you had to change media, Detritus also collected in the rear sump.

Converting it to the in-cabinet was not SUPER difficult, but messy, as you're moving a large quantity of water and trying to balance the system, while not upsetting your fish. It took about four hours for me.

This is my first tank, so its been a good learning experience and makes me look forward to an even bigger tank and system. I'm a home automation geek, so looking forward to automating the tank, but want to get a sense of the rhythms of the maintenance and such before I do.

Here's the sump now. You can see the UV filter length wise on the bottom toward the front. It's the 24W one, and has a pump built in. I know it won't last long and I'll eventually get a in-line one. I'm converting the ATO to a fuge this weekend. I use an optical ATO (you can see the blue light through the protein skimmer). I still have some wiring to tidy up.

 

[lou dog420]

Dottybacks, royal grama, and any damsels are all going to battle it out, especially in a 45. Personally I think that's too many fish for that size tank.

 

[Daniel Vickery]

@ethankap Thanks for the detailed reply! I have not seen much on UV filtering, I’ll need to do some research to understand its place more.

Now that you have the in cabinet sump what do you use the volume in the rear in tank for?

 

[ethankap]

@ethankap Thanks for the detailed reply! I have not seen much on UV filtering, I’ll need to do some research to understand its place more.

Now that you have the in cabinet sump what do you use the volume in the rear in tank for?

Right hand chamber is the circulation pump but has a lot of room, and the left is the downspouts and returns, with some room. Right now it's empty but I could move the heater up there. One thing to keep in mind is the return pipe sits flush with the water line so prone to putting a bubble or two in the tank when operating with water level an inch below the bypass. VCA has an adapter to use the random flow generator with it, which brings it way below water line.

https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/shop/34in-rfg-nozzle-with-red-sea-reefer-adapter/

Depending on your return pump, its a lot of directional flow, so I recommend this. The flow was so much it was making sand dunes.

 

[Isaac Alves]

Think about where you want your fish to inhabit.

Firefish are great for foreground, open water, mid water column, caveat: you'll need a nice acryllic screen top.

Clowns are great all around fish, but if wait until you establish your tank and secure a healthy anemone.


Some form of young tang would be nice as well. Like a bristle tooth, or even saltwater mollies---these guys will keep your algae at bay.

You need bottom dwellers to keep your floor bed turned and cultivated. Some form of goby or reef safe wrasse.

Activity level: some fish are boring. So you need some active fish that will inhabit all crevices and swim around:

Neon Gobies are awesome, look great, and will help keep bristle worms at bay. Six line Wrasses are a gem of a fish... Not only cleaning your Coral and rock but are very active and fun to watch.

If you don't have any Coral on your sandbed I fell in love with any the diamond sand sifting Goby. The antics he'll do, moving hermits, snails, and rearranging the sand scape. It's awesome.

 

[ZachR32]

If you're deadset on clowns, don't do clarkiis first. They are certainly bulletproof but can be nasty buggers once established. Perculas would be fine to get early on, but get your passive fish in before the clarkiis

 

[Daniel Vickery]

Thanks for the feedback @issacalves , love your suggestions. I like the Neon Goby and a Sand Sifting Goby sounds fun. Others gave commenterdvabout Goby’s proclivity to fight with one another, in your experience are they dissimilar enough that they get along?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[Daniel Vickery]

Thanks @ZachR32

I’ve heard clowns early because they are hardy in the past but I’m getting more of a sense that clowns are better later after a tank is well established based on aggression and stability for an anemone. Any thoughts on the best anemone with a Clown?

Yea, clown will be required. Daughter is already having issue with the fact that the tank will not be large enough for “Dory”

 

[Daniel Vickery]

Question @ethankap with the random flow generator attachment on the Red Sea sitting below the waterline does this cause a vacuum siphon in the event of a pump failure? Did you have to lower the water level in your Sunoco to account for this overflow possibility? What was the total impact? What do you use for a wave generator?