How many Clownfish pairs can be grown in one reef system?

[Clownsreef]

Hi All,
After spending a lot of reading hours, I am excited to share my 200 liters (53 gallons) MTOS (multi-tank one sump) Mixed-reef system.

As you can guess, I like Clownfish very much, and I’m trying to build a system that can contain all my pairs.
Luckily, a Clownfish pair doesn't need so much space, so now I am growing 6 pairs in a system that is built from 2 display tanks and 1 sump.
I am also using a sump cell and big overflow cells for the smaller pairs. It's not the ideal option but works quite well (for now ).
In the past, I had an experience with breeding Clarkii Clownfish, so, I am planning to breed more special Clownfish species in the future.

No wonder, I love corals as much as I love fishes. My main challenge is to grow both of them in harmony. I grow mainly LPS corals, but I have some soft corals and SPS also.

As you can see, I have 1 Peninsula tank (it doesn't function as a Peninsula as of now) and 1 cube.

Peninsula (94 Liters):
Powerhead - Maxspect Jump Gyre MJ-GF2K
Lights - Orphek - OR3 120 Blue sky, OR3 120 Reef plus
Rock - Real Reef Branch Rock

Cube (70 Liters):
Powerhead - Sicce 2000 L/H
Lights - AI Hydra 32
Rock - Aquaforest aquascape (soon, stay tuned)

Equipment:
Sump - Custom, 40 Liters
Return Pump - Eden 140 Pump 2800 L/H
Heater - Eheim thermocontrol regulator heater
Chiller - Hailea HC-150A (1/10)
ATO - Hydor SRL Smartlevel
Skimmer - Deltec Skimmer 400i
Battery Backup - Simple UPS X2
RODI - Aquaticlife 4 stages
Salt - RedSea black (thinking of changing to the blue one)

The cube in better days, before the Peninsula tank:

In this thread, I’ll try to update any changes in my system and share pictures also. Some nearly future updates:

1. Change the cube tank to SPS dominated (Includes aquascape building).
2. Speed up the corals growing (Increase PH using Kalkwasser?)
3. Automate more operations.
4. Move the whole system to a bigger apartment in the summer (September).
5. Some equipment changes.
6. Add 3rd tank to the system.
7. I continue to increase the list in my head, but I must finish somewhere

Of course, I will be happy to answer any questions you have, and I’m always open to broaden my horizens.

You can see more pictures on my Instagram @clownsreef

 

[Timfish]

Nice system but to answer the thread title in all my years I've never seen anyone keep multiple species together for more than a couple years in the same tank. Basicely about the time the females start laying eggs they get real teritorial. Seems to me though you could add additional tanks to your system or use dividers which could be disguised as a reef wall. And jsut FYI while aquarists are successful keeping clowns in realtively small tanks in the wild females have quite large territories covering many square meters.

 

[SilvermistInc]

2 or 20. There is no in between

 

[Tamberav]

Generally when I see people post how they were successful at keeping multiple species of clowns… their tank is still in its infancy.. just a few short years old. Eventually I never see them again.

It’s too bad clowns are so mean when adults… spawning especially. There are so many colors and types that they would make a great display if they could al just get along.

Your penninsula tank could be divided to keep many. Think like a breeder system but turned display.

 

[Clownsreef]

Hi, I appreciate your comments.

Just to make it clear, in the past I had a dedicated Clownfish broodstock system, but I don’t want to maintain more than one system so I decided to keep and grow only the special species pairs.

I am aware of the aggression issues between pairs, so for now I am growing only 2 pairs together, the Maroon lights and Storms Percula in the 1.5 meters Peninsula. They totally ignore each other and I also read that other people had reported about the same behavior with Maroons and Perculas. However, I still keep an eye on them. All the others are separated of course.
In the future, when the smaller pairs grow up, I will either find another solution or move them. I don’t want them to suffer.

No doubt that growing some pairs, makes it complicated for me. If I give up on them, (and I don’t want to do it), I could keep a normal one big reef tank, as everyone does. That will make things more simple.

I built this week an aquascape for the cube tank, an update with photos will come soon.

 

[Clownsreef]

This week I had a free day so I decided to spend my time building an aquascape for the cube tank.
I used Aquaforest rocks that I got from a friend.

As I said, this aquascape is gonna be used for SPS corals, so I broke the rocks into little pieces and glued them.
In addition, I used a tip from the Coral Euphoria YouTube channel, so I drilled the rocks for the purpose of locating corals conveniently, in the future.