My 90 Gallon Tank

[Imrahilwjz]

I bought this 90 gallon tank used at a LFS in Oregon. I had a 5 gallon tank and a 13 gallon tank. I started with salt water because the first fish we got was for our young son and he badly wanted a green mandarinfish. If he had thrown a tantrum when we told him he needed to start with freshwater I would have insisted that we start that way, but he tried so hard to be stoic about it and choose a freshwater fish that I couldn't stand it and bought a 13 gallon saltwater tank. We had a lot of fun, but made many mistakes. We started with a white spotted hermit crab, a domino damselfish and a blue damselfish (after a long time cycling the tank). The hermit grew rapidly and began to threaten everything in the tank, including a Kenya tree coral (it is mounted on a magnetic rock on the side of the tank to this day as a result) and my pulsing xenias. It did destroy a set of xoanthids that were coming along beautifully. I haven't had success with xoanthids since. My son changed his mind and chose a spotted mandarinfish once the tank was ready and the fish did very well. We moved the white spotted hermit crab to the 5 gallon tank, but we struggled with tank maintenence and eventually lost him. The spotted mandarinfish lived with him for awhile before transitioning back to the 13 gallon tank. One of my fishkeeping memories is watching the mandarinfish dash between the crab's legs to grab a piece of silverside flesh that fell out of the crab's claws. In the interim we had jawfish (all of them eventually jumped out of holes in the tank lid), other damsels, cleaner shrimp, and crabs and snails. My first LFS had an owner who was not the best at mentoring new owners and gave me some bad advice which resulted in a dead ruby red dragonet, wardenfish, and pistol shrimp, all in one go. Right before we transitioned all our livestock to the 90 gallon tank, the spotted mandarinfish (he was our oldest fish at that time) managed to leap out of the tank and die. After we started the 90 gallon tank the only death I was really aware of was my tiger conch (I'm sure there was some die-off in my live rock). The tiger conch really annoys me because I think I could have kept it alive by feeding seaweed or pellets, though I can't be sure. When we set up the 90 we had a mocha clownfish, a pearled damselfish, a Kenya tree coral, and some hermit crabs and snails. We added a green mandarinfish as soon as we were sure the tank was stable. It was from a new LFS and eats frozen foods with no issue whatever. We have to make sure it gets enough to eat by shutting off the pumps at feeding time and chasing the blasted pearled damselfish away. We also periodically add pods to the system. We added star polyps and a neon green toadstool and then just recently the LFS traded me small pulsing xenias for some Kenya tree coral babies (or whatever you call them) that I had brought in. Right now everything seems to be doing well. My build is somewhat haphazard. The main idea is to have a green mandarinfish and coral. I want more fish, but they all must get along with the mandarinfish. We are planning to move soon and set up a 180 gallon tank which my current tank residents will move into. I plan to give the pearled damselfish to the LFS at that time. I am thinking of adding chromis and/or anthias. Any other suggestions? Someone had suggested a purple dottieback? Also could I put ruby red dragonet in with the mandarinfish in a tank that size?

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,very nice,i think a strawberry basslet,over dottyback better choice,imo,as far as ruby and mandy in 180 should be no problem at all,just make sue new tank is ready and full of pods ,just in case ruby wont take any other foods at first,happy reefing