New tank lineup

[Jholli90]

Hello,

I'm finally ready to add fish to my tank. It's been running a little over a month now, with stable levels. I've done a water change and filter/media change. I have 5 hermits in there for the past week and they are doing fine. (Will add more, plus snails). I wanted opinions on my fish lineup. I will be adding soft coral eventually.

The tank is 65 gal, with 60-70 lbs live rock and a 2 1/2 inch sand bed. I used the Caribsea Bahama oolite. I have a canister filter designed for 100 gallons.

My fish will be:
1. Kole tang ( I know he needs 70 gal, but didnt think the 5 gals were a huge issue)
2. Leopard wrasse
3. Ocellaris clown
4. Black comb tooth blenny
5. Flame back angel
6. Yellow prawn goby
7. Royal gramma
8. Chalk bass

I plan to add the RG and the CB together first. And then 1 fish a month until I get to my angel and tang, which I will also add together.

I will have a fighting conch, along with my clean up crew.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! Hi and Welcome to R2R !!! Good lineup but don't forget to go slow and quarantine.

 

[Maritimer]

You may find that the tang and blenny don't get along well - my kole absolutely despised my starry blenny, whom she recognized as an algae competitor. The smaller tank won't help with the situation.

I would probably place the blenny before the kole - in fact, I'd probably place the angel and tang last of the group.

~Bruce

 

[Jholli90]

You may find that the tang and blenny don't get along well - my kole absolutely despised my starry blenny, whom she recognized as an algae competitor. The smaller tank won't help with the situation.

I would probably place the blenny before the kole - in fact, I'd probably place the angel and tang last of the group.

~Bruce

Thanks for the heads up. Will they eventually get along? I was planning on adding the tang and angel together since they are the more aggressive fish I have in my group. I was worried about my goby and blenny possibly fighting.

 

[Jesterrace]

Have you had a Leopard Wrasse before? They can be a real challenge if you don't know what to look for as they are notoriously poor shippers and tend to be picky copepod eaters by nature. If you are ordering them from an online site, I don't recommend getting one. The trick with the Leopard Wrasse is to wait for your LFS to do a bulk order with them and then see which ones are active and eating frozen foods at the LFS 2-3 weeks later. If you don't you stand a good chance of having a fish that won't make it. If you do follow said advice your given fish isn't much more difficult to take care of than say a Melanurus Wrasse. This is the method my wife and I used when we selected our Blue Star Leopard and it has proven invaluable as my Leopard is very active and readily eats reef frenzy and even dried seaweed. I know for a fact that of the small batch of Leopards that were ordered from my LFS that at least half didn't even make it at the LFS, and goodness knows how many went home in the first week that didn't make it. Ours went home 3 weeks after it arrived and we didn't even buy it until it had been there for more than a couple of weeks.

 

[Pntbll687]

Start with the smallest and work to the largest for adding fish.

I have found that adding larger fish first, they get territorial and paster smaller fish being added. Going from small to large seemed to mitigate that effect.

May I ask what canister filter you are running? If it's rated for a 100 gallon tank, it is probably very undersized for what you want to do.

Canisters are not ideal, but they can be done. I ran a canister on a 25g cube for 2yrs, only stopped do to a broken seal when I was cleaning it.

 

[nereefpat]

What are the dimensions of the tank?

 

[Jholli90]

What are the dimensions of the tank?

Its 65 gal 48"×24"×12"
I plan to upgrade in the future, but want some experience 1st.

 

[Jholli90]

Start with the smallest and work to the largest for adding fish.

I have found that adding larger fish first, they get territorial and paster smaller fish being added. Going from small to large seemed to mitigate that effect.

May I ask what canister filter you are running? If it's rated for a 100 gallon tank, it is probably very undersized for what you want to do.

Canisters are not ideal, but they can be done. I ran a canister on a 25g cube for 2yrs, only stopped do to a broken seal when I was cleaning it.

This is what I have.

 

[Jholli90]

Have you had a Leopard Wrasse before? They can be a real challenge if you don't know what to look for as they are notoriously poor shippers and tend to be picky copepod eaters by nature. If you are ordering them from an online site, I don't recommend getting one. The trick with the Leopard Wrasse is to wait for your LFS to do a bulk order with them and then see which ones are active and eating frozen foods at the LFS 2-3 weeks later. If you don't you stand a good chance of having a fish that won't make it. If you do follow said advice your given fish isn't much more difficult to take care of than say a Melanurus Wrasse. This is the method my wife and I used when we selected our Blue Star Leopard and it has proven invaluable as my Leopard is very active and readily eats reef frenzy and even dried seaweed. I know for a fact that of the small batch of Leopards that were ordered from my LFS that at least half didn't even make it at the LFS, and goodness knows how many went home in the first week that didn't make it. Ours went home 3 weeks after it arrived and we didn't even buy it until it had been there for more than a couple of weeks.

I found all my fish on live aquaria. I plan on getting them from my LFS, just using the site to decide what I want. They had 2 leopards listed. A blue star, which they labled as difficult care and then a "normal" one, which was supposedly easier. I can switch to another wrasse. I just really liked their colors.

 

[Pntbll687]

This is what I have.

That filter isn't bad at all. I actually used the the c-360 on my cube years ago. I would replace the media with some marine pure balls or blocks, or brightwell xport cubes. You'll get lot's more surface area and biological filtration through the canister. Do yourself a favor and get some bulk size filter pads and cut them to fit the canister, the cost on replacement pads is ridiculous compared to bulk items.

Check out the pond guru on youtube. He does a whole series on setting up filters, and does multiple variety of canister filters.

The only downside I found with the canister was the clear tubes grew algae quickly. It would be worth the money to get some black tubing to replace it.

 

[Jholli90]

That filter isn't bad at all. I actually used the the c-360 on my cube years ago. I would replace the media with some marine pure balls or blocks, or brightwell xport cubes. You'll get lot's more surface area and biological filtration through the canister. Do yourself a favor and get some bulk size filter pads and cut them to fit the canister, the cost on replacement pads is ridiculous compared to bulk items.

Check out the pond guru on youtube. He does a whole series on setting up filters, and does multiple variety of canister filters.

The only downside I found with the canister was the clear tubes grew algae quickly. It would be worth the money to get some black tubing to replace it.

Yea, I was planning on replacing the ceramic pieces and the little black balls. My LFS recommended bio sphere balls. I've read of people breaking up live rock and using that in place of one of the medias. So I planned to use both. The canister came with dark tubing already. Where would I get bulk filter pad?

 

[Jholli90]

That filter isn't bad at all. I actually used the the c-360 on my cube years ago. I would replace the media with some marine pure balls or blocks, or brightwell xport cubes. You'll get lot's more surface area and biological filtration through the canister. Do yourself a favor and get some bulk size filter pads and cut them to fit the canister, the cost on replacement pads is ridiculous compared to bulk items.

Check out the pond guru on youtube. He does a whole series on setting up filters, and does multiple variety of canister filters.

The only downside I found with the canister was the clear tubes grew algae quickly. It would be worth the money to get some black tubing to replace it.

New question, ( I'm full of them lol).. would this sump be sufficient? What size would I need if it isnt. The set up of the sump makes me nervous, which is why i went with a canister filter. The videos I've watched drill into the aquarium, but mine is glass not acrylic.

 

[Pntbll687]

most lfs will have it. If you look for the marineland one I believe its called a "bonded filter pad". But any course filter pad, and fine pad will work.

You can break up live rock and use it, but you'll have to get the pieces to be quite small to have a decent amount in the canister. I'm not familiar with "bio sphere balls" so I cant comment on them. If they are plastic, stay away, they just dont have the surface area needed to have enough biological filtration. Ceramic rings can be hit and miss, if they are smooth just toss em in the garbage, if they are rough to touch then you can probably use them.

With the canister filter you really need to maximize the area being used inside it. Pack it with as much media as you can. Canisters will get a bad rap as "nitrate factories" but this is most people don't have enough media in them to grow enough bacteria to where the nitrate can be consumed. It will also help if you add fish slowly, letting the bacteria population grow with the fish. Adding all at once will lead to trouble.

 

[Pntbll687]

New question, ( I'm full of them lol).. would this sump be sufficient? What size would I need if it isnt. The set up of the sump makes me nervous, which is why i went with a canister filter. The videos I've watched drill into the aquarium, but mine is glass not acrylic.

That doesn't look bad at all for a sump. If you go that route make sure it will fit your equipment.

You can drill a glass aquarium, they make special drill bits for it. Don't do it if you're not confident in your ability, or not willing to buy another tank if it cracks.

 

[Pntbll687]

Here's my sump. It's not fancy, but it works. It's just a Rubbermaid bin I had in my garage (that's why it says Halloween on it).

Return pump, heater, filter sock. I do have a carbon reactor set up now, but will be removing that this weekend. The bin has about 35-40lbs of live rock in addition to what's in the display.

If you have a canister, I say go for it with that. You'll bang your head on a wall over and over if you go down the "well what about this, and that, and this..."

Keep it simple to start.

 

[Maritimer]

Thanks for the heads up. Will they eventually get along? I was planning on adding the tang and angel together since they are the more aggressive fish I have in my group. I was worried about my goby and blenny possibly fighting.

Mine coexisted - but never really got along well - in a 65 for a while. The dynamic changed for the better when I upgraded to a 220.

~Bruce

 

[SwiftStorm]

Here's my sump. It's not fancy, but it works. It's just a Rubbermaid bin I had in my garage (that's why it says Halloween on it).

Return pump, heater, filter sock. I do have a carbon reactor set up now, but will be removing that this weekend. The bin has about 35-40lbs of live rock in addition to what's in the display.

If you have a canister, I say go for it with that. You'll bang your head on a wall over and over if you go down the "well what about this, and that, and this..."

Keep it simple to start.

How do you get your filter sock to stay up?

 

[Pntbll687]

Theres a rim that goes around the bin, it rests between there and the drain pipe. I didn't plan it that way, it just worked out.

If needed i was going to use some jb weld and attach a piece of old pvc pipe to the drain and make a holder for it. I just want to keep it to where if the sock were to overflow it stays in the sump. I only run the sock for a day or two after a water change, most of the time it's not even there.