Please help me stock my tank. I’ve made mistakes in the past...

[ReefKeeper666]

I have had my saltwater tank for just over a year. I have lost fish to velvet last week. Being a n00b I didn’t QT. Well I’ve learned my lesson. I spent last night reading many of @Humblefish posts. Pretty good stuff! So I am now ready to try, try, try again. One suggestion made to me by several members were I had a pretty bad mix of fish. I added tomato clowns first, big no-no, etc etc. So please help me. I have one pajama cardinal fish in quarantine, assuming he makes it he’d be fish number 1.

My tank:
—————
55 Gallon standard style aquarium.
Dimensions: 50 inches Length x 18 inches high x 12 inches wide.

2 Jebao wave makers. SLW 20 set as master, SOW 5 set as slave.

refugium style pump

fluvalsmart light

5 gallon Bash Sea RO resivour with ATI top off pump

corals in tank (all are doing well)
———————-
1 x Xenia
1x Kenya tree
1x Clove Polyp
1x A Cans
1 x Blastos
1 x GSP
1 x Duncans
1x trumpets
1 x Birds nest
2x Torches
4x Mushrooms

My life style:
———————
I live in South FL
I‘m 39, single, so yes I go out on Friday or Saturday night
I work in the Marine and Offshore fire protection field, 6 months of the year my job is travel heavy. I can be gone from 1-10 days at any given time. My brother lives with me and works from home, he does not mind helping with basics like feeding fish or adding water to RO resivor etc. while I’m out of town.

Considering all the items above, please make suggestions. How many fish can I keep and which type.
Thanks for your help, your time is greatly appreciated!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I have had my saltwater tank for just over a year. I have lost fish to velvet last week. Being a n00b I didn’t QT.

I work in the Marine and Offshore fire protection field, 6 months of the year my job is travel heavy. I can be gone from 1-10 days at any given time. My brother lives with me and works from home, he does not mind helping with basics like feeding fish or adding water to RO resivor etc. while I’m out of town.

First of all, I see you joined fairly recently, so WELCOME! I've been in the hobby for years and we ALL make mistakes This hobby is very humbling and I never stop learning.

What an intriguing line of work! You shouldn't have any issues with your brother taking care of things. When I have a "fish sitter" taking care of my tank, they have to do 4 things minimum: Feed the fish (and not overfeed them), check the water line in my sump, refill the ATO reservoir, and check the thermometer to make sure the water temp is ok. I also have a webcam on my tank when I'm out of town (cheap Amazon variety) and I've actually had to walk someone through cleaning the senor on my ATO from many miles away. The camera was a nice help because I could watch what they were doing and guide them.

As far as stocking, you want to add the potential "meanies" last, so the PJ cardinal would be a good first addition. Other docile smaller varieties would be firefish, maybe a small wrasse or two, blenny, goby. I love the wrasse species, but the six-line can be a monster for such a little fish, so just be aware of that. Even if you don't shop there, Liveaquaria will tell you if the species is peaceful, semi-aggressive, or aggressive and will also tell you the recommended tank size minimum. When I had my previous 46-gallon tank, I kept a pistol shrimp/watchman goby pair, They were fascinating to watch! Maybe a royal gramma, if you have rock work for them to hide. Depending on how many fish you add, you might have room for a dwarf angel. There are fish calculators where you can put in the tank size and it will tell you how many total inches of fish you can keep...just be sure to use one that gives the recommended size for saltwater because freshwater is more generous. Anyway, I hope this gets you started! Good luck. ;Joyful

 

[SMSREEF]

I have had my saltwater tank for just over a year. I have lost fish to velvet last week. Being a n00b I didn’t QT. Well I’ve learned my lesson. I spent last night reading many of @Humblefish posts. Pretty good stuff! So I am now ready to try, try, try again. One suggestion made to me by several members were I had a pretty bad mix of fish. I added tomato clowns first, big no-no, etc etc. So please help me. I have one pajama cardinal fish in quarantine, assuming he makes it he’d be fish number 1.

My tank:
—————
55 Gallon standard style aquarium.
Dimensions: 50 inches Length x 18 inches high x 12 inches wide.

2 Jebao wave makers. SLW 20 set as master, SOW 5 set as slave.

refugium style pump

fluvalsmart light

5 gallon Bash Sea RO resivour with ATI top off pump

corals in tank (all are doing well)
———————-
1 x Xenia
1x Kenya tree
1x Clove Polyp
1x A Cans
1 x Blastos
1 x GSP
1 x Duncans
1x trumpets
1 x Birds nest
2x Torches
4x Mushrooms

My life style:
———————
I live in South FL
I‘m 39, single, so yes I go out on Friday or Saturday night
I work in the Marine and Offshore fire protection field, 6 months of the year my job is travel heavy. I can be gone from 1-10 days at any given time. My brother lives with me and works from home, he does not mind helping with basics like feeding fish or adding water to RO resivor etc. while I’m out of town.

Considering all the items above, please make suggestions. How many fish can I keep and which type.
Thanks for your help, your time is greatly appreciated!

Here is my list of fish for my 60. I feed live blackworms and frozen mysis. If I can get everyone to eat flake or pellets I will get an automatic feeder that I can use one a day and then more often when I am out of town.

my current fish:
Tailspot Blenny (my favorite guy due to personality)
Pajama Cardinal
Yellow Corris Wrasse (needs sand)
Green Clown Goby
Flameback Angel (leaving my LPS alone But I know this can change at any minute)
Firefish

These are in quarantine right now
Naked ocellaris clown
Flasher Wrasse (I think carpenter’s flasher wrasse)
Orchid Dottyback

using Hotrocks info https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-current-qt-process.483371/

 

[ReefGrammie]

Great suggestions, @SMSREEF! How could I forget about my green clown goby?! He's one of my favorites in the tank now. Tons of personality.

 

[Billmone]

I have had my saltwater tank for just over a year. I have lost fish to velvet last week. Being a n00b I didn’t QT. Well I’ve learned my lesson. I spent last night reading many of @Humblefish posts. Pretty good stuff! So I am now ready to try, try, try again. One suggestion made to me by several members were I had a pretty bad mix of fish. I added tomato clowns first, big no-no, etc etc. So please help me. I have one pajama cardinal fish in quarantine, assuming he makes it he’d be fish number 1.

My tank:
—————
55 Gallon standard style aquarium.
Dimensions: 50 inches Length x 18 inches high x 12 inches wide.

2 Jebao wave makers. SLW 20 set as master, SOW 5 set as slave.

refugium style pump

fluvalsmart light

5 gallon Bash Sea RO resivour with ATI top off pump

corals in tank (all are doing well)
———————-
1 x Xenia
1x Kenya tree
1x Clove Polyp
1x A Cans
1 x Blastos
1 x GSP
1 x Duncans
1x trumpets
1 x Birds nest
2x Torches
4x Mushrooms

My life style:
———————
I live in South FL
I‘m 39, single, so yes I go out on Friday or Saturday night
I work in the Marine and Offshore fire protection field, 6 months of the year my job is travel heavy. I can be gone from 1-10 days at any given time. My brother lives with me and works from home, he does not mind helping with basics like feeding fish or adding water to RO resivor etc. while I’m out of town.

Considering all the items above, please make suggestions. How many fish can I keep and which type.
Thanks for your help, your time is greatly appreciated!

I also must say that your career is quite interesting. I have had a 54 gallon bow tank for three years. I have many corals (softies, LPS's, and SPS's), anemones (RBT and rocks), and eight fish. I have a pair of designer clowns (believe it or not from Petco for fairly cheap, but tough as nails), Yellow watchman goby with a pistol shrimp (they both have almost doubled in size over this past year), pair of Harlequin shrimp (they have also almost doubled in size but picky eaters: strictly starfish), starry blenny (pretty cool when he changes color, but doesn't happen often), neon dottyback, six-line wrasse (tough, but other fish are very tough so they handle him), coral beauty (I believe more prone to disease than other fish, but he's been fine, other than eating some really cool sunny D zoas I got for free which grew from four heads to over 100 heads... but he ate all of them), and yellowtail blue damsel (very hardy). I believe my eight fish are about the max for my tank size. My largest fish, the starry blenny, is fine because he's not constantly swimming. My coral beauty is the largest, most active fish I'd ever have in my 54 gallon. I struggle with wanting to purchase an additional fish whenever I go into the store, but have restrained myself to invertebrates (corals and CUC). I'd recommend adding the more aggressive fish last, like my pair of clown fish. I once had a pair of maroon clowns and they were the rulers of the tank. These designer clowns are smaller but almost as aggressive. There are various websites that have good calculators for saltwater fish loads. Just remember to not overfeed, which is fairly easy to do. I have a jeabo wavemaker, two marineland pumps, hang on filters, a Reef octopus HOB skimmer, and two AI lights. If I had to do it over, I'd have a sump, but unfortunately I tried to add later and flooded the floor (I even had very good fish store here in Atlanta come over to assist but they told me that it was not really possible without causing major changes that I was not willing to do). I've been very happy with the fish/invertebrates activity and interaction and also with the color and growth of my corals which I believe is most of our goals in the hobby. Just take your time. Patience is a definitely a major key to the success. Sorry for being so long winded and hopefully I've helped a bit.

 

[ReefKeeper666]

Thanks a bunch guys! Really appreciate you taking time out of your day, esp. the weekend to help out!

For those of you who mentioned my career it is pretty cool. Sadly covid has reduced my hours to 32 since mid March. No overtime and the job is generally full of overtime. The cruise lines(our biggest customer in our FL office) are at an almost standstill right now and we are hoping to see an uptick in work after July 1st when they can re start.
Normally November thru may I’m in Europe for training or sailing on ships or platforms. That’s what makes the job fun. I’ve gotten to work with people from all over the world. Being of Polish and danish decent I was also ecstatic when work sent me to both places. Fingers crossed this industry recovers soon.

 

[nereefpat]

I think your list here from another thread isn't too far off:

"(Flame) hawk
pair of tomato clowns
leopard wrasse
fairy wrasse
cardinal
scissor fish
royal gramma
fox face...
tomini tang"

I would nix the foxface and tang, and replace the tomatoes with occ or perc. Maybe slowly work up to that.

 

[ReefKeeper666]

I think your list here from another thread isn't too far off:

"(Flame) hawk
pair of tomato clowns
leopard wrasse
fairy wrasse
cardinal
scissor fish
royal gramma
fox face...
tomini tang"

I would nix the foxface and tang, and replace the tomatoes with occ or perc. Maybe slowly work up to that.

what are occ or perc. ?

 

[jradishness]

what are occ or perc. ?

Two other species of Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris and Amphiprion Percula

 

[ReefKeeper666]

Two other species of Clownfish - Amphiprion ocellaris and Amphiprion Percula

Which are the most peaceful. My tomato clowns were total d1cks! The female nipped me over and over every time I added a frag or did a water change.

 

[nereefpat]

Yes, sorry. Amphiprion ocellaris and percula...the common clowns. They are smaller and less aggressive than maroon, tomatoe, clarkii.