OK, changed my mind!

[Aquariust]

Hi all! Took the 45G back to the fish store last week. It was supposed to be in an island viewed from 2 rooms. Talked the wife into a 20 Tall nano reef instead.

If you don't like long posts, click back

I was also given permission to start a new Fish Only tank!

THANK THE LORD

Of course, it had a hitch. The hitch is I have to build a wall unit enertainment center and build the tank into it.

The tank I have decided on is a 110 tall. I need a tank that is only 4ft long. The 110 is 18" deep so that should be plenty deep for what I plan to keep. The beautiful thing about this tank is it is 30" tall!

Now I know all about the mumbo jumbo of deep tanks. It is going to be Fish Only, so light to the bottom of the tank is not important. I'll probaly use 4 40W 48" flourescents I already have. With a maxi jet 1200 providing good water breakage, and another somewhere else should provide plenty of o2 and aerate the water.

Tank will have a 6" DSB, with PVC supports holding home made concrete live rock. That's right folks, making my own LR Should be able to get some nice caves, arches, peaks, etc... Should be able to make a cave for every fish in the tank!

OK, I have no clue about big aggressive fish, so don't laugh at my stock list I have done quite abit of research about stocking, but I'm looking for advice as to how much fish this tank can handle.

Black Volation Lionfish
Picasso Huma Huma Trigger
Koran or French Angel
Purple or Powder Brown Tang
Harquelin Tusk
Long Nosed and/or Pakistan Butterfly
Moon Wrasse
Foxface Lo

Possible:

Marine Betta
Porcupine Puffer
Snowflake Eel
Blackspotted Puffer
Niger Trigger

Their the fish I like. But as I said I'm not sure how many can go into a 110. I plan to buy them all young, in the 3-5" range. If I need to buy another (bigger) tank in a few years thats fine. I know in a FO tank you can usually stock abit heavier than in reefs.

What are the cahnces I could keep a neon goby or very large cleaner shrimp in there?

Still unsure of filtration. I was thinking a amiracle wet dry under tank. I had an amiracle HOB and I hated it. But I could probaly modify it to hold a skimmer. Or maybe I'll just make a sump out of a 20g tank for the heaters and skimmer. I'm gonna need to run an external overflow no matter what because All glass doesn't make the 110 with pre drilled overflows like my 125.

Still with me? I'd appreciate your comments

[icemark]

Thats a lot of very big fish for only a 110 gal you may wish to rethink, with some fish that won't contribute such a high load to the tank.

[Aquariust]

well I said I'm not keeping all of these fish.

I was looking for information and advise.

Keep your criticism constructive.

[tendar]

Well lets see. First all the fish listed get from 8-18" at full grown.
With most of the fish listed forget a cleaner shrimp just an expensive meal. I do have a gold neon goby with my small niger triger and long nose butterfly with no problems and he cleans them both.
As towards starting size for your fish I would try and knock it down to 2-4" leaving room for more growth in tank till a larger a tank is needed staying with the smaller the better.
Since all these fish get pretty big I would limit it to 4 fish max before you start running into trouble with aggressive behavior for territory. You will want a lot of hiding places for them.
Forget the picasso triger they pick up sand in thier mouth and spit it all over tank.
Lion would be good just make sure none of his tank mates will fit in his mouth or they will end up there and Lions grow fairly fast. Also make sure the lion eats frozen food before buying one. They can be a pain some times to get them off live foods.
The angles are pretty much same other than the french costs twice as much and the obvious color difference. I have a juv. Koran and it is pretty cool.
Always wanted a Haliquin tusk bet never got one.
Forget puffers they make to much of a mess feeding and will pollute your watter to fast.
Eels are cool but hide most of the time so you never see them. I have a 2 foot zebra and never see him other than when I feed him 2 times a week.
Marine betas a cool but can be tough to keep they are not very hardy in general they are part of the grouper family.
Tangs could be a problem in a aggressive tank with gettting stressed and getting ick.

Of the fish listed I would narrow it down to 4 of these with 2-3 neon gobies. You could get by with 5 if they are small for a little while but will get crowded in a year easy.

Angle
Lion
Moon Wrasse
Tusk
Foxface
Niger Trigger
Long Nose butterfly

[Aquariust]

Thanks for the input Tendar!

It is still in the planning stations, but not many books focus on keeping a aggressive tank. I also can't find any bb's for them other than this one.

Reefs I could talk hours about. FO I know very little.

Once I pull up the carpet, and visually make sure beams are where they're supposed to be, I'll start buying.

I'm actually considering a 6' 125 now. The tank is actually $70 cheaper than the 110! I'd also be able to keep more fish in the 125.

That'll make 2 125's in my apartment

[tendar]

I like my reef but there are way to many cool fish out there that cant go into a reef. I worked part time at a LFS for a year and did a lot of reading on all the fish we would get in to so I could be be more informed when making suggestions for customers for thier fish. I have my 125 reef and 50 FOWLR tnak but want to up grade my 50 fo to a oceanic 200 some day when I get out of aparments and into a house.

[the_blue_tuna]

www.fishbase.org
www.wetwebmedia.com

Both have lots of info on 100's of different species . Might want to cruise these site to see what else you can pick up.