I love the purple tangs, also my favorite fish is the Red Tail Trigger. They are an amazing specimen and the gray color they have is fantastic. Other fish that will do well in large populations are Harlequin Tusk, Marine Bettas are great i have a tiny one now but they are more nocturnal and like to hang with their tail sticking out of their hiding space to look like an eel to keep predators away. I also am a huge fan of wrasses. I have a juvenile trio of Meleagris wrasses, they are great! They hang in the middle of my tank right in the front all day and as soon as the light go off they shoot into the sandbed to sleep for the night. There are a few different types of leopard wrasses, blue star, meleagris, potters ect. I am not sure how they would do without a sanded though because lots of wrasses use if for a food source, dive in when startled, and sleep in it. I am 100% life rate with wrasses. I have heard others can have trouble though but i believe its just shipping that stresses them out really. All my wrasse do great together. There are some others that are great too depending on what you want to spend, flashers are excellent an awesome one being the diamond tail flasher which is usually around $300 give or take $50, to the McCoskers and Carpenters which is around $30-$40. The next on my list is a Laboutei and Lineatus Wrasses. Photos online don't do them any justice but they are beautiful and turn more purple than the pink you see in lots of photos, they also get to a decent size and will be able to hang with tangs in a tank of that size. These are just my opinions, if it were my tank i would toss a purple tang in, a midsize marine betta, A RED TAIL TRIGGER, another trio of leopard wrasses, laboutei and lineatus and maybe a flasher. Filefish are cool but are more of a Nano type fish and IME don't do as good in a large tank. Mine became trigger food actually.
My tank now has a juvy trio, betta, snow onyx clown pair, mandarin goby, and a juvy Borbonious Anthias, my newest addition, that is amazing. I want a couple more but need to find out how they will do together. Good Luck and enjoy and like I said these are just my opinions. Have Fun!
