75 gal stock questions! Someone help

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

Hey everyone. Before i say anything i will let you all know i am new to this and this is my first saltwater setup. I was hoping you guys could help me out. I'm trying to get my stock of fish setup for my tank. A little about my tank: have about 100 lbs of live rock and sand. have a 30 gal refugium.

Right now I have 3 chromis, 2 damsels, 1 diamond goby, 4 trochus snails, 6 hermit crabs.

I was looking at maybe removing the damsels and my wish list right now is:

- 6 line wrasse (1 or 2?)
-tomini tang
-blonde naso tang ( I know it will get to big but I was going to look for a smaller size one and when it gets to big I do have somewhere to take it)
-one spot foxface
-coral beauty angelfish
-green/red/spotted mandarin (if any which would be better)
-pearlscale butterfly fish

Please let me know what you think. Anything I need to take away. Anything differently I can add. I don't want to overcrowd but I definetly don't want to not have my full potential on my tank. Any inputs would help. Thanks

WindeyD · Mar 31, 2015

Will tank be a reef or FOWLR(fish only with live rock)? Your list would be a very overcrowded tank, I would not put a tang in that size system let alone two of them. A six line wrasse would be a good choice but I'd only do one and would add it last as many tend to get aggressive and are not neighborly to new tank mates; they will eat pods too so I would not have a six line and a mandarin in the same system unless it was a really big tank. A mandarin is a nice fish for your size tank but be sure you have plenty of pods in your system and ideally look for one that will eat some prepared foods as they have a reputation for being difficult to feed if you don't have a bountiful supply of pods in your system. Do lots of research and add fish slowly giving your tank plenty of time to catch up to the increased bio load of each addition. Especially with this being your first system I would advise keeping your bio load very low until you get your maintainance and husbandry down and develop a strong understanding of the careful balance of nutrients and how to maintain excellent water quality. Go painfully slow and research as much as you can. Good luck!

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

It's a FOWLR setup. WindeyD thanks for all your input. So maybe take the blonde naso tang out of my list? Is there anything else I can maybe add? Ya i have had it running for a couple months now. All levels seem to be fine. I haven't lost anything yet.

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

What are pods exactly?

HiddenUser · Mar 31, 2015

dericke171 said:
What are pods exactly?

Tiny crustaceans that live in many reef tanks. Google Copepods and Amphipods.

eatbreakfast · Mar 31, 2015

Pods are amphipods and copepods, microfauna that lives and reproduces in aquaria.

A tomini tang will be fine in your sized systm, and I would not call your list overstocked by any stretch of the imagination, though a naso does get huge.

The comments about 6lines, especially in regard to competition to the mandarin for food sources is correct.

Any other suggestions would be dependent on your personal tastes, though I am partial to wrasses not closely related to sixlines, though some groups may eat pods flasher and fairy wrasses do not.

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

Yes I am just glad my list is good. I have done hours and hours of research...maybe even days lol. I know the naso gets huge but I was looking into getting a small 1-3in naso and when he gets to large I have someone who can take him in. The only additions I would want would maybe be the "smaller" kind of bottom feeders or just the little extra additions

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

Any input on the order I should add the fish

eatbreakfast · Mar 31, 2015

Foxface, butterfly, sixline, tang. The mandarin can go in at any time past the 6 month point of system being up and running, though I would suggest picking either the sixline or the mandarin.

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

Thank you eatbreakfast. I will do that. Keep you posted on my tank

Pete polyp · Mar 31, 2015

What they are saying about the sixline and mandarin are very true. There's very little chance that the mandarin will survive in a 75 with a sixline. The exception would be only if the mandarin will eat food other than pods, which is rare. The sixline will destroy the pod population very quickly causing the mandarin to stave. Sixlines tend to become very aggressive once they get good and established in a tank. The naso tang (even a small one) probably won't be the happiest in a 75. Its generally a good idea to only put livestock in your tank that you intend to keep long term.

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

OK thanks pete. You have any suggestions about my livestock. Anything different I should add. I'm kind of going away from the mandarin and wrasse idea

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

When would a good time ne to add the angel??

Pete polyp · Mar 31, 2015

A 75 is a difficult tank to stock because it's large, but not large enough for large fish. You can't really pull off a predator tank with this one. Personally I would stick to a bunch of smaller fish like blennies, basslets, cardinals, dartfish, hawkfish, and wrasses. There are many more that you can have besides that though. I would suggest only having reef safe fish because you may want corals eventually. I don't see any reason the angel couldn't be added at any time. Usually coral beauty doesn't give many problems and are model citizens.

dericke171 · Mar 31, 2015

Thanks I appreciate it. I honestly doubt I will convert to a reef tank. I'm pretty happy with having a fowlr tank. I thought predator tanks were more the triggerfish, lionfish,groupers,eels,etc