90 gallon stocking advice

[TheOracle]

Well, I have finally purchased a house and will be staying put for awhile. Needless to say, the new 90 gallon tank with its refinished stand & matching canopy I have had sitting in storage for almost 2 years has me eager to start a nice tank for the living room. Due to constant travel, I haven't had a set-up in 10 years. Its amazing to see the advancements that have been made in the hobby since then. Anyways, the tank I do have I drilled and plan on doing a 30 gallon refugium with a bubble magnus curve five elite.

I plan on doing a few soft corals and would like to keep the fish 5 inch or smaller. I would like to do some schooling fish and eventually I plan to add a single larger showcase fish thinking a tang.

But to start I figure that I will using the Blue chromis to cycle. I listed some ideas I have floating in my head as to what I was looking at, I know not all are compatible with each other, but I was wondering what input I could get from all of you as to combinations of what I listed that WOULD work, or perhaps other species not listed. I would like to have somewhat of a clean-up crew so having wrasses that are immediately going to hunt and kill them would be ideal.


Here are the species I have been looking at, what combinations do you think would work ? Which ones are better off if I keep in pairs or larger? Mainly looking at Damsels, Wrasse, Chromis, and Anthias

Large Showcase Fish (Only 1):
Blue Caribbean Tang
or
Orange Shoulder
or
Naso Tang
or
Lieutenant Tang
or
Powder Brown

Smaller species:
-Blue Chromis (about six)
-purple dottyback (I had one in the past that was peaceful in my 30 gallon but maybe a fluke, I've heard they can be quite aggressive.)
-Yellow Wrasse
-Melanurus Wrasse
-Ignitus Anthias
-Carberryi Anthias
-Lyretail Anthias
-blue velvet damsel
-blue fin damsel
-4 stripe damsel
-blue damsel
-pair of tomato clowns

I know this is thinking ahead, however if I know what species I am going to get I can better set up the tank for that bio load and have proper substrate and rock scaping to keep everyone happy.

Thanks alot everyone !!!

 

[Old Fritz]

Some people will probably say a 90 will be too small for a naso but if thats the only large fish you have i think it would be fine. I would get anthias, they always look awesome i would go ignitus personally. A melanarus would be my wrasse of choice. I would also do a goby or blenny so you have something for the bottom of the tank.

 

[TheOracle]

Some people will probably say a 90 will be too small for a naso but if thats the only large fish you have i think it would be fine. I would get anthias, they always look awesome i would go ignitus personally. A melanarus would be my wrasse of choice. I would also do a goby or blenny so you have something for the bottom of the tank.

I hear ya on the Naso tang, I know that could become an issue and it may need to go to a bigger home if/when he gets too big for the setup. Or perhaps I upgrade to the 150 footprint tank, not something I would be opposed to. But I figure it should be a good 5 years before I have to make that choice. However, the Blue Caribbean tang is also something I thought about as the large showcase fish, might be better off?

 

[Old Fritz]

I'd do the blue caribbean personally. Unless you plan to upgrade. Personally I think a 150 opens you up to a lot more fish, I loved my had a naso tang a few years ago and traded it for a juv majestic angel about a year ago. Highly recommend them, I only traded because it started to get territorial with some other fish.

 

[zoalander1]

I would avoid a cycle with fish. There are ways it an be done without harming/killing fish. https://www.algone.com/fishless-aquarium-cycling

Damsels are really pretty colored fish when young. But as they get older the color fades and many get very aggressive. They literally will bite the hand that feeds them. The are also very difficult to remove from the tank without tearing it apart. From experience I would avoid them. Even those cute clowns can bite you every time your hands in the tank. It doesn't really hurt but makes you jump when your cleaning the tank and not expecting it.

Blue Chromis will school. Usually 5-6 will get it done.

Anthias are great reef fish. Beautiful.

If your not too worried about coral, you can get a really nice angel. Most will pick at corals but softies are generally hardy and will keep growing back. I had a Koran angel that would mow down my star polyps, they would grow back, and he would do it again. it was like a constant food source.