Fish Feedback for a Small Cube

[SY25]

My roommate has been binging on YouTube videos about fish for a year now. I watch along often and now I got into it. We are going to setup a small tank in our apartment and see how it goes.

We live in a small apartment so we're trying to keep it small. Neither of us have much experience. I did keep freshwater fish but it wasn't too hard (only saying that because most things lived lol). We understand a lot of the basics after doing a lot of reading here and watching almost all of the BRS videos on YouTube.

We're thinking of a small cube tank with a sump from Red Sea. Probably the Nano or the 170 liter one. We'll probably get the 170 liter one since the price isn't too bad. It's about 2 feet wide and holds 34 gallons of water in the display. I think the actual size is really like 43 gallons or something. I found that out after finding other tanks with similar dimensions were listed as much bigger. Or we might just do the JBJ 45 which is also pretty much the same size as the Red Sea one. I think the JBJ is just like 2 or so inches longer. CJ on YouTube has a sweet one and it looks like a good choice. We're also somewhat busy with our jobs so we don't want to get crazy and get something massive right now.

What fish can we keep in there?

We like clownfish(shoutout to nemo), yellow tang, coral beauty angel, the goby that spits out sand lol, a blenny (open to suggestions for specific species), and a hawkfish (looks like a cool robber lol). We wanted some gnarly one like a lionfish but read that it eats everything so no thanks. Is this overstocked or can we add 1 or 2 more

 

[FredsNJReef]

Welcome to R2R!!!!!!!
Haha you got hooked into the wonderful world of reefing! Congrats! Your wallet will never be the same after this addiction lol.

Ok, for fish suggestions, the tang won't work in that small of a tank. But clowns, gobies and some wrasse certainly will. Also look at Bengali cardinals, firefish and that hawk fish would work too.

You will get plenty of great advice from the experts here, but I just wanted to get you started.

Good luck and remember to post pictures along the way!

 

[SY25]

At least my friend and I can split it

I saw a lot of pictures with a yellow tang in a JBJ 45 and the Red Sea tanks but okay. No problem. We're not too high on that fish anyways. Just wanted some yellow in there but I think the midas blenny or canary blenny are beautiful. What's the difference between them? They look like twins to me.

So can we do 2 clownfish (do different species get different sizes? i've seen some that are massive), a yellow blenny or wrasse, a coral beauty, a goby that spits sand, hawkfish and maybe 2 other small fish like another small wrasse or a royal gramma

 

[FredsNJReef]

That is good you can work on funding the tank together!

And yeah the tangs want some more length to swim happily. Unfortunate because they are pretty.

But a yellow coris wrasse will add color, be super active, and they help with the critters that can find their way into your new tank via live rocks and new coral frags. Also, always use a dip for your new corals.

Your other fish choices sound great!

 

[SY25]

That is good you can work on funding the tank together!

And yeah the tangs want some more length to swim happily. Unfortunate because they are pretty.

But a yellow coris wrasse will add color, be super active, and they help with the critters that can find their way into your new tank via live rocks and new coral frags. Also, always use a dip for your new corals.

Your other fish choices sound great!

Yes! I was worried it was too much. The yellow coris wrasse looks great. I'll go with the yellow coris wrasse, canary blenny, or midas blenny. They look similar so I guess we'll see compatibility.

 

[ScottsTot]

I'm looking at the same tank and a similar stocking list. It looks like you can fit anywhere from 5-9 fish in the tank depending on the size of the fish.

I'm thinking of going with a pair of clownfish, midas blenny, diamond goby, flame angel, six line wrasse, clown goby, and possibly a firefish. I'm researching and asking questions about if I may be overdoing it but I've seen others have similar fish in the tank. FYI, the JBJ 45 is actually smaller than the Red Sea tank because the JBJ's sump takes up a good 4-5 inches.

 

[Jesterrace]

My roommate has been binging on YouTube videos about fish for a year now. I watch along often and now I got into it. We are going to setup a small tank in our apartment and see how it goes.

We live in a small apartment so we're trying to keep it small. Neither of us have much experience. I did keep freshwater fish but it wasn't too hard (only saying that because most things lived lol). We understand a lot of the basics after doing a lot of reading here and watching almost all of the BRS videos on YouTube.

We're thinking of a small cube tank with a sump from Red Sea. Probably the Nano or the 170 liter one. We'll probably get the 170 liter one since the price isn't too bad. It's about 2 feet wide and holds 34 gallons of water in the display. I think the actual size is really like 43 gallons or something. I found that out after finding other tanks with similar dimensions were listed as much bigger. Or we might just do the JBJ 45 which is also pretty much the same size as the Red Sea one. I think the JBJ is just like 2 or so inches longer. CJ on YouTube has a sweet one and it looks like a good choice. We're also somewhat busy with our jobs so we don't want to get crazy and get something massive right now.

What fish can we keep in there?

We like clownfish(shoutout to nemo), yellow tang, coral beauty angel, the goby that spits out sand lol, a blenny (open to suggestions for specific species), and a hawkfish (looks like a cool robber lol). We wanted some gnarly one like a lionfish but read that it eats everything so no thanks. Is this overstocked or can we add 1 or 2 more

The Tang and Dwarf Angels need much larger tanks to be happy long term and not cause aggression issues. Flame Angels are very aggressive in a small tank (I had to remove one from my 36 gallon). 6 LINE wrasses are notorious buttheads that can kill tank mates. Go with a possum or pygmy wrasse if you want one for your tank.

 

[Jesterrace]

Incidentally here are a couple of vids I have for the Flame that I had in my 36 so you can get an idea of how cramped and inadequate it was for the Flame: