Nano fish in a large tank?

[SALTY 75]

Hey all, I recently got rid of my saltwater aquarium because I thought I was moving to Alaska. Long story short that fell through and now I am missing my aquarium more than I ever thought I would. I had a 75 gallon before and I think I want to go substantially bigger in the future, But my question is can I put nano sized fish into a huge tank. 500+ gallons, I know generally people put a bunch of tangs and bigger fish in tanks that size but I would rather have a tremendous amount of smaller fish that can live together. Anyone done this sorta thing? How do you keep tiny fish out of big power heads and the like?

- Thanks

 

[blaxsun]

Yes - the question is whether you'll ever see any of them, lol. Whenever I add a small fish to my (much) smaller 160-gallon display there's a better than 50-50 chance I rarely see it (including a small chance I never see it again).

 

[SALTY 75]

Yes - the question is whether you'll ever see any of them, lol. Whenever I add a small fish to my (much) smaller 160-gallon display there's a better than 50-50 chance I rarely see it (including a small chance I never see it again).

Right, that makes sense. Part of what I would be going for is layers of biodiversity just like a reef. The sorta tank where the longer you look at it the more little tiny amazing creatures you see. That would be the goal. Not to see all the fish all the time but to just have an amazing diversity of animals so that even if you only see half of them half the time you are still intrigued

 

[SALTY 75]

And then probably a huge school of some peaceful schooling fish. Maybe anthias

 

[SALTY 75]

Yes - the question is whether you'll ever see any of them, lol. Whenever I add a small fish to my (much) smaller 160-gallon display there's a better than 50-50 chance I rarely see it (including a small chance I never see it again).

How do you keep the truly micro fish safe from the heavier equipment that a large tank takes?

 

[Joj]

I have a variety of big and small fishes in my 500g. If the nano fishes are healthy, they’ll be strong enough to get away/avoid powerheads, etc.

My small chromis, firefish, royal grammas, gobies, blennies, dwarf cherub angels, mollies, damsels, clownfish don’t really go near any of my power heads (jebao wp-60, Koralia 8s, jebao doc-2500) to be of a concern. Only time fishes get stuck,sucked by the powerheads if they are dead/dying.

 

[laverda]

I agree with Joj.

 

[blaxsun]

How do you keep the truly micro fish safe from the heavier equipment that a large tank takes?

I run a single pair of gyres which are not quite the death knell on fish (etc.) that other powerheads are. And I try to get ones that are at least 2" in length (mainly so I can just find them).

 

[SALTY 75]

I run a single pair of gyres which are not quite the death knell on fish (etc.) that other powerheads are. And I try to get ones that are at least 2" in length (mainly so I can just find them).

I see. So do you have any problems with power heads or wave maters that turn on and off? Do fish swim into them when they are off and then get blended when they kick back on? Maybe this is infrequent enough that it doesn’t matter

 

[blaxsun]

I see. So do you have any problems with power heads or wave maters that turn on and off? Do fish swim into them when they are off and then get blended when they kick back on? Maybe this is infrequent enough that it doesn’t matter

I used to turn the gyres off for feeding but don't anymore since moving them to battery backup. It was never an issue for me then/now (gyres generate flow a bit differently compared to most powerheads).

My gyres are also high enough up (2" from the waterline) so it's less of an issue overall.