New tank for Sohal tang or not?

[RtomKinMad]

Hello everyone. I have a few questions regarding my 180 fish only system with 10+ year old Sohal tang. We have a 300 gal reef system with 6 tangs but do not think we could move the Sohal into this tank without having tang problems.
The reason for my post now is because this week I noticed some very small open skin area on my 10+ year old Sohal tang. She is probably larger than 10”. She is in a 180gal 6’ tank with jewel eel, Koran angel also 10+ yrs, porcupine puffer 12”, emperor angel, majestic angel, foxface, scopas tang (med), Harlaquin tusk, Niger trigger, Picasso trigger and red tail trigger.
This week I noticed some small open skin areas on the Sohals head above the eyes which kind of looks like the start of head and lateral line. The tank is one year old. Some equipment is new and some came from our old 120 tank. All these fish have been together for over a year and were in separate smaller tanks before. We immediately tested for stray voltage and found none. We feed high quality food 2x a day. Mysis and spiralina with brine shrimp, krill and rods reef predator blend. We also feed large pellets daily because Koran will only eat these and krill. The eel gets silversides and clams. All the fish take what they want of these foods. We also feed several sheets of nori 4x/ week.
So question is.. could this be head and lateral line and why when we do not have stray voltage and feed quality food? Could the problem be not enough room for Sohal? There is really almost no fighting in the tank. Except Koran angel chases other angels at feeding time. The Sohal is a model citizen and doesn’t bother any tank mates.
My other problem is space! Our 180gal is placed on a 7’ wall and on first floor. The sump is in the basement. The tank is actually sitting in the room about 4’ from support joice in basement. We only got a 180gal because we were concerned about the weight on floors above the basement. The basement is also finished which would make supporting the floor not possible where the current tank is placed.
Any engineers out there that might know about weight of tanks on floor? Should I pay to have an engineer come to house and try to upgrade my tank to a larger system?
Here is a picture of Sohal who is very fat! And a picture of the basement ceiling and joices.
Thank you anyone for advice to treat Sohal, help Sohal, can I upgrade tank in current location.
The tank sits between the two ceiling lights in the picture of the basement ceiling.
Thank you all, Kindel

 

[Reefing Madness]

Man!!! Thats alot of fish in a small tank. I'd consider upgrading. Being as you have an established 300g with tangs, and he would be the last in, he might not be the aggressor.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Does any of the tangs take nori?

 

[RtomKinMad]

Man!!! Thats alot of fish in a small tank. I'd consider upgrading. Being as you have an established 300g with tangs, and he would be the last in, he might not be the aggressor.

When we combined our smaller tanks all the fish were small and grew very fast with our feeding schedule. Even the adult Sohal grew at least 2”! We have a hippo tang in reef. And not much room for this large Sohal to hide. It could work and we did consider but could also go very bad! We did add a powder brown small to 180 from the 300 and the Sohal immediately tried to kill it and injuries it badly. We moved the powder brown. The Sohal doesn’t notice the scopas though. The Sohal is very large compared to my tangs in reef.
We would upgrade just not sure the floor will support the weight. Money is less an issue than room!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Does any of the tangs take nori?

Everyone eats the nori all my tangs and even the triggers. The Sohal eats anything and everything. She is a garbage can!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Anyone know the weight difference if we got an acrylic tank vs glass?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Stress can bring on HLLE as well as nutrition, but that sounds not the case.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Stress can bring on HLLE as well as nutrition, but that sounds not the case.

Can you see the issue in the Sohal in my picture? What do you think? My LFS owner thinks maybe just age,
But I don’t know if they do that with age or not? He says the Sohal is much older than 10. He sold it 12 yrs ago and then tonus 2 yrs ago. We Lov this fish and would like to have her for 10 more years!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Can you see the issue in the Sohal in my picture? What do you think? My LFS owner thinks maybe just age,
But I don’t know if they do that with age or not? He says the Sohal is much older than 10. He sold it 12 yrs ago and then tonus 2 yrs ago. We Lov this fish and would like to have her for 10 more years!

More space would help I think. You have a very special sohal to be non aggressive!

 

[RtomKinMad]

More space would help I think. You have a very special sohal to be non aggressive!

Thank you we think so too! We are looking for a bigger tank and trying to see if floors could support a larger tank. Would like 8’. 300$ fish gets 5000$ home!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Thank you we think so too! We are looking for a bigger tank and trying to see if floors could support a larger tank. Would like 8’. 300$ fish gets 5000$ home!

I think all of them would love the space. If you pull the trigger on a larger tank, start a build thread in the members tank threads. Would be epic!

 

[RtomKinMad]

I think all of them would love the space. If you pull the trigger on a larger tank, start a build thread in the members tank threads. Would be epic!

I agree all the fish would Lov a bigger tank. Just have to find a way to make one fit!
Thank you I will. Would be fish only as we have 300gal reef and new 93gal cube reef we started in May. I thought about flip flopping the reef and the 180. But the reef is finally doing great after 1.5 years. Moved that one from a 75 reef.

 

[Thomashtom]

Yesh he probaly needs more room, Acrylic is much lighter than glass. Alot lighter when it comes to big tanks

 

[RtomKinMad]

We found an 8’ acrylic tank in Chicago on line tonight. Going to call tomorrow. If we totally rearrange the living room and do new plumbing and remove the closet in my finished basement to put in new sump we can have an 8’ tank. Lots of work! And tear up my basement and drill another hole in floor. I did suggest to my husband we sell the house and find a house with more room for larger tanks! Lol
Hope the Sohal realizes how much I lov her!

 

[RtomKinMad]

Only place in our house to place an 8’ tanknis infront of the eight foot window. However the window faces north and we don’t get too much light. Will get black out shades and paint back of tank.

 

[408Dartfish]

Here’s one of the better explanations of HLLE I’ve seen.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Here’s one of the better explanations of HLLE I’ve seen.

Thank you! I read this. I forgot about carbon. Recently my husband did run carbon in this tank but only for 48hrs at a time. He’s done this once a week for about 2 months to clean up the water a little bit. We do 10% water changes weekly otherwise but feed heavy and large waste makers in this tank. Will have him stop using carbon. Heard angels don’t really like carbon much anyway. I don’t see any stress but I guess they could be without me knowing. My husband bought vitamins to add to their food yesterday. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Philt56]

Yesh he probaly needs more room, Acrylic is much lighter than glass. Alot lighter when it comes to big tanks

When considering water weight plus rock, sand, I’m not sure acrylic will make that big a difference on overall weight. But acrylic would certainly be easier moving and installing.

 

[RtomKinMad]

When considering water weight plus rock, sand, I’m not sure acrylic will make that big a difference on overall weight. But acrylic would certainly be easier moving and installing.

Thank you. I will probably have to have an engineer look at floors and consider weight and see if floors will support a large tank.

I haven’t seen the Sohal any worse or any appearance of stress the last theee days while I was home. Added vitamins to food.
Thank you for your response.

 

[4FordFamily]

Honestly, regardless of which tank you get there won’t be more weight on one area than a 200-250lb man standing. If your floor can not handle that you may be in trouble!

I haven’t worried about the floors since I had an engineer explain to me that most of my concerns were unnecessary. I’m no engineer so I don’t know how valid that is but just to enter in to discussion.

Regarding the home, 8 foot tank should be minimum for a tang that size, let alone with the other large tankmates. That’s a lot of very large fish! I love Sohal tangs and second that it’s great to have a large one that is docile