Stocking 950 gallon natural planted reef

kangadrew · Oct 1, 2016

Well, my other thread hasn't attracted much attention, so I am going to make a new thread for it and explain a bit more.

The tank is to be a 30" deep round lagoon that is 8 feet in diameter. I would like a viewing window on the tank though, so I may go with a fiberglass tank that a viewing window could be installed on, versus an Intex pool. It's pricey to go fiberglass though, $1,100 at 2' depth, $1,300 at 3' depth, and $1,800 at 4' depth. Because kf that I may even go with a square glass tank - that's not important ATM now though.

Filtration will be (almost) entirely natural. Mechanical will be provided by a few well-chosen power heads to stir up the waste, and an invertebrate clean up crew to dispose of it. Other filtration will be from seagrasses, macroalgaes, mangroves, and the occasional water change. Lighting will be natural sunlight. I am not sure, but the lagoon may be outside even. We shall see.

Anyways, I need ideas for stocking the tank. The centerpiece will be a pair of Moorish idols. Long story short, I have found a few things on sexing them, and I am going to work with a wholesaler to try and get a pair. My theory is that they will breed in a very natural environment. The natural part includes light stocking and biotope-specific organisms.

I need ideas on a clean up crew/invert selection, some small fish for the lagoon (Moorish idols will be the only large fish - although I have considered going with a skimmer and adding a shoal of yellow tangs and some convict tangs), and some corals.

TL;DR
8' round/square tank, 30-36 inches deep, macroalgaes, seagrass, mangroves. Very natural, possibly using a skimmer. Stocking includes 1-2 pairs of Moorish idols, possibly: a small group/pair of convict tangs, a shoal of yellow tangs. Want to do more small fish and a harem of red firefish, need other suggestions. Coral right now will be a massive pink stylophora colony, need more ideas. Thanks!

1.0reef · Oct 1, 2016

First off, I'd recommend a skinmer, just because it will take a long time to create a natural filtration system that efficient.
For a schooling fish, I'd highly recommend some bluestreak cardinalfish.

kangadrew · Oct 2, 2016

1.0reef said:
First off, I'd recommend a skinmer, just because it will take a long time to create a natural filtration system that efficient.
For a schooling fish, I'd highly recommend some bluestreak cardinalfish.

They might look pretty cool, I was thinking of doing various pairs/schools of cardinals in the tank - in the seagrass, I'm sure they would breed and thrive.

Im leaning towards using a skimmer, it would make things much easier. I need to figure out access to the tank though, in order to get the fry/eggs of any fish out of the tank. I may have use very small pieces of rock, and when I notice the fish have left eggs on the rocks, take the rock out. It's going to make keeping corals hard though.

eatbreakfast · Oct 3, 2016

kangadrew said:
They might look pretty cool, I was thinking of doing various pairs/schools of cardinals in the tank - in the seagrass, I'm sure they would breed and thrive.

Im leaning towards using a skimmer, it would make things much easier. I need to figure out access to the tank though, in order to get the fry/eggs of any fish out of the tank. I may have use very small pieces of rock, and when I notice the fish have left eggs on the rocks, take the rock out. It's going to make keeping corals hard though.

Moorish idols are broadcast spawners, so they won't be laying eggs on a rock. It will require careful observation and wgg collection from the water column otherwise the skimmer will pull them out. The larval stage is also longer than most fish, so raising them to a reasonable size will also be a challenge..

Yhere are a lot of lagoonal cardinals and watchman gobies. A harem of leopard wrasses would be interesting.

kangadrew · Oct 3, 2016

eatbreakfast said:
Moorish idols are broadcast spawners, so they won't be laying eggs on a rock. It will require careful observation and egg collection from the water column otherwise the skimmer will pull them out. The larval stage is also longer than most fish, so raising them to a reasonable size will also be a challenge..

Yhere are a lot of lagoonal cardinals and watchman gobies. A harem of leopard wrasses would be interesting.

Hmm, so perhaps a skimmer won't be run on the tank. Any suggestions on how to remove the eggs? Would they appear to be a cloudy mass in the tank?

I am thinking just a few harems of smaller fish would be cool. As long as they won't harm the eggs, they will be fine.

eatbreakfast · Oct 4, 2016

kangadrew said:
Hmm, so perhaps a skimmer won't be run on the tank. Any suggestions on how to remove the eggs? Would they appear to be a cloudy mass in the tank?

I am thinking just a few harems of smaller fish would be cool. As long as they won't harm the eggs, they will be fine.

The Marine Breeding Initiative Workshop might have some good pointers on collecting the eggs.