Raidendex
Community Member
I know there are a number of these, but haven't seen one for a tank quite like mine perhaps and I would like to have my own discussion thread anyways, so here it goes 
I am in slow process of setting a new saltwater tank that at its heart will have a 135g aquarium with 3'x3' foot print at 2' height. My plan is to mostly focus on SPS and likely acros in particular. Which means it will be high light / flow environment. I might have a small amount of sand, but likely more of a barebottom / rubble bottom, so no sand sifting types or at least they would have to eat something else. So with these parameters in mind I would like to start putting together a somewhat methodical list of fish I could eventually end up with, not a list for day one for sure, but to just have a good plan for 1-2 years o building up fish stock. Where something like maybe two clownfish could go in first and something like mandarin goby would go in year later if I feel like I have a stable population of pods for it, etc.
And the other day it dawned on me that this tank is probably too small for tangs and whatever I might have had before in say my last tank 8 years ago which was 6' long 180g reef, so I can't just say copy what I had then and just do same thing
Having said that, my first priority would be the utility of fish in the tank, i.e. this one would be goo for that kind of algae or another, this would eat aiptasia or flatworms etc., with caveats that those things might not be present and these fish need to be able to survive on other food sources, likely provided by me and I'm not feeding aiptasia Also I would like to stay away from anything too aggressive if not 100% peaceful and definitely not go too far into territory of "reef safe with caution" type fish.
Finally, I will have a tight 1/8" mesh made covering 100% of surface or at least 99% of it as I will have 2 1" pipes probably going through the mesh for return pumps as well as few cords for powerheads, but I should be able to make those intrusions tight enough as well.
And now to some thoughts I have on fish so far...
These would not be mixed, but two of same kind. If however, what I imagine is a fair amount of inbreeding, etc. causes these "fancy" colorations to be less healthy than a more standard clownfish, I would rather get a healthy one that a cool looking one, this would apply to all fish
Now just browsing live aquaria at this point as list of fish, so I may be seeing less that there could be (not buying from there, but just seems like a decent place to get a list and filter things). This is filtered as reef safe and peaceful.
Blenny - one of these for algae eating purposes, probably shouldn't get any more, would prefer something more interesting looking like at least starry versus just algae one (assuming they both do similar things, if recall correctly ), looks like there are some blennies that more free swimming like harptail, so maybe an addition of that to the algae eating one, if I am correct in my assumption. These probably would be added a bit later, although maybe not so late that I'm actually seeing a lot of algae growth. Few weeks, month after clownfish?
Goby - as mentioned earlier probably eventually a mandarin goby of some kind (if there are color kinds lol) , but I do see some other kinds that catch my eye, although I know nothing about them - clown, court jester, hector's, neon blue, sleeper banded, and there are few perching looking ones, although they seem like they would be sand sifting variety probably and would not really work. Again, not too sure on specific eatting needs of all these varieties, but seem like perhaps these could go it at similar time with clownfish.
Wrasse - Almost all look good here, but to mention a few - carpenter, fairy, leopard in order from least to most interesting looking to me, although looks like leopards are all labled expert only, so I suspect their feeding requirements might be harder than others? But if they do not might being in groups I could see these making up a larger count of fish in the tank, i.e. getting several of these versus 1 or 2 of the rest.
Maybe flame hawkfish, and to lesser extent anthias, cardinals? Again, a tang perhaps would be nice, but 3x3 is probably too small for any of them. Open to other suggestions.
Finally, what I can do feeding wise - I will have at least 2 Hydros feeders (rebranded eheim every day), so various type of pellets automated are easy enough with that. Maybe something that could do larger types of things automatically such as algae wafers, etc. Obviously while I am home I can also feed variaety of frozen foods, things that do not really fit in auto feeder, algae sheets, etc. And I can be fairly consistent with that, and while I do work from home now and can do that hourly manually if needed, I wouldn't rely on that being the case always and plan to not be home for say 10 hours a day.
Also there are vacations, most of them are a week long, but lets say up to two weeks of being away, so things would need to be able to go with just whatever can be automated from feeders, perhaps a dosing pump could be rigged up to auto feed something liquid, but it would likely have to be something stable at room temperature, although if it's really needed I could rig up some small fridge with tubing into it
So in the end I would like to come up with some fairly set list with amounts of fish that I could stock the tank eventually with, if things need to be introduced later, etc. that is fine, but still would like them on the list, so that there is room for them in the future
Thanks!
I am in slow process of setting a new saltwater tank that at its heart will have a 135g aquarium with 3'x3' foot print at 2' height. My plan is to mostly focus on SPS and likely acros in particular. Which means it will be high light / flow environment. I might have a small amount of sand, but likely more of a barebottom / rubble bottom, so no sand sifting types or at least they would have to eat something else. So with these parameters in mind I would like to start putting together a somewhat methodical list of fish I could eventually end up with, not a list for day one for sure, but to just have a good plan for 1-2 years o building up fish stock. Where something like maybe two clownfish could go in first and something like mandarin goby would go in year later if I feel like I have a stable population of pods for it, etc.
And the other day it dawned on me that this tank is probably too small for tangs and whatever I might have had before in say my last tank 8 years ago which was 6' long 180g reef, so I can't just say copy what I had then and just do same thing
Having said that, my first priority would be the utility of fish in the tank, i.e. this one would be goo for that kind of algae or another, this would eat aiptasia or flatworms etc., with caveats that those things might not be present and these fish need to be able to survive on other food sources, likely provided by me and I'm not feeding aiptasia
Also I would like to stay away from anything too aggressive if not 100% peaceful and definitely not go too far into territory of "reef safe with caution" type fish.Finally, I will have a tight 1/8" mesh made covering 100% of surface or at least 99% of it as I will have 2 1" pipes probably going through the mesh for return pumps as well as few cords for powerheads, but I should be able to make those intrusions tight enough as well.
And now to some thoughts I have on fish so far...
Clownfish
As mentioned before probably 2 clownfish, likely as one of the first introductions to the tank, looking at ORA's list (not sure how available all these colors are but..) I do like a number of ocellaris as well as one or two types of biaceleatus. Imagine coloration does not play as much role here as the underlying species, but if they do here are few that catch my eye at a quick glance
Black Storm Clownfish | Amphiprion ocellaris | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums
One of the most exciting designer varieties to come out in years is now available from ORA!
www.orafarm.com
Gold Nugget Maroon Clownfish | Amphiprion biaculeatus | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums
Originally developed by ORA, the Gold Nugget Maroon clownfish matures into a body of solid gold.
www.orafarm.com
Now just browsing live aquaria at this point as list of fish, so I may be seeing less that there could be (not buying from there, but just seems like a decent place to get a list and filter things). This is filtered as reef safe and peaceful.
Blenny - one of these for algae eating purposes, probably shouldn't get any more, would prefer something more interesting looking like at least starry versus just algae one (assuming they both do similar things, if recall correctly
), looks like there are some blennies that more free swimming like harptail, so maybe an addition of that to the algae eating one, if I am correct in my assumption. These probably would be added a bit later, although maybe not so late that I'm actually seeing a lot of algae growth. Few weeks, month after clownfish?Goby - as mentioned earlier probably eventually a mandarin goby of some kind (if there are color kinds lol) , but I do see some other kinds that catch my eye, although I know nothing about them - clown, court jester, hector's, neon blue, sleeper banded, and there are few perching looking ones, although they seem like they would be sand sifting variety probably and would not really work. Again, not too sure on specific eatting needs of all these varieties, but seem like perhaps these could go it at similar time with clownfish.
Wrasse - Almost all look good here, but to mention a few - carpenter, fairy, leopard in order from least to most interesting looking to me, although looks like leopards are all labled expert only, so I suspect their feeding requirements might be harder than others? But if they do not might being in groups I could see these making up a larger count of fish in the tank, i.e. getting several of these versus 1 or 2 of the rest.
Maybe flame hawkfish, and to lesser extent anthias, cardinals? Again, a tang perhaps would be nice, but 3x3 is probably too small for any of them. Open to other suggestions.
Finally, what I can do feeding wise - I will have at least 2 Hydros feeders (rebranded eheim every day), so various type of pellets automated are easy enough with that. Maybe something that could do larger types of things automatically such as algae wafers, etc. Obviously while I am home I can also feed variaety of frozen foods, things that do not really fit in auto feeder, algae sheets, etc. And I can be fairly consistent with that, and while I do work from home now and can do that hourly manually if needed, I wouldn't rely on that being the case always and plan to not be home for say 10 hours a day.
Also there are vacations, most of them are a week long, but lets say up to two weeks of being away, so things would need to be able to go with just whatever can be automated from feeders, perhaps a dosing pump could be rigged up to auto feed something liquid, but it would likely have to be something stable at room temperature, although if it's really needed I could rig up some small fridge with tubing into it
So in the end I would like to come up with some fairly set list with amounts of fish that I could stock the tank eventually with, if things need to be introduced later, etc. that is fine, but still would like them on the list, so that there is room for them in the future
Thanks!
