Angels/Tangs/Wrasses /Butterfly tank ????

[agreeive?fish]

NOT A REEF TANK....not a reef tank..just a FOWLR tank

Iam in the process of a Angel large and drawf, Tang, Wrasse and Butterfly tank and i need some input from fellow fish keepers.

After looking at the rather lenghty list below..what size tank would you recomend for this list..

also feel free to sugest any changes as there is room in my plans for changes at this point.

a little more info before the list.. I have a 210g (6ft), a 200g (7ft) and a 175g bowfront to use as "grow out tanks " for the big tank and i can also keep using theese tanks to house my pets if for some unforseen reason delays the big tank not all this list will be kept in these tanks as i will not buy more fish than the 3 tanks can comfortably hold the least agressive will be the last fish bought and will be the first fish in the new tankas they will be bought the straight to QT then straight to the big tank

also the fish will be aquired over the next 2 years...that way when i start introducing to the big tank it will be diffrent stages of growth for the fish and i will introduces the lease agressive and smalllest fish first over a drawn out time frame (as yet to de determined)


Angels (large) 11 total
1. Personifer (whole set up is because of this fish MUST HAVE)
2. Scribbled angel
3. Imperator
4. Queen
5. Maculosus or Asfur
6. Swallowtail Female (wife says so)
7. Annularis
8. Black velvet
9. Blue spotted
10. Blue face
11. Majestic

Angels (drawf) 7 total
1. Flame (wife says so)
2. Coral beauty (have already)
3. Half black (have already)
4. Bi color
5. Key hole
6. Singapore
7. Reef Central Readers Choice

Butterfly's 7 total
1. Racoon (already have)
2. Pakistani
3. Saddled back
4. Auriga
5. Reef Central readers choice
6. same as #5
7. same as #5


Wrasses 5 total
1. Harliquin tusk (aussie)
2. Harliquin tusk (indian ocean)
3 Lunnar (already have)
4. Rainbow aka pinkface
5. Reef Central Reader choice

Tangs
1.Yellow (already have)
2. Powder blue (already have)
3. Sailfin (already have)
4. Unicorn (must have)
5. Hippo
6. Alantic blue
7. Purple
8. Powder brown
9. Orange shoulder (wife says so)
10. Sohal
11. Naso

Please dont post a tank size recomendation smaller than 1000g

ANY Sugestions and comments are welcome to include ..man this guy is completley off his rocker his idea will never work...or Man this is a great idea & i will finance it for you or anywhere in between

[JazzZero]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12419729#post12419729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by agreeive?fish


Please dont post a tank size recomendation smaller than 1000g

[/B]
K never heard of that.... Anyhow you could keep those fish in 1000G tank for the most part.

Here a video of a tank thats stacked with similar fish to those of what you want http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt7CAuweshQ and another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt7CAuweshQ

[agreeive?fish]

JazzZero...thanks for the links...but in my opinion those tanks are too cramped for my taste..i want my pets to have plenty of room

[ccampbell57]

For this stocklist I would say you would need at least a 10'x 4'x5' = just under 1500 gallons.

[agreeive?fish]

ccampbell57

thanks for the reply..i had close to the same idea..my tank demensions were a little diffrent though..i was thinking
10' long x 6' front to back x 4' water depth for just over 1700g without the live rock displacement..would the 5' water depth be necesary or would the 4' water deth work?? just curious as i would build the tank so the 5ft depth will be a major change to my initial building plans but if needed ill make the changes..whats your opinion on the 1 foot depth diffrence considering the 2 ft additional surface area.

[ccampbell57]

oh yeah...that is just the DT. I would say you would need at least 1000g in-line with the tank as well.

one if not 2 skimmers rated for over 3000g with the bio-load you are putting on the system.

2 HUGE UV sterilizers.

If your fish list doesnt make you go broke, your equipment will :)

[ccampbell57]

The way I envisioned it was 10' long by 4' tall by 5' deep. It will need to be deeper IMO as the tangs will need a TON of swimming area once they grow.

I think that height is less important than depth.

[agreeive?fish]

ok ..i was just reading your mesurments backwards... what i was thinking was 10' long by 4' tall x 6' deep so we were on the same line i was just reading the wrong way...

heck its only money and you cant take it with you so you might as well enjoy it when you can..and i dont have money so its going to be a labor of love ...money thats that paper with pics of dead people that everybody wants..right???....

iam not to worried about the cost of equipment and fish as this is not a do this moment or not at all thing..it will take 2 to 3 years to aquire all the needed items and some of the fish before the system is set up since i am not buying all the fish before the system is up and running..iam only getting what i can house in the tanks i have in my signature until the big tank is fully ready for inhabitants

[spamin76]

What kind of install are you thinking of? There are very serious weight considerations - both in terms of the glass, but really the weight of the water. With rock, glass, water you can really seriously expect this set up to weigh between 8,500-16,000 pounds or more. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon, and if the tank is FOWLR the rock is gonna weigh more than water. You might consider making some PVC support frames and then stacking rock on top of it to hide the piping - it will make it look like there is a lot of rock while cutting back on the weight by quite a bit.

If you are serious about this I would consider talking to an architect or an engineer. Make sure you have a base in your home that can support several thousands of pounds long term if you are looking at this long term. Also you might also want to look at the wiring in the area - it is going to take a lot to adequately light a tank that deep(probably some modest halides or some serious PC) in order to make the fish look good. It's also going to take some very serious pumping to keep current moving in the tank so the filter system can do it's job. I know you probably are looking at just the fish but there are some practical concerns that are behind a large install like that.

Also can you get the tank in the house, or are you going to have to have it assembled on site?

Aside from practical concerns, this sounds awesome.

With a tank this size, I would definitely put a pair of blue throat or cross hatch triggers in it, the cross hatches especially are beautiful fish, medium aggression so they could stand up to a lot of the other fish in their. They would add some more species "diversity" and some quircky behavior. But that is me talking and I am undeiably biased toward triggerfish.

[agreeive?fish]

spamin 76,

Thank you for the comments..i do have to point out an assumption you made that is wrong..iam not just looking at the fish..iam considering all the factors you mentioned...this tank is going to be incorpirated into the build of my home...and the architect is wating on my final tank data before he can continue with the house plans...and yes i will build a frame work for the live rock (easier to make more caves that way)..Thank you for your input as it just reafirmed some things i have wondered about if i was being to much of an OVER THINKER ...on the lighting i want to use sunlight as much as possible but iam worried about excess algea..still trying to research that..and also looking at an industrial auto back up generator ......

[spamin76]

Well as for natural sunlight, it definitely will be something hard to control, but it might save a lot of money on lighting...

If you made sure to just beef up the filtration it would cut down on the algae, as would the tangs.

I don't think you would get much worse algae with natural light than you would with hefty halides, but in that case you might almost have to have the tank in a sun room or something, since a skylight kind of set up wouldn't be ideal in all seasons, as you might not get enough light at certain times.