Advice needed on tank restart and stocking list.

[hotelbravo]

Hello all, so i have been having terrible luck this year with fish. i am wanting to start over and do a predator tank.

I am wanting to keep only my 2 eels and niger trigger from my current 180 gallon.

I want 1-2 lionfish
1 puffer
1 more trigger
2 gold stripe maroon clowns
3 tangs (tomini tang, purple tang, and naso tang)
1 queen angel


i want to know if this stocking list will work out and in what order i need to add these fish.

I want to add the lionfish now and have them cleanup all the small fish that are going to be impossible to catch. I have about 5 gulf coast clingfish, 2 baby half inch mangrove snapper, and 1 half inch flounder. I obviously caught these and put them in my tank and am now regretting it since i have brought disease and parasites into the tank.
so the plan was to add the lion have him do his thing in there and then remove the lion, both eels, and the trigger to a large rubbermaid container for 72 days and let the 180 fallow.

I want to do things the right way with this startover and QT everything and i wont be throwing random things i catch into the tank anymore.

any tips and suggestions are welcome.

[scooter31707]

I would not do the Naso Tang and the Queen Angel. Both require a bigger tank. Also, be careful with a pair of Maroon Clowns. They can take over a tank in a heart beat. I would only do 1 Trigger.

[BigBlueTang]

I want 1-2 lionfish
1 puffer
1 more trigger
2 gold stripe maroon clowns
3 tangs (tomini tang, purple tang, and naso tang)
1 queen angel

Okay, you have a couple of problems with stocking.
Queen angel requires a bigger tank :(
Another trigger is iffy. I think a Bluethroat would do okay, but honestly they lose their color and become drab.. I would find a way to get rid of your Niger(unless you're attached of course :) )and get a pair of Crosshatch Trigs... Pricey but worth it..
Clowns are okay.
Naso is way too big. 8' minimum.. I would do Tomini, Purple, and Chevron :)
Puffer should be okay, I don't know too much about them.
I would say to go with more aggressive species of wrasses instead of angels. There are some non reef safe wrasses that are crazy cool. All the angels that can really hold their own with an aggressive stocking list are a little too big.

I would add some more fish. Maybe only one lion. They don't do much for me.. So I don't know. But crosshatch triggers are so so so cool!
Let me know what you're thinking...

I would also not add a fish to a tank that is known to have a disease. Empty the tank or whatever, but that sounds inhumane subjecting the fish to that.

[hotelbravo]

Okay, you have a couple of problems with stocking.
Queen angel requires a bigger tank :(
Another trigger is iffy. I think a Bluethroat would do okay, but honestly they lose their color and become drab.. I would find a way to get rid of your Niger(unless you're attached of course :) )and get a pair of Crosshatch Trigs... Pricey but worth it..
Clowns are okay.
Naso is way too big. 8' minimum.. I would do Tomini, Purple, and Chevron :)
Puffer should be okay, I don't know too much about them.
I would say to go with more aggressive species of wrasses instead of angels. There are some non reef safe wrasses that are crazy cool. All the angels that can really hold their own with an aggressive stocking list are a little too big.

I would add some more fish. Maybe only one lion. They don't do much for me.. So I don't know. But crosshatch triggers are so so so cool!
Let me know what you're thinking...

I would also not add a fish to a tank that is known to have a disease. Empty the tank or whatever, but that sounds inhumane subjecting the fish to that.

Okay I will skip the queen angel.
I'm not attached to the Niger and am open to looking at the crosshatch
The tang list looks good too
I was worried about the puffer with the lionfish
I'll look into wrasses
And I know it sounds bad but I would literally have to take every rock out of my 180 gallon to catch all of the fish in there whereas if I added the lionfish he could have then all eaten in a few days and then remove the lion to QT and begin the 72 day fallow.

[BigBlueTang]

Okay I will skip the queen angel.
I'm not attached to the Niger and am open to looking at the crosshatch
The tang list looks good too
I was worried about the puffer with the lionfish
I'll look into wrasses
And I know it sounds bad but I would literally have to take every rock out of my 180 gallon to catch all of the fish in there whereas if I added the lionfish he could have then all eaten in a few days and then remove the lion to QT and begin the 72 day fallow.

I get where you are coming from, and I honestly probably would go the same route with the lion..
I completely forgot about triggers and puffers with lions, good catch..
That may be a problem. Xanthicthys trigs, (Bluethroats, Xhatch's) are usually very mellow but still triggers.. I would cross one or the other off my list if I were you.. Set up a 75 lion only tank.. That sounds cool! I feel like trigs and puffers are too cool to not have in a predator tank. But, that's an opinion, and lion's certainly do have their benefits :)

[hotelbravo]

I picked up the lionfish today it was smaller than expected so it may have trouble eating some of the chromis. I also added 2 softball size hermits that will hopefully eat some fish too if my eels don't eat them first.