Need Setup Advice, Fish Shopping List

[azpt]

OK, I've got a 155 gal tank. It recently had a bad case of ick and killed my lionfish, tusk, and wrasse. My eel survived. (After reading articles on here about eels, I guess it's next to impossible to kill an eel).

Anyways, I've given the eel to the LFS as I want to convert my FOWLR tank from an aggressive tank to more of a community tank with a variety of creatures.

I'm letting the display tank sit fish free for 6 weeks (to get ick out of the water) while still running the pumps and skimmer.

I've also invested in a quarantine tank and have cycled that tank to prepare it for any newcoming fish. The quarantine is a 40gal tank.

What I need help with now is; What fish go well together, what types help some needs that I have with hair algea, etc.

As far as my tank setup I have:
155 gal bow front tank
40 gal of sump
Good protein skimmer
Bio Balls in the overflow corner of tank
about 150 lbs of live rock
about 4 inches of crushed coral for a sand bed

Things I would like to have living together in there at some point are:

shrimp, snails, crab?, tang, any colorful fish, etc.

I would definately like something that eats hair algea, maybe something that eats ataspia (spelling?), and also a cleaner animal that cleans parasites off other animals.

So having those 3 criteria, help me out. What's a good shopping list to eventually fully stocking my tank with the most variety of fish.

Please post shoping lists with ideas, thanks!

 

[azpt]

ONE MORE THING!!

I forgot to mention this. All new fish will be quarantined with copper treatment to make sure they're clean before entering the display tank. So any fish suggestions need to be able to survive a copper treatment.

Also, on the filtration listed on the display tank, I'm thinking of adding an 18w UV sterilizer.

 

[kraze3]

I gotta be honest I dont think you should QT fish for copper if they dont need it. I can understand if you were going to QT with hypo, but I dont like the copper idea.

You have a good size tank your choices involve alot of fish. You should look through a book or online site like liveaquaria.com or marinecenter.com if you have soem extra cash. Pick out a few colorful fish youd like to keep in your aquarium then come back with your list and others can tell you some tankmates that will get along with them well. After all it is your tank, you should have what you like to look at. Hope that helps a little, Good Luck!

 

[azpt]

Thanks for the tip. I took your advice, did some looking around, and this is what I came up with.

- Half dozen assorted damsels
-1 Royal Gramma Basslet
-1 Firefish
-3 or 4 clownfish
-1 Fridmani Pseudochromis
-1 Tail Spot Blenny
-3 Mexican Trubo Snails
-3 Banded Trochus Snails
-1 Court Jester Goby
-6 Emerald Crabs
-6 Hermit Crabs
-1 Saddle Valentrini Puffer
-1 Naso Tang
-3 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
-1 Blue Sea Star

Can a 155 gal support all of that?
Anything eat each other in there?

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Im not sure if you said you wanted to go reef or not.. but for the puffer would be fine in a fowlr community tank but not sure how well it would do with inverts and corals. The naso will get to big for your tank. I would look at a blue tang, convict , kole, instead for community tang fish. You could also get a purple or yellow tang if their added last.

I would skip on the damsels and maybe add a school or group of firefish or chromis instead.. everything else looks fine and maybe just a pair of clowns not sure after they get older how all 4 would do together.

 

[jedi31]

I know you are looking for advice regarding fish choices but I would recomend getting rid of the crush coral and replace it with a sand bed. Crushed Coral traps a lot of debis and contributes to high nitrates and algae. Sand can work with your live rock along with your skimmer as your filtration. I would get rid of the bioballs also and let your live rock be the main biological filter.

Also I find Pepermint shrimp do a great job eating Aiptasia.

 

[fish_is_my_name]

don't quarantine your tangs in a cooper environment. It does internal damage to the fish.

 

[xanthid]

I would get alot more than 6 snails for a tank that size as well.