New 90 Gallon Reef

[Bubba123]

Hi all, this is my first post here in the forum, but I have been looking through several threads over the last couple weeks. A little background, I have been keeping freshwater tanks for about 15 years, ranging from community to planted Discus tanks. I have pretty much kept everything in that realm. I started a nano reef tank about four months ago and I am ready to upgrade. I am converting a 90 gallon into a reef. The tank is cleaned resealed and repainted and I have ordered my equipment (sump, skimmer, uv sterilizer, lighting, ro/di system)sand, and live rock. Everything should be here by the end of the week so I can begin aquascaping and cycling.
I have been researching and planning but it is driving me nuts not having a solid plan in place. I am hoping you guys can help me with my stocking list. I will be posting about CUC's (what forum should I post in for this)and corals in another post. Here is a list of what I like, I hope you can help me narrow it down to something acceptable for my tank. I really don't want anything that could send me down the wrong path but would like the tank to be somewhat unique.

Ocellaris Clownfish-I want two, I like the black and white but I have young kids and you can probably guess what they want. Can I have one of each? Ideally a pair of each but I'm almost positive that won't do.

Coral Beauty or Flame Angel-I am leaning towards Coral Beauty it seems like a better fit, but am willing to part with both.

Flasher Wrasse-love the coloring but I read they don't do well with dwarf angels or dotty backs

Yellow Tang or Kole Tang- seems like the yellow would be too large for the tank, I could easily part with both.

Foxface Rabbitfish- possibly a 9 inch fish, I like it but really don't want to limit my stocking levels on a large fish

Royal Gramma or Orchid Dotty Back- my wife really likes both of these but have read they may be too aggressive possibly attacking shrimp and other fish.

I really like Blennies, Gobies, and Dragonets and would like to keep as many as I can without problems. I am nervous about trying the Dragonets (Mandrin and Red Scooter) due to their feeding requirements, but I am a big fan. These are the ones I like but am very open to suggestion. Also where applicable do you reccomend the pistol shrimp combo?

Bicolor Blenny
Law mower Blenny
Yellow Watchman Goby
Diamond Goby
Pink Spotted Goby
Red Scooter Blenny
Mandrin Dragonet

Sorry for the lengthy post I know you guys have seen a lot of these. Any help will be much appreciated. I look forward to getting to know some of you.

 

[jraker]

clownfish- you can have one pair, not two. in a 90 gallon, 2 pairs will probably fight

either angelfish should be good

flasher wrasse- add it as one of your first fish, they are peaceful, and need time to stake out their territory.

ah, the tang argument. i would not go with a yellow. but on the other hand, i would go for the kole.

foxface- get a one spot. they will stay smaller

royal grammas are super peaceful, go for one. dottybacks are not on the other hand. it really depends on the fish.

the blennies you mentioned will be good.

you need a live sandbed, and when i say live, i mean pods everywhere to keep a diamond goby. they sift the sand to get these pods, and that is how they eat. they also kick up all the sand, which can be quite annoying.

watchman will be great, you can keep a pistol shrimp with it. candy cane pistol or tiger pistol will be great. just keep in mind you need a deep sandbed for pistols, at least three inches. they will dig a lot and make hills of sand.

if you want dragonets, keep a refugium with a healthy pod supply. a mandarin eats somewhere around 8,000 pods a day (somewhere around 1 every 5 seconds). you will need a lot of pods to keep a dragonet alive.

 

[Bubba123]

Thanks for the response. To keep a Diamond Goby, would I need a refugium as well then? Can you recommend some larger Gobies that would require less maintenance and work well with the watchman. I just love their grumpy faces, so unique.