restocking 55 gal new reef setup

[greg1786]

hi. I recently lost all but one fish to a very bad ich outbreak. the tank has been fallow for about a month and half. I currently run hob filters and protein skimmer but am in the process of converting to a reef setup. I will be picking up a 55 already drilled and plumbed Sunday and a 20gal long breeder shortly after also drilled and plumbed as the sump. In the tank currently is about 50# of live rock a 2inch live sandbed ,royal sea star,pincushion urchin,rainbow bubble tip nem, 5 zoa colonies relatively new ranging from 6-12 polyps , and 10 marg. snails. the lone surviving fish is a zebra barred dartfish he is in ht. while I know I am a long way from fish, my gf and I have compiled a list of fish we would like to get and just wanted to get some opinions on it. are they compatible? is it too many for the size tank?will they do well in mixed reef? and any general experience you may have with one or all of these fish.
-pair of cinnamon clowns
-target dragonette
-lemonpeel pygmy angel
-purple firefish goby
-neon cleaner gobyx2
-and a dwarf horseshoe crab
also was wondering is there any type of tang that would do well in that size tank?? thanks in advance -Greg
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[greg1786]

forgot to mention the current tank is also a 55gallon and has been running for a year and 3 months


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[milsj099]

i chop and change stock a back
as its hard for me to make up my mind
but in my current 55 gallon
i have a midas blenny, blue damsel, royal gramma, a clown, and 2 dwarf angels
bicolour (which im trying to remove, to make space for a multibar) and a flame angel about the size of a 50 pence piece!
i might be a bit overstocked
most people wouldnt recommend a tang

 

[rssjsb]

Just a few thoughts:

The lemonpeel angel may nip corals. I don't see any LPS in your writeup, but you may be precluded from keeping them if you get the angel. I personally have 5 angels in my tank, but I'm willing to work around them, trying different corals to see what they ignore.

The firefish may not be compatible with the clowns. Cinnamons can be very territorial, and a firefish may be bullied into hiding and not feeding. Your dartfish may also have an issue with those clowns.

Horseshoe crabs are interesting creatures, but they're not really well suited for aquariums. They live off of microfauna in the sand bed, and will strip the life from it pretty quickly in all but really huge tanks, then starve. You don't really see them that often anyway because they spend most of their time under the sand bed.

Also, I would wait another few weeks before adding fish just to be safe. Most people advise at least 8 weeks fallow after an ich outbreak.

Just so I'm not being a complete downer, there are lots of nice fish you can keep in a 55. Lots of blennies (midas, tailspot, starry, etc.), tobies, hawfish (tobies and hawks will work best if you're not planning to keep shrimp), watchman goby, fairy or flasher wrasses, possum wrasses, assessors, just to name a few.

The only tang you could keep in this tank would be a tomini, but even that is probably pushing it.