Stocking a large tank

[fsbbn@hotmail]

All,

I have a 2500 Gal system. The main tank length is 16ft by width of 6 ft. Is this stocking list way too much? Should I take off some of the larger fish and if so which ones. I have 2000Lb of live rock and 800 Lbs of sand for filtration and huge H&S protein skimmers (two rated to filter over 4K gal withh 8 pumps) Thanks for the input:

Unicorn Tang
Sohal tang
Regal
yellow tang
Purple tang
Tomini Tang
Scopas tang
Kole tang
Desjardin tang
Blond naso tang
Valmingi tang
emperor angel
queen angel
french angel
majestic angel
annularis angel
six bar angel
Blueface angel
maculosus angel
flame angel
key hole angel
Harlequin tusker
red cheek wrasse
hifin snapper
male cross hatch
female cross hatch
bluecheeck trigger
Zebra moray

 

[stangd1909]

wow....post some pics.

 

[wedwards]

+1 on the pics. Sounds like an epic setup.

 

[SkullV]

I think your stocking list is fine, but I would get to the bottom of why your fish have been getting sick first.

P.S. here is a pic of his tank:

 

[fsbbn@hotmail]

I treated the whole tank. I have a 60 gal QT set up as well.

I made the huge mistake of not Qting the crosshatch triggers because I had to leave state for two weeks and because of the cost of those fish I put them in the 600 Gal refugium connected to the main display. It was a dumb gamble that I will never take again. One would think about two decades in the hobby i would know better.

Anyway, i did get access to a microscope and it turns out they had ich and bacterial issue likely resulting from tissue damage. I have since Qtd the whole tank with hypo and chloroquine phosphate. I am also doing a 200 gal water change every other day.

It is of note that of all the fish in the tank only four were impacted. I think the others must have immunity, I am not planning to add any more fish to the main display for about six weeks. I do have two other tanks (the 60 gal Qt and a 200 gal) that i am planning to use as QT while the main tank is going through treatment. I could not catch the fish in such a big tank so i did not have a choice but to treat the whole tank.

The down side of chloroquine phosphate is that it does kill all the algea and the bristle tooth tangs that graze all the time start to loose weight.

One to my question: When I go snorkling, obviously one would never se such a density of fish. However, there are some high profile fish tank keepers that keep a lot more fish that i do in a smaller tank. How do they get away with it and is it detrimental? i love collecting fish but not if it is going to have long term health issues for the fish.

 

[IbanezIC300]

That is an amazing stock list and a great footprint for a tank. By bluecheek trigger do you mean a blue jaw trigger? I have not heard of one called that before.

 

[chasekwe]

What is the actual display volume vs system volume?

 

[fsbbn@hotmail]

The display is a a a little over 2100 gals. The refugium is 600 Gal, the second refugium is 60 gal and the rubbermaid sump is 300 Gal. So total water is about 3000 gal. There is a lot of rocks and the walls of the tank are thick so I would estimate true volume around 2500 gal.

 

[stangd1909]

Truly amazing! Very beautiful tank.

 

[Korrine]

wow awesome tank!!

 

[ziyaadb]

why no butterflies man? Some racoons,threadfins, aurigas or vagabundus would be awesome

 

[fsbbn@hotmail]

Maybe someday I will add butterflies. The problem is that the established fish would probably pick on them. Also, I am worried about getting too many fish. It is easy to do in this hobby as every fish is beautiful in its own right.

 

[wedwards]

WOW :eek1: That is an amazing tank. Love it!!! :inlove:

 

[rnscross]

How big are these fish? as most can get quite large.

have you had a look at this tank, its about half the size of yours and his stocking (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1908660)

 

[fsbbn@hotmail]

Yes. I am afraid the fish will get very large. Before I set up this tank, I had a thousand GAL tank in a different town and my Mac angel was 22 inches. He was probably 2 inches thick. When I started the tank the angel seemed so small but in four years the 1000 gal tank seemed small. This is why I got a bigger tank this time around but i don't want to run into the same issue. I figure of the fish i have the really large ones will be the unicorn, valmingi, Mac angel, Six bar angel, french angel and the high fin snapper. Everyone else will be large but not jumbo size. Hopefully I will be able to keep them and if not I will move some of the smaller fish to the 600 gal refugium.

I do worry about the queen and mac angel getting territorial when they get larger.