will this be too much?

[alan617]

Currently i have a 55g with about 60-80 lbs. of live rock with a 10g sump with another 15 lbs or so of rock in there. i have a protein skimmer a big ol' bag of carbon in the sump and 2 maxijets and of course the return
my question is i have 3 chromis, 3 damsels, 2 percs and a mandarin goby along with the usual cleaning crew with a cleaner shrimp and a few cleaner clams.
can i add a royal tang and possibly a yellow tang as well as my "big" fish and possibly one more shrimp (maybe a pepermint)?
thanks!!

 

[UrbanSage]

You will likely get a lot of negative replies when asking to put Tangs in a "small" 55g tank.

Personally I would not do it. I have Tangs in my 75, they are still young so I feel I can get away with it, but in my opinion I need to get a bigger tank soon since I don't feel 75 is nearly big enough for these happy swimmers.

 

[alan617]

thanks urbansage,
any recommendations as to adding one or two "big" fish in there that won't disturb any corals or anemone that i plan to add later?

 

[barbra]

The tank is not large enough for tangs, and you really have enough fish in there as it is.

When you subtract the amount of sand, lr, etc. from the volume of water that tank holds you will find that there isn't much water in that tank at all, and not enough swimming room for larger fish.

 

[UrbanSage]

You can try a flame angel, very beautiful but it is very hit and miss if it munches on coral polyps.

Tough to recommend a "big" fish for an aquarium the size of what we mortals can afford

 

[HDAlien]

I'd advise against it, I'm not 'tang police' or anything, it's just been my experience. I had a sailfin in my 90 and it didn't have enough room.

 

[alan617]

hmmm i will have to check that flame angel out, i was thinking dwarf angels would be nice too.
yea it's amazing to see some of the tanks that people have on here. The 2-300 gallons scare me on the electricity bill alone

 

[UrbanSage]

My 75g is a fight with the missus every month when the bill shows up

 

[alan617]

luckily the missus really likes the tank, but i'm sure she only "likes" it as it and a big upgrade to 125 even will be a very hard bargain

 

[UrbanSage]

Try a 180
Easier to ask for forgiveness right

 

[alan617]

ha, that's my philosophy! unfortunately it always works out better in my head then in practice

 

[Navyblue]

IMO 8 small fishes is already pushing it (and you have 9). When those fishes grows to full size you'll find your tank very crowded. And I hope your mandarin takes prepared food or it might slowly starve.

 

[alan617]

when i do feedings, i see the mandarin eating here or there, that's actually the one thing i'm kinda worried about with him, but unfortunately only time will tell rather or not he's eating enough