Need advice on new tank

[armystud0911]

Hi all, my lfs just went out of business and I picked up 180 gallon marine ready aquarium with a stand for $300. I also picked up a 55gal to put below for sump filtration, the guy at the store said it was overkill but I wasnt gonna do a 29. I would love to stock it with some predetory fish, rays and eels. Obviously, the tank is too small to get any ordinary sized ones but are there some predetors that only get to about 18" max? There is no "buy them now and get a bigger tank later" option here, this 180 is the end all beat all biggest I am ever going to get.

[MonoSebaelover]

Actually you can do quite a few big fowlr fish in a 180. The first decision you have to make is do you want to go large and aggressive or large and "peaceful"? It looks like from your list you will probably want to go large and peaceful. You could go with just about any Eel (except for the monsters Tesselata and Green) like the Zebra, Snowflake, Goldentail, etc. Rays should work just be sure to leave plenty of roaming room. You will probably want to fill your 55 sump/with live rock and then would won't need as much in the main tank. Other than that, you could do a more peaceful Wrasse, Lionfish, Angels/Butterflies, etc. Your options are kinda endless so is best to go look at fish options (Liveaquaria has a good assortment or the Scott W Michael book has tons too -500sp-). Anyway hope this helps and good luck!

[armystud0911]

Endless options sounds good but I dont quite fallow you. I thought 180 gallon was pretty tiny as far as tanks for large fish went. Don't most rays get to be over three feet long and at least 18"-24" accross? Isnt that kinda big for a tank thats only 72"x24"x24" I have seen a few rays kept at home, the smallest tank I have seen one in was 96"x30"x30". I saw 3 rays in a tank once that was 120"x60"x48" and they grew to be 4' long and 2 1/2" accross. The thing is, I see on sellers websites that certain fish only get to be so big, say 2-3ft in captivity, then I get on forums and I hear how that same fish gets as big as 6-8 feet in captivity and has to be sent to an aquarium or killed. That is what I am trying to prevent, I wont be able to set up the tank for another year or so by the way.

[armystud0911]

Actually you can do quite a few big fowlr fish in a 180. The first decision you have to make is do you want to go large and aggressive or large and "peaceful"? It looks like from your list you will probably want to go large and peaceful. You could go with just about any Eel (except for the monsters Tesselata and Green) like the Zebra, Snowflake, Goldentail, etc. Rays should work just be sure to leave plenty of roaming room. You will probably want to fill your 55 sump/with live rock and then would won't need as much in the main tank. Other than that, you could do a more peaceful Wrasse, Lionfish, Angels/Butterflies, etc. Your options are kinda endless so is best to go look at fish options (Liveaquaria has a good assortment or the Scott W Michael book has tons too -500sp-). Anyway hope this helps and good luck!

by "large and aggressive", do you mean "sharks"? :dance:

[MonoSebaelover]

No, by large and aggressive I primarily mean Triggers, Large Wrasses (Thalassoma), certain Large Tangs (Sohal, Clown, etc), Puffers, etc. Depends on the Ray you want to get. You need to research each individual species. Trying doing a search on the internet for Rays and then determine a species you want to keep (preferably one of the smaller sp). Anyway hope this helps and good luck!