Let's Try again - Fish suggestions for my custom 10.5 tank?
 

Referring back to my earlier post:
[url=http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=11549116#post11549116]http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=11549116#post11549116[/URL]

Perhaps I should have started with this question instead. I've built a custom 10.5, which I detailed in another thread here:
[url=http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showt...postid=11539972]http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...postid=11539972[/URL]

Repeated Quick summary of the tank. It's a custom acrylic nano with a built in sump area. The display holds about 10.5 gallons, and the sump holds another 2-3 gallons. It has almost 21 lbs of LR in it, a skimmer, about 50x turnover, will run with fuge, purigen, and chemi-pure, and weekly 10% water changes. It's outside dimensions are 48" long by 12" deep (front to back) by 8.25" high. A shallow tank like this gives a LOT of territory and swimming area for fishes, which I understand is the main thing they need in a tank, rather than actual gallonage of water volume (assuming you can maintain the water qaulity). Here's a pic:
[IMG]http://mathiassmith.com/gallery2/d/671-2/img_2083.jpg[/IMG]

I've calculated the surface area of the floor of the display to be roughly 476 sq in. In order to have a cube with this much floor surface area, the cube would need to be over 21" on each side, yielding around 44 gallons. This will also be an LPS dominated tank, with 1-2 clams, and hopefully some hardier SPS species.

What suggestions for fish do you have for this tank? I was hoping to keep at least 1 fish that is always out and active to show off the tank, and a couple more (like a mated goby pair) that would stick to the rocks and add some personality.

Thanks for your input, most appreciated!

Well this tank has many great possibilities. I would go with a shrimp goby pairing or triad as a starter. There are many interesting fish compatible with that choice.

Cool, thanks snorvich. I appreciate your advice.

Coral gobies, neon/cleaner gobies, shrimp gobies (yasha hase, yellow rose, tangora, etc), pipe fish could be interesting, firefish, wormfish, smaller pseudochromis, smaller blennies

wow that is a really sweet tank. love it. If you can firefish are awesome!!!!!

hormigaquatica -
Thanks I'll check them all out. My thinking (and has been suggested to me) is that I can keep more/bigger fish in this tank than a typical 10g tank because it has a lot more surface area.

Thanks thor! I've been considering a firefish too. I think after I compile all the responses I've received, I'll might post a poll of my different candidate fish-stocking schemes. :)

I say shark :-p

Blue-stripe pipefish pair.

danfrith - Hmmm, that's a cool idea.

I have a trimma striata, goby its awesome, a few would be cool in your tank

I double the recommendation for a bluestripe pipe pair. Just make sure they are eating frozen food (though that tank looks like it might be able to hold a good enough population of pods if it were matured enough)

Dan

It's a great looking tank. I'd put a helfrichi firefish in.

I am confused, as based on your measurements (48" long by 12" deep (front to back) by 8.25" high.), I calculate that your tank is 20.57 gallons. Do you mean those are the overall measurements including the stand and canopy?

Joyce

adtravels - Cool, I'll check out the stripehead. That looks interesting too.

Pea-brain - That's sounding more and more interesting to me... Need to do some research on those for sure.

MacImage - Cool, I've been looking at those firefish too! Definitely considering that. Well, the display is around 10.5 gallons, and the internal sump holds another 2.5 gallons or so. Those are the outside dimensions of the acrylic tank. Then the tank is made from 3/8" acrylic, so you have to subtract 3/4" from the length and widths to account for the acrylic thickness. Then, the tank has a 36" long sump compartment inside that is made from 1/4" acrylic and is 5" front to back inside. Also, the display is about 7" water depth (this doesn't account for any sand, so actual water volume is likely less than my calculations here), and the sump is about 3.5" water depth. What you end up with is a footprint in the display that resembles a really short and wide "U" shape when viewed from the top. The two rectangles at the ends of the tank are 5.625"L x 11.25"W x 7"D, which are each 1.9 gallons. Then you have the main rectangle that forms the bottom of the "U" which is 36"L x 6"W x 7"D which gives 6.5 gallons. So there's are 10.4 gallons for the display. Then, the sump volume is 35.25"L x 5"W x 3.5"D, which gives another 2.7 gallons in the sump. Also, the plumbing and pump beneath the tank took about another 0.5 gallons. So, that puts us at 13.6 gallons total water, 10.4 in the display.

It was one of the things I really liked about the design of this tank. It looks huge, but it's really tiny. I can post a crude diagram if you find my explanation of the dimensions was poor ;).

Wow, I understand! That is too cool. It look bigger and is very well laid out.

Joyce

Thanks Macimage!