Restocking A Tank

[Bobox]

My friend has an inbuilt L shaped fish tank behind her bar and it's double sided and has a volume of about two tonnes.
This tank has been up and running for about 15 years and is an aggressive tank.
Up until recently their prized fish was a 18 inch puffer (not sure species). Other inhabitants were also relatively aggressive.
Unfortunately once the puffer died the entire tank got wiped out. There are only 4 fish left in this huge tank.

Since her father no longer has time to rebuild the tank , he left the job to me. I had a fish tank for about 1 and a half years before i had to go abroad to study. It was small compared to this one but i have successfully kept aggressive and non-aggressive fish before letting them move to this actual tank, and it was sad to see most of the fish die as a result of the larger puffer`s death (My guess would be toxins released?)
Now the idea was to remove the crushed coral from below and replace it with white sand.
The only fish out of the ones he currently has that he will keep is the picasso trigger.
With this in mind, the tank already is a relatively aggressive place.



The tanks dimensions are about 1 meter width, 1.5 meter height and about 6 meters in length (Including the L).

This is ofcourse, off the top of my head, actual measurements havent take place yet.


Seeing as having a double sided reef tank of that length would be expensive, and hard to maintain the idea was of putting in a few very impressive larger fish.
The first fish that came to mind is the lion fish.
With a white sand bottom and nice lighting 5-6 of these fish would look extremely impressive (the tank is the first thing u see when u come through the door).

Other ideas we came through were a blue spotted ray (although these are better in round tanks) and a bamboo shark.

I was just wondering if anyone else is willing to help throw in a few ideas.



ALso due to lack of time, searching for tank water quality is becoming a less and less frequent activity.
Is there any sort of electronic device which automatically does the readings for you?

thanks for any advice. (And it is welcome from both beginners and experts)
Alexi

 

[Trod]

Wow that is one big tank any pictures?

I know triggers and lionfish don't normally get on, the triggers might attack the lionfish, but in a tank that size it might work.

What about Panther Groupers I know nothing about them or compatability but nice looking fish

or a snowflake eel

 

[Bobox]

Wow that is one big tank any pictures?

I know triggers and lionfish don't normally get on, the triggers might attack the lionfish, but in a tank that size it might work.

What about Panther Groupers I know nothing about them or compatability but nice looking fish

or a snowflake eel

i plan to get pictures of the tanks asap, hopefully this weekend when i have time to go up there and get some research on the tank done. (although it will be quite sad to show now that the star puffer is gone

As for the snowflake eels, they had problems with eels jumping in the past, but i also considered a couple.

The main problem is that the tank would look so nice with alot of c0lour, and yes the panther grouper was a great suggestion but i still have to lay the ideas out..
I`m aiming for small quantity, but impressive.

I also forgot to mention that we want relatively hardy fish. The hardier the fish the better.

 

[scott133]

Hi

get some naso tangs like

blond lipstick tang , blue spot tang,carabeain blue tang,blue faced angel,majestic angel,fox face,longfin bannerfish butterfly,copperband buttrefly,Falcula Butterfly,Koran Angelfish,
Rock Beauty Angelfish,Bird Wrasse,Blue Throat Triggerfish,Clown Triggerfish,Powder Blue Tang,Purple Tang,Clown Tang,Goldrim Tang,Pacific Blue Tang,Indian Ocean Sailfin Tang,
Coral Hogfish,Lyretail Wrasse,Zebra Moray eel,Snowflake Moray,Decorated rabbit fish,Convict Tang,emperor angelfish,queen angelfish,archilles tang,half moon angelfish,bat fish,
regal angelfish,unicorn tangs,yellow tang,pakistany butterfly,addidas butterfly,cleaner wrasse,flame angelfish,coral beauty angel,bio colour angel,red stripe angelfish,chevron tang,multi colour angel,cherub angel,rusty angel,keyhole angel,lemonpeel angel,bellus angel,flagfin angel,Orbic Batfish,Pinnate Batfish,Teira Batfish,pyrimaid butterfly,
bangi cardinals,pink fire fish,purple butterfly,sissortail dartfish,spanish hog fish,Antennata Lionfish,Black Volitan Lionfish,Dwarf Lionfish,Fu Manchu Lionfish,hush puppy puffer,Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish,Radiata Lionfish,orange shoulder tang,Volitan Lionfish,royal grammer ,Axilspot Hogfish-Juv,chevron tang,Two Spot Hogfish,porquin puffer,
Masuda's Hogfish,jigsaw trigger,clown trigger,queen trigger,leapord wrasse,dissapering wrasse thats all i can think off and sorry for spelling

thanks scott

edit= take a look at some of them i know you asked for hardy some of them are

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh dude, forget panther groupers, they're boring. Look into a Miniatus Grouper. Awesome fish for a tank that size. As impressive as that many full-sized lion fish would be, feeding would be a chore and you sound like you want a low-maintenance tank.

A Naso Tang would look great in there for sure and is a pretty low-maintenance fish once settled-in. A higher-maintenance although GORGEOUS tang would be a Sohal. Also on the gorgeous side would be an Achilles Tang.

Other options would be another big pufferfish or something like a queen trigger if you wanted to get aggressive...

Bigger wrasses of the Thalassoma genus could also add some nice color.

At 7 meters, you could consider parrotfish or filefish too.

And lastly, consider fullsized Angelfish like Queen Angels, Emperor Angels, Blueface Angels, or Swallowtail Angels.

 

[Bobox]

Thanks, i`ll look into all these ideas, hopefully find something quite hardy and equally impressive.

what about the ray or the bamboo shark?
Advisable?

 

[bronzecat]

Hi

The only thing to bear in mind with the Bamboo shark, is that they dont compete well for food with aggressive feeders so target feeding the shark may be necessary. As far as i have read it can be kept with most of the fish mentioned above.

 

[scott133]

hi

what have you got for the tank then and get some pics up

thanks scott