Open water swimmer

[r2_.d2]

Hey guys new to the site and have a question on what type of bigher fish I can have in my tank. It's a 29gallon 30 in long. I have 1 clown fish (small), one blue damsel, 1 6 line wrase and a chocolate chip starfish. I dont have any rock just decorations. I love the flame angle but get mixed answers from the pet store if they can live in my tank. Thoughts? 

 

 

[r2_.d2]

Also has anyone used the reef glass skimmer? Using a red devil 150 now but broke the mounting bracket so need a new skimmer.

[LongBeachReefer]

Pajama cardinal maybe. Why don’t you have live rock? You’re pushing it for bio load with a flame angel. Especially with no live rock. Plus they can nip at corals and maybe some small invert. Although my flame angel has never messed with either. Don’t have any experience with nano sized skimmers, only larger ones. Aqua c and tunze has some with good reviews. 

[Tamberav]

I would hate to put an angel in a tank without live rock... they like to pick at it. 

 

Your current fish are going to get pretty aggressive as they age and most of them are active swimmers already. 

 

Reef glass skimmer isn't powerful enough for your tank/planned stock imo... get something better. I used them on... 5-10g. 

[r2_.d2]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I would hate to put an angel in a tank without live rock... they like to pick at it. 

 

Your current fish are going to get pretty aggressive as they age and most of them are active swimmers already. 

 

Reef glass skimmer isn't powerful enough for your tank/planned stock imo... get something better. I used them on... 5-10g. 

Okay thanks on the reef glass was looking for a different internal skimmer. I've had all my fish for about a yr now, and all of them are extremely happy no nipping. Do you still think they will get aggressive?

[r2_.d2]

3 hours ago, LongBeachReefer said:

Pajama cardinal maybe. Why don’t you have live rock? You’re pushing it for bio load with a flame angel. Especially with no live rock. Plus they can nip at corals and maybe some small invert. Although my flame angel has never messed with either. Don’t have any experience with nano sized skimmers, only larger ones. Aqua c and tunze has some with good reviews. 

Idk with the live rock, inexperience? I've always thought the live rock seemed to grow alot of algae. At least the pet store looks like that.

[Natereef]

A couple of blue chromis.

[r2_.d2]

Here's another question why do some fish even if they are smaller require such a large tank? Example some puffer fish are 1inch but need 150 gallons?

[Tamberav]

38 minutes ago, r2_.d2 said:

Here's another question why do some fish even if they are smaller require such a large tank? Example some puffer fish are 1inch but need 150 gallons?

 

They are super active fish... they need room to swim or they get stressed. Some fish also turn aggressive in small tanks (this happens over time, not right away). I don't know of a puffer that is 1 inch... I think the smallest ones grow to 3 inches. 

 

4 hours ago, r2_.d2 said:

Idk with the live rock, inexperience? I've always thought the live rock seemed to grow alot of algae. At least the pet store looks like that.

A reef tank set up properly and maintained properly doesn't grow a lot of algae.

[r2_.d2]

5 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

They are super active fish... they need room to swim or they get stressed. Some fish also turn aggressive in small tanks (this happens over time, not right away). I don't know of a puffer that is 1 inch... I think the smallest ones grow to 3 inches. 

 

A reef tank set up properly and maintained properly doesn't grow a lot of algae.

Okay well what about a Valentini puffer for my tank then? I read one inch on a different puffer and saw (later) that that's just the size they sell them. Would that fish be ok in my tank and possibly adding some live rock for his teeth? Idk if he would use it or not. I did read they need snails or shrimp along with feeding. Is that a few a month, one a  week or depends on the fish?

[AzureElf]

 

On 4/16/2019 at 12:51 PM, r2_.d2 said:

Here's another question why do some fish even if they are smaller require such a large tank? Example some puffer fish are 1inch but need 150 gallons?

This goes back to the live rock thing. Most fish we keep in an aquarium set up territories inside or near their reef rock in the wild to keep themselves safe from predators. If they don't have that rock in the tank they get very stressed, bc its in their DNA to hide. So taking all that rock out of a tank is not only detrimental to the health of the water in your tank bc your live rock is your biofilter, but also it is detrimental to the lives of your fish because they can't do what they do naturally. Which goes back to the size of the tank. A fish may be tiny but it will set up a large territory to defend. Some fish that are aggressive need a huge tank to be kept with more peaceful fish so that the peaceful fish can set up their safe space far away from the aggressive fish.  You have a few of those fish in your tank already. Eventually, there will be issues. You can do research on what fish can be kept together but tank size is serious and MUST be used with something the fish can hide in. If you refuse to use live rock (which I honestly can't understand...it doesn't grow algae if you are doing it right) then at least have fake rock with LOTS of nooks, crannies, and caves for the fish.  I am curious though...what are you using for biological filtration because you need 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon of water and also live sand for proper filtration to handle your nitrogen cycle. Please say you aren't using bioballs as those will just murder your whole tank given time.

 

[Tired]

Good advice, but this thread is over a year old.