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Stocking plan for 120g

I'm in the process of removing several fish from my tank as I'm going to migrate back to a reef tank. Anyway, here is my stocking plan in order that I'm thinking of adding. Tank is a 4'x2'x2' with a 40 gal sump that has been up since before Sandy (when I lost my coral and went into my fish only funk).

Looking for compatibility and order of stocking feedback.
Thank you.

10 Clownfish thinking Ocellaris (getting them as small as possible and adding a BTA)
1 Royal Gamma
1 Yellow Tang
1 Copper banded butterfly
4 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Radial Filefish
1 Midas Blenny
1 Tiger Wardi Goby
1 Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse
1 Tile Sea Star

Is that too crazy? I don't use a skimmer as have always relied on more frequent water changes but am thinking it may be time to learn more about skimmers.
 
Skimmers are a must in my opinion.. and you MAY get lucky with 10 clowns. Most likely not. The most I've seen is a harem of 5 clowns that lived together.
 

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
If you want an anemone to host your clowns without any tricks then you should get your Ocellaris clowns a natural host anemone. Either True Carpet (S. Gigantea) or Ritteri (H. Magnifica) would be your best bet. But those anemones often come down with bacterial infections and most of the time require quarantine. You can try a non-natural host such as Bubble Tip, Sebae or Saddle Carpet (Haddoni) but there is no guarantee your clowns will accept it as a host.
 

etmanning1

NJRC Member
Zoas Grow Out Winner
For the clowns you might want to try Skunk clown fish. They work great as a harem community fish.

Mark Levinson (melevsreef) has a community of 11 I think in his tank. It's on YouTube.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
That many clowns will be tough. Also chromosome are tough. Try odd numbers.
 
Thanks for all of the feedback. I took the afternoon off so I can take my son to the doc but here's what I've done in the last 30 mins.

Took 2 plastic totes, lined with contractor bags, and took out as much rock as I could see. Shook off each rock as I took it out then placed into a tote. Put a little of my tank water in there, then placed a soaked (with tank water) towel over the rock and sealed the tote. Next I drained out maybe 10 gal of the murky water. I still can't see anything lol. I have the return pump turned off but the powerhead running gently at the surface level to create some surface disruption. When I get back in about an hour, hopefully it will be clear enough that I'll be able to catch all 5 fish. If so, then I'll stir up the sand, drain maybe another 20 gallons of murky water out, put in the new saltwater, then once it's semi clear I'll start to put the rock back in. Man, I took a look at my sump and I have a lot of detrious in there so I should somehow try to siphon some of that out but that may have to wait and try to get it with one of those drill powered pumps or something.

With some luck, I'll check my water in a day and hopefully get some clowns in there within the next 2-3 days and start ramping up from there. Wish me luck.
 

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I used to clean my sump with a shop vac bucket topper.
Cost was $20 and $5 for the bucket if don't have one.
Would siphon all water and junk out sump and fill with fresh water.
I plan to start this with the tank up and running 6 months now.
 
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