im toying to set up a spare 1500*550w700h tank with 400 liter sump.

if fotank what a good mix of fish how many of each species for curiousity .. any help

cheers ant,

does any one know

i was think a shool of clowns with some cardinaland a bat fish

will that be ok or not ??? any help

as my frist saltwater tank i dont want a reef and wacth it fall over so i though of fo tank..i cant get my self into much troulbe,,,,

You are talking about a FOWLR setup (Fish Only With Live Rock).

The dimensions you have given equate to about 580L for your display volume.

You can get a lot of fish in a tank that size. If you wanted a nice schooling fish then something like a Blue/Green Chromis would be ideal. They are small, peaceful, hardy and schooling.

You could then add a tang (or 2), pair of clowns and some shrimps to get you started.

Your idea of the school of clowns, cardinalfish, and batfish, MIGHT work. Clowns start life as juveniles, then become male, then ONE in the group becomes a dominant female. If you accidentally introduce 2 females, they will hate each other, it won't work. In nature they live as a group in an anemone. The group will be a female, a male, and several juveniles. If the male or female die, then others will move up the ranks to take their place. So the safe option is to start with juveniles, and let them sort themselves out. They will only behave as in nature, if you have an anemone for them to live in, or something they can use as an anemone substitute.

Cardinalfish can be OK, but can be shy, and depending just which fish, difficult to get feeding. And batfish I haven't kept so cannot comment, other than I know batfish get HUGE.

But as you can see, the "what fish should I keep" question is complex, more than can be answered in one post. But here is a fish compatibilty chart

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/comp ... _chart.cfm

The chart will help you sort out a list of possible fish, then I would suggest posting the list here for further discussion, people may suggest ones that should be left off it, or possible other additions.

i cant get my self into much troulbe,,,,

Wanna bet? :lol:

Even a FO will need reasonable skills and good filtration, but do make it a FOWLR, is best.

You will probably get away with a 10% water change per month, and may have to dose a little baking soda, to keep alkalinity up, and thereby assist pH, which should be 8.0 or better (long as it's less than 8.5).

Eventually you WILL want to try some corals, happens to us all! :lol:. But you will learn along the way. Looking forward to see how it goes .

cheers ant.. im look at fish compatiblty chart....as i would like couple of schools of diffrant fish and one large one for the center peice..that what im after..any idears whould be a help....

also how much live rock will i need in that size tank as it will be fo tank...

were you planing to have fish and sand in your tank and nothing else?

most FOWLR tanks ive seen have live rock to form caves so the fish can hide

thats some of the photos i got with a quick google search

yes i like to have sand bed of 50ml depth and with fish and maybe rock peices on the bottom not stack up.{as open sea bed}thats what im hopeful aim for..

i do like the bottom pic though..

so something more like this

but with more sand

yep thats the one with more sand and probly three to five larger rocks

i think it will be oklive roch has alot of surface area a few big rocks should work great

cool so im on the rigth track then..

thats about rigth cheers wilson,,

where are you finding these as there is lot of reef set up informaced but fo tank not...

how much light would you need for a 215L FOWLR tank??

that is what i wanted to do

FOWLR tank only needs enough light to see the occupants from what I've read, as you don't have any photosynthetic inhabitants. of course that would change the moment you look at adding certain corals for aesthetics etc. If you're looking at adding an anemone for that school of clowns you were thinking of getting, having a MH light on one side of the tank would would work .

cover any powerheads if you have them though

Yes light is not a factor, just whatever looks good to you. In fact in an averagely lit room the fish will be fine with no light at all, so lights can be timed to come on, say, at 6.00 when you get home from work, and off as soon as you like, which will be an elecrticity saver. Long as you keep their wake up and go to sleep times more or less the same each day.

OK well here's a bit of a suggestion. Since you are FO, you have an opportunity to keep a lot of fish that nobody else can if they want coral.

So, a lot of butterfly fish are Very attractive, and reasonably well behaved tank mates. Some will not get on with another of the same species, and some prefer a mate of the same species. If you work it right you could have a number of very beautiful butterfly fish in the tank. A point of interest could be some kind of puffer, and a cowfish is AWESOME. Years ago when I had a FO I had a cowfish, they are very intelligent and always watching what's happening in the room. They look at and study each person carefully, and when there were a few vistors at the tank the cowfish would always hang out by me. It would only eat if I hand fed it, and if it got hungry, would spit at the water surface. They are personality plus.

A tang or two will add interest plus eat algae, and there are some amazingly beautiful angelfish. Angelfish also seem to be quite intelligent and have a personality. Some of them will get to like you and even enjoy an occasional scratch.

Cardinalfish can be OK, but can be shy, and depending just which fish, difficult to get feeding.

For the Bangaii Cardinal once they hit sexual maturity they will pair off and kill the other pairs/single fish. These can only really be kept in more than a pair if you have a LARGE area for them.

Also don't forget Trigger fish wasp! They are awesome looking fish with good personalities! Even heard of a guy who had one that liked it's belly being tickled

Picasso triger would be cool, as would a clown trigger.

Dog face puffer

Humu Trigger

Pair of Maroon Clowns would be cool too.

may be a puffer colorful one? tangs?and a large school 30 of chromis?

p/s ive been to see what livingart got any of you going to tha bay of plenty should stop off to see him he got some reaily nice set ups. nice one mark and his little apprentice:wink: