So you have a reef tank, now what? Well, the best place to start is well before actually having a reef tank. The reason for this, is because what you have for a size aquarium (in reference to gallons, also dimensions) is going to dictate what you can have for saltwater fish. Now before you go shut down your reef tank to start over. let’s take a look at a few things.
- Just because you already have a reef tank up and running doesn’t mean you need to start over. You just need to understand (and maybe reset your expectations) that you’re not going to be able to keep every type of fish that you want.
- The saltwater fish that you want to keep should be the determining factor of the size aquarium that you’re going to need. Big fish, big tank. Little fish, little tank.
The 2nd is something that we’ve talked about in great length in our how to pick out saltwater fish for your reef tank article and I definitely encourage you to that article out. For the rest of this article we’re going to take a look at the two situation as we mentioned above and how we would go about adding fish.
How to Select Saltwater Fish – Tank Already Up and Running
This one is a tricky one because if you already everything up and running, most likely you’re going to be limited to whatever size tank you have. Some point we are going to be putting together stocking plans based on aquarium sizes.
Let’s take a look at one of the most common first reef tanks that’s folk set up and that is a 55 gallon aquarium. This is probably one of the worst size tanks that you could possibly set up for reef tank. I know this because this was my first reef tank. That’s a whole other topic for another article or podcast which I will lovingly title “The impervious 55 gallon reef.”
The reason that a 55 gallon aquarium is not ideal for a reef tank is its dimensions, which do not allow for proper gas exchange, functional aquascape, and many more reasons but like I said it’s a topic deserving of it on article.
Let’s look at a 55 gallon aquarium from a water volume standpoint and not a dimension standpoint and really that’s the reason that so many people gravitate towards this size aquarium. They are readily available (almost anywhere) and its a good amount of water.
Great resource for finding what type of fish that you can keep in a 55 gallon reef tank (or any size aquarium) would be to jump over to live aquaria and take a look at what they have for fish. Generally when you scroll about halfway down the page they will give you some quick stats on that fish.
Saltwater Fish Quick Stats:
- Care level
- Temperament
- Diet
- Reef compatibility
- Water conditions
- Max size
- Minimum tank size
Live aquaria also offers a saltwater fish compatibility chart that is absolutely amazing when you are trying to figure out what fish work well together. And itself is probably one of the most important pieces of information that you could put to work in your reef tank.
As far as for the amount of fish that I put into a 55 gallon aquarium, that could be pretty subjective due to saltwater fish care requirements that you pick out and your aquarium equipment. Now as for a 55 gallon reef aquarium that probably does not have all the bells and whistles (as far as aquarium equipment goes) I would be comfortable adding 5 to 6 fish, that get no bigger than 3 inches.
How to Select Saltwater Fish – No Tank Yet
As the tone of this entire article has pointed towards, this is the best position to be in. This is because you can first pick out your fish and then build in aquarium around them. Example, if you find that you are particularly drawn to Tangs, you will find as you do your research that you’re going to need a much larger aquarium (something in the 200 gallon range).
For some they’re probably going to say this is too big, too fast and too expensive. And ultimately it is. But when you think about it, It’s not as expensive as buying something realizing that you didn’t go big enough and then you have to buy everything again. Do I have definitely been guilty of a few times.
Being in this position you’re going to be better off ultimately because you can construct your entire aquarium around the fish that you wanna keep it if you put together the things that we talk about in the article How to Select your Saltwater Fish you’ll definitely be ahead in the game.
Fear Not… reef tanks are not as hard to maintain as you may think, but if you find yourself in need of help. Check out Maine Aquarium Maintenance.
