Setting up 200 or 240 gallon tank! Please Help

BeckhamJules

Reefing newb
I'm new to Saltwater and cant bare killing fish!

I would greatly appreciate some assistance from any one that has feed back for me before I start my tank.

Info on what I have:
-200 (70"x34"x18" by 3/4") gallon acrylic tank with overflow on one side ( which Im not sure is the best place, but assume it's for the viewing pleasure for an in wall reef tank)

-Came with skimmer and pump, return pump, and sump but did not have a refugium set up.
-pump seems small and weak in the sump
-heater and temperature control unit
-thin light ballest with small bulbs (provide more details on equipment after I clean it)

Questions:
60% or 30% white or blue LED light for reef or fish (aggressive) & rock tank?
Can you have Puffer, Box fish, Eel, dragon eel, Tangs, and more aggressive fish living together in a 200-240 gallon tank with Reef?
I'd prefer to have everything in one tank but it seems like everyone that has reef tank barely has any fish or aggressive fish?
I'd like to have 20-30 assorted fish in a 200 or 240 gallon tank with reef if this is possible?
What would be required to have a lot more fish than Im seeing in all YouTube videos?
I have not seen one tank on YouTube that has schools of assorted fish so it makes me wonder why?
Considering Control Unit but not sure if thats the best technology out?

Anyone please help me, Im going to buy what I can off the guys list provided on this forum but don't think I can afford it new. Thank you so much for any advice!

Can you mix live rock?
Need UV light?
 
You don't see hundreds of fish in one tank for lots of reasons, but I'll name the 1st three that come to mind for me. 1.High bioloads or overstocked tanks make for extremely poor water quality.Which in turn leads to disease & poor fish health. 2.The surface area of each tank will only provide enough oxygen for a certain amount of fish.More fish & less oxygen is a definite recipe for disaster. 3.When you have too many fish in one tank...they will become alot more aggressive b/c they won't have much room to roam w/o touching each other every other minute. Now honestly Would'nt that piss you off a just a little to spend your whole life bumping up against other ppl every 2 or 3 minutes. It would drive me nuts lol!! Oh & btw yes! You can have some of those fish in the same tank, but I think you have to be careful of what fish you add 1st & last in a predatory tank. As far as eels go...just make sure that your have the top of you tank sealed off somehow b/c they are known to escape out of tanks. THEN DIE :(
 
Last edited:
Hello and welcome to the site...Chuck has you covered. If you want a bunch of fish in a tank, they'd have to be smaller, reef safe fish, that are known for schooling. You don't bed an uv light, and you can mix rocks...just try to stay away from lace rocks. You can incorporate a refugium into your sump also if you like. :)
Try checking your local craigslist.com for people getting rid of equipment, and feel free to ask questions before you make important purchases.
 
Dragon eel! :bounce: (note my avatar)


The problems with puffers is they will eat crustacean and eels will eat some crustacean and small fish (depending on the species). People don't tend to keep boxfish because the are very hard to adapt to aquariums. Tangs are fine in community tanks (usually).

And try to keep less than 20 fish (counting each large one as 2-4).
 
for that size tank you should be running 2 external pumps. Be careful my tank is 225 gal I added 4 small Damsels at once and it caused my tank to cycle.
 
Back
Top