They are extremely susceptible to ich, hard to acclimatize and very easily stressed - a bad combination.

I seen one a while back at Ocean Aquatics and the guy said that they are like powder blues, but even harder to keep. That was enough to scare me away

PLENTY more where that came from my friend.

What fkshiu said.
In addition they apparently live in the part of the reef where the waves break and therefor need really highly oxygenated water.

so, why dont i put a huge air pump in the sump?

Some things just can't be replicated in our tanks :wink:.

I don't understand what all the hostility is about, Naesco is only trying to give a little advice if you don't like his opinion ignore it (Even if the advice is legitimate as this is a incredibly hard species to take care of).

Achilles tangs are one of the touchiest fish you can get. They don't ship well, get stressed easy and are hard to get to eat.

My tank is set up for my achilles tang. There are no other tangs in the tank with him and every new fish is treated for ich before going in the tank (whether they have ich or not). I believe my success so far is because of the measures I have taken to ensure this one fish health.....

IMO If you had a surge bucket operational in your set up and set it to a fast turnover it would be similar to the reef. An air pump would not be enough.
The problem is that this set up would likely adversely affect your coral and other fish who would feel as though they are in a washing machine.