125 gallon setup

[rossthefishman]

hey guys and gals, recently i got an itch to set up a reef tank in my 125 tank. so i'm going to break the whole thing down and start from scratch. here are my ideas for basics at the moment:

Hardware and such...

Protein skimmer : $174.00 - Berlin turbo classic, rated for 250 gallon tanks
Water pump : $19.99 - ViaAqua water pump, model 2300, 600 gph, 41 Watts, 7 ft. max head
Wavemaker + powerheads : $78.99 - moves 480 gph, with adjustable wavemaker powerstrip
Reef sand : $64.00 - special grade reef sand, 80 lbs
Salt : $24.00 - reef crystals, 100 gallon mix
Lighting : already have - coralife compact florescent 50/50 bulbs, 2 - 65W + 1 36W
Tank : already have - 125 gallon, all glass

Has anyone had bad experiences with these things? After this is all bought, i'm searching for the best place to buy live rock and live sand. I'll be getting about 80lbs of rock or so, and i can't afford to pay a fortune for it. i'd like good rock, i can cure it on my own. any suggestions on where to get it? and i just need enough live sand to seed my existing bed (maybe 20 lbs or so).

fish... here are my ideas at the time

1 or 2 lawnmower blennies
7 small blue/greed reef chromis (to school)
1 royal gramma
1 firefish
1 neon goby
1 longnose hawkfish
1 pacific blue tang
1 yellow tang
2 oscellaris clowns
1 manderinfish (once tank is long established)
1 small kole tank
1 small powder blue tang
i believe this would be a managable amount of fish, and i know everyone's going to pound me for this one, but i'd love to have one small imperator angel in there, but that may be overdoing it. what do you think of this selection? as far as inverts go, i'm going to introduce them first, but as of right now i'm not sure what i'm going to get, mainly soft corals, and an anemone too (for my clowns). please tell me what i need to change if anything. also if you have any pictures of reef tanks that at the time are set up similar to what i'm doing, or with many of these same fish, i'd love to see them for some ideas. thanks guys



-tyler

 

[rossthefishman]

okay, one minor change, rather than just the PC's, i'm adding

Nova Extreme HO T-5 Fixtures w/Lunar Lights - 48", 216W, $200.00 this will cover the main part of my tank.

 

[rossthefishman]

c'mon, somebody give me some input here. i'm really in the dark on all this.

 

[dougie]

19 fish! 3 of them being tangs! sorry dont think that will work.

the return pump needs to be larger, say an Eheim 1262.
dont know about the skimmer? What sort of corals do u want?

im planning a 120g also, i want a mixed reef with only a very little SPS and im going 2x 250w 14k halides + T5 atinics about 610watts total. id want more flow in tank also, i was recomended 2x tunze 6000's with controller, by people on reef central.

HTH.

Cheers.

 

[rdmpe]

-Is the tank drilled or will you do hang on overflow box?
-Will you do a refugium? This will go a long way toward supporting your mandarins and helping reduce nitrates from too many fish...
-That lighting might only support sps near the water surface. A couple of 175 halides might be a good idea (I don't know the dimensions of a 125 tank...)
-That's more fish than I have in my 180. I think you might end up battling nitrates, phosphates, etc. trying to keep those fish fed.
-I think you'll want several powerheads in there, you should be shooting for about 2000+ gph total

 

[dreaminmel]

I have some different equipment than you do but here is a link to my recent 125 upgrade in case it can give you any ideas. (There's a link to the setup info w/ equipment under the pics.)

125 upgrade

Your fish load does seem a bit high and if it was me I'd probably rule out a couple of fish including one of the tangs as they produce a lot of waste, but it depends what you want for corals. Sps are more finicky on water quality than lps or softies are...

My fish load:
2 Female Swallowtail Angels
1 Firefish
Mandarin pair
3 Green chromis
1 Pacific Blue tang
Currently considering a trio of chalk bass but that would be the last fish addition for sure...
--My sps are doing excellent with the current fish load.

Hope that helps,

Melanie

 

[rdmpe]

Take your time and wait for live rock to come up for sale in your area from other reefers who are breaking down tanks. Wait for rock that does NOT have algae problems, NOT full of aptasia, etc. It might take a few months but will be much cheaper, will avoid the die off / curing process of LR from most LFS, will probably get much more "lively" live rock, etc.

The most important thing, take your time and do it right the first time.

 

[rossthefishman]

rdmpe:

i'll have a hang on overflow box, i don't want to drill it.
i'm doing a refugium of about 25 gallons in itself
i'd like to wait for some available rock, but i don't really know all that many other people in my area with reef tanks. i might just have to order and cure the rock on my own.

dreaminmel:

thanks for the link, it's giving me some good ideas about what to do with the rock, i really like those angels you have in there! and i think i might subtract the kole tang. do you think i'd be able to support an imperator angel?


thanks


-tyler

 

[rossthefishman]

what about a wavebox? would that give me optimal flow? if so, can i make one myself?