125g aggressive reef

[welsher7]

I don't think I have ever posted pics of my 125g fowlr. So I thought I would. Current livestock: 4-5" russells liofish, 4" hippo tang, 6" yellow tang, and as of today a 18" zebra moray eel. I got it from divers den on liveaquaria.com. This was my first time dealing with liveaquaria.com and I'm very impressed. The tank has about 150+lbs of liverock, 40g sump, asm g3 skimmer, mag 12 return pump, 3 koralia4s, and koralia2 for extra flow. It is lit by 4x96 pc coralife fixture here some pictures of the tank through the setup process.

here is as it stands today with the new eel tunnels put in place

here is the eel tunnel made from 3" pvc painted w/ krylon fusion

finally some pics of the fish

I don't have any pics of the yellow tang right now, but you can see it the last full tank shot.
I plan to upgrade skimmers sometime in the fall, and then see how my nitrates and phosphates are. If they are in check with regular water changes I might add a harliduin tusk, and some decent sized damsels.

 

[Deacon]

Thanks for posting the pictures......awesome tank.

I'm in the process of setting up a 125 FO also. I wasn't considering an eel for mine, but that thing looks cool....may have to rethink.

Do you like the koralias for extra flow?

 

[welsher7]

yea I like the koralias. I wish the power cords were longer though.

 

[AquaKnight]

Awesome! I'm adding water to my 125 today, what inspiration!

 

[jrcastro]

Nice setup.

I've had a reef tank setup for about 2 years until I moved.
But I've always liked aggresive fish like triggers, puffers etc..
I'm planning on setting up a 210gallon FOWLR can you give me some tips on a good filteration system?

Is a refugium needed?
I see you went barebottom, is this a good way to get lots of flow through the tank?
How do you keep the corraline alive? What do you use to keep calcium up & what is your lighting schedule?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[welsher7]

tips for filtration lots of flow and a big big skimmer will make life a lot easier. I need to upgrade my skimmer soon. I don't add anything to the water in way of calcium. I just do water changes once a week or once every other week, to keep everything stable. you can get lots of flow with a substrate, but I thought with the messy fish going bare bottom it would be easier to keep clean and keep water params in check. lights schedule actinics on @8am off at 11pm, 10ks on @11am and off at 8pm. a refuge would certainly wouldn't hurt, but isn't needed. I would like to add a one to my tank but haven't figured where to add it.

 

[jrcastro]

thanks for the tips. were you able to keep the corraline growing on the LR with the lights and just water changes?

 

[welsher7]

This tank has been up for a couple months, and I have corraline growing on the back wall and on the the dry base rock that placed in there.

 

[NanoGurl]

Cute eel. Welcome to the club! :thumbsup:

 

[dasstheboss]

Why do you need that much flow in a fish-only tank considering there are no corlas and stuff? Any reason..im guessing on algae but there are tangs os they may eat the algae if you get some

 

[welsher7]

the tank is bare bottom. so the flow helps to keep everything off the bottom.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Looks good! Fish need and love flow just as much as corals..

 

[NanoGurl]

+1

 

[Marc]

Great setup, You are definetely on the right track. Good choice of equipment and livestock.

Marc

 

[welsher7]

UPDATE

UPDATE

I have made a lot of changes to my 125g FOWLR over the past months. Here is a quick run down. I have redone the rockwork, and redone the rockwork, and redone the rockwork. I think I finally have it the way I want it. I have added a shallow sandbed, just about 1" or so deep. I have redone the plumbing to make it more quiet. Now all you hear is the fans from the light fixture, and a slight hum from the return pump and skimmer pump. I have done the recirc mod to the ASM G3. So now I have a mesh wheel recirc that is fed directly from the overflow. I have second G3 that I am thinking about modding and running side by side. I downgraded my return pump to a mag 9.5 to slow the flow through the sump. I think that is about it. The current fish list:
Russells lionfish 6-7"
yellow tang 6"
blue hippo tang 5"
zebra eel 24"+
yellowtail damsel 3"
I just ordered a 4 1/2" X. ringens trigger fish from divers den that I should get on thursday. I think that will be my final fish I add. Here is an updated picture of the tank and the eel. The white balance is off but oh well.

 

[welsher7]

I'm picking up a 72" t-5 constellation fixture this weekend, and I also ordered a large tomato clownfish that will deliver thursday with the trigger. My FOWLR will slowly be turning into a reef. I don't plan on adding or removing any fish from this point on. These fish aren't your normal reef inhabitants but I think it will make for intresting tank.

 

[AquaKnight]

THAT WAS YOU WHO STOLE THE SARGASSUM FROM DD!!!! I WANTED HIM!! J/k, but seriously, was thinking about ordering him on Thursday. What are the odds lol.


Good to see the progression, thanks for the update. What are the corals planned?

 

[welsher7]

shrooms, zoas, and some other softies. I might try some sps down the road. we will see and definately a bta for the clown.

 

[welsher7]

I got the sargassum trigger and the clown this morning from divers den. the trigger is gorgeous and it already ate some small pieces of krill. the clown is still nervous but I hope she will relax soon. i will try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

 

[sean48183]

Nice tank and I like the fish mixture. I keep some softies with some weird fish also. I will be adding a toby puffer soon as well as possibly a humu humu so we shall see. Already have a snowflake, lunar wrasse and a couple of dwarf angels along with abunch of other reef safe fish.