A little background first: I've recently gotten back into the aquarium hobby after a decent absence. I'm currently running a 55gallon housing a decent amount of cichlids and one gar. When I got the tank a while back i wanted to jump back in head first and make it saltwater. But after talking with some fish friends and the lady, I was talked into going freshwater. I did at least go witht the cichlids to get something halfway cool in there. Well, now that my lady is seeing how awesome the fish are (and many trips to the LFS to hype them), I've been greenlit on getting a salt tank going. Now to my questions:
My stand at home will accomedate up to a 75gallon tank, but I'm not opposed to going with something bigger and just building a new stand. However, due to the restrictions at the house, I don't know if I can go much larger than a 125gallon. The fish the is peaking my interest the most is the Volitan Lionfish. I've wanted one of those ever since I was little. Now, some people say that these fish keep just fine with triggers, other say the opposite. Now, are there certain triggers that would be okay to house next to a lion, like say a Humu Humu? My lady really wants a puffer, so how do those fair with lions and/or triggers? Or what about a shark? Are there any kinds of dwarf sharks?
As far a filtration goes, I was looking for some weigh-ins on the canister vs sump choice. Obviously the sump is ideal, but also much more expensive. I would rather sink the money into a bigger tank or nice fish. BUT, if the sump is going to be a much better option, or someone knows some thrifty ways to go about building one or something, I'm all ears. And it would be nice to house the heater, skimmer, and everything else down in the sump. But this is mostly a cost debate here.
OR, maybe we'll just forget the aggressives and do a nice salty community tank. I don't know. The aquarium market is sooo much different than it was 10yrs ago. And there's so many different kinds of fish that weren't around before. So I guess this post is pretty open to opinions and options. I'd like to get a tank based on the type/variety of fish I want, not so much settle on fish because I got a tank that doesn't fit.
Thanks in advance. Hope for some good responses. This seems like a pretty knowledgable forum.
My stand at home will accomedate up to a 75gallon tank, but I'm not opposed to going with something bigger and just building a new stand. However, due to the restrictions at the house, I don't know if I can go much larger than a 125gallon. The fish the is peaking my interest the most is the Volitan Lionfish. I've wanted one of those ever since I was little. Now, some people say that these fish keep just fine with triggers, other say the opposite. Now, are there certain triggers that would be okay to house next to a lion, like say a Humu Humu? My lady really wants a puffer, so how do those fair with lions and/or triggers? Or what about a shark? Are there any kinds of dwarf sharks?
As far a filtration goes, I was looking for some weigh-ins on the canister vs sump choice. Obviously the sump is ideal, but also much more expensive. I would rather sink the money into a bigger tank or nice fish. BUT, if the sump is going to be a much better option, or someone knows some thrifty ways to go about building one or something, I'm all ears. And it would be nice to house the heater, skimmer, and everything else down in the sump. But this is mostly a cost debate here.
OR, maybe we'll just forget the aggressives and do a nice salty community tank. I don't know. The aquarium market is sooo much different than it was 10yrs ago. And there's so many different kinds of fish that weren't around before. So I guess this post is pretty open to opinions and options. I'd like to get a tank based on the type/variety of fish I want, not so much settle on fish because I got a tank that doesn't fit.
Thanks in advance. Hope for some good responses. This seems like a pretty knowledgable forum.
