first fish only/ aggressive tank

[tb27272]

I presently have a 55 gallon reef tank and I am considering on purchasing a 180 from a friend who works at the lfs. It is a five foot long tank and presently has one lionfish, one spotted hawk, one yellow tang, one luna wrasse, one six line wrasse, one huma huma trigger and a snowflake eel. I will have his support ( his landlord was not happy when his power bill spiked and he saw the tank), will this be manageable? It has about 100 pounds of live rock, I just cannot decide if I should keep my corals and trade his fish or keep his fish and trade my corals as I do not think I can convince my wife to keep both. Any advice? The other issue is that I would have to upgrade the lighting for a reef set up, which would be expensive.
thanks tommy
The other concern is that I have a toddler in the house ( who is respectful towards the tank and has never offered to try to get in the 55)

 

[Wolverine]

Long term you can run into trouble with a lionfish and Rhinecanthus trigger in the same tank. The 6-line could also turn into a meal for the lionfish.

Dave

 

[tb27272]

thanks, I realize that I will have some fish that get rather large and they are all inherently aggressive. Fish are more enjoyable for my daughter. My boss has a 125 reef tank in our showroom, it has been up for about four months, so I was thinking that my softies and lps corals should fare well in his tank, but we are attached to our existing fish, so I have a dilemma.

 

[stykthyn]

minus the lion that tank sounds pretty rounded out and should do well. If you want to keep the lion then I would remove the trigger as it can put a serious hurting on the lion if it has a mind to.

 

[Ironsheikh]

180 is a good size -- keep the fish , sell the corals for your lighting and keep a little for a nano tank

 

[tb27272]

thanks for the input, the bubble coral mushrooms, and polyps can go in my in laws tank, the toadstool's top is about 10" so it will not fit well in a 55 gallon, my frogspawn is also quickly out growing my 55.

 

[stykthyn]

start fragging the frogspawn and sell the braches you cut. they grow like weeds and will be huge again in no time. I prune mine 3 times a year.

 

[tb27272]

thanks again for the help, I went by yesterday and eric feed the tank while I was their, the lion and trigger eat sliver sides out of his hand. The snowflake is not in the predator tank yet as is just now starting to come out in the open in his reef tank, so it might be a while for he can catch it and move it. Hopefully he makes it to the rocks, I was told the trigger tries to take a bite out of anything he puts in the tank and the eel is only is about 8" long. I am in the process of reinforcing my floor as I do not feel comfortable with a 180 being on a wood floor. Also, the 55 is where the 180 needs to go, so that is a pain. Luckily, the floor joists run perpendicular to the tank, so I am thinking of digging a footer, using a pair of jacks and a 6x6 beam to support the floor joists. Any insight.

 

[tb27272]

I think I have decided that I will downsize my 55 to a 29 I have lying around. Everything can stay but the btas- they are moving and stinging other corals. Then the 180 can go where the 55 is presently. My wife's opposition to the predator tank was that she felt I was discarding our present fish, so hopefully this will work.