Hi, I apologize before I get started, because I have a tendency to get a little long winded and I have a LOT of questions. Okay. I have a 125 Gallon glass tank (60x18x24) that I have been gradually aquiring equipment for during about a six month period. I am overrun with patience, so there is no water (don't worry). Here is what i have so far:
*RO/DI with UV
*60" Odyssea 3x175w hqi, 2x130w blue cf, 8 led moonlight
*ProClearAquatics 24x10x21 w/150g or 600gph capacity. 4.5g bio area
*SeaClone Skimmer 150 gallon ( I know its crap but my w/d also has 1
*29 gallon aquarium for refugium
*Nitrate Reductor/Denitrifier
And I only have a blurry vision of exactly what I want. But here it goes. I plan on the majority of my base rock being either Aragocrete self-made formations, or tufa rock(which does not exist in my area), and I am going to seed it with about 25lbs of live rock. I will have quite a bit in my refugium as well. I plan on keeping all types of corals (I do have adequate lighting, right?). I think I am ok there, but here is my first problem--Substrate. First off I want to say that I really want to keep a Jawfish. What is the minimum amount of substrate that I must have for this fish? I originally intended on a DSB or Plenum, but 450lbs of sand is a little much for my budget, so I decided that 1-2 inch would be ok, but I am probably pretty wrong. So then I decided to put a DSB or Plenum in my refugium so I wouldn't have to spend as much, but can I still grow all of my important flora like this? I am thinking of keeping mangrove, but that would involve Mineral or Miracle Mud for root supplementation, right? So can either of those things be incorporated into the DSB or Plenum? By the way, which of these setups would be better? Or would I be better off just getting some AragaMud, and if so, would the grain size of this cause a problem with the DSB or Plenum? I want to try and get all this right the first time, because I cannot decide which fish to take out of my imaginary aquarium. My current fish list (just what I would Like to keep, not necessarily what I WILL keep) IMO would be pushing the bio-load to its full capacity, if not farther. So now I'll give you the list of fish that I WISH I could keep, in order of personal preference:
*1 Ocellaris Clownfish
*1 Powder Blue Tang
*1 Yellow Tang
*1 Royal Gramma
*1-2 Yellow Head Jawfish
*2 Firefish (1 purple/1 common) Is this possible? Or will they fight?
Thats it for the must-haves, but I had also wanted Blue-Green Chromis and Yellow Tail Damsels. I do understand that these fish are meant to be kept in at least a small group, so I guess I'll have to scratch them off the list, huh. Anyway, I would reallly like some opinions on how I would go about keeping the jawfish with my substrate issue, as well as help on my substrate issue itself. But there is one more thing I must ask before your head spontaneously combusts lol. I have an empty 55 Gallon tank with a Rena Filstar XP3 and the HOB that comes with the 55 kit. This was meant to be a planted discus tank, but I just can't stop thinking about a triggerfish. If I end up not being able to help myself and decide that this is what will go in the tank, can I keep the filtration on it, but somehow plumb it into my main tank? Or would I have to go buy all new filtration for it and use it as a seperate system? Would I be overloading my filtration if I did that, or would it be ok because of the filtration that would already be on the 55? What I'm asking is do the pros outweigh the cons? I mean with that much more water, It would only make the entire system more stable, right? Or would the additional bioload just smother my main filtration. I plan on having my wet dry in the cabinet underneath my 29 gallon refugium, and I have no actual drilled plumbing (overflow or sump), but I plan on running my main tank water direct to my filter, and my filter outflow to my refugium, and pumping my refugium back to the tank. Is this correct? Any help would be appreciated. :rollface:
*RO/DI with UV
*60" Odyssea 3x175w hqi, 2x130w blue cf, 8 led moonlight
*ProClearAquatics 24x10x21 w/150g or 600gph capacity. 4.5g bio area
*SeaClone Skimmer 150 gallon ( I know its crap but my w/d also has 1
*29 gallon aquarium for refugium
*Nitrate Reductor/Denitrifier
And I only have a blurry vision of exactly what I want. But here it goes. I plan on the majority of my base rock being either Aragocrete self-made formations, or tufa rock(which does not exist in my area), and I am going to seed it with about 25lbs of live rock. I will have quite a bit in my refugium as well. I plan on keeping all types of corals (I do have adequate lighting, right?). I think I am ok there, but here is my first problem--Substrate. First off I want to say that I really want to keep a Jawfish. What is the minimum amount of substrate that I must have for this fish? I originally intended on a DSB or Plenum, but 450lbs of sand is a little much for my budget, so I decided that 1-2 inch would be ok, but I am probably pretty wrong. So then I decided to put a DSB or Plenum in my refugium so I wouldn't have to spend as much, but can I still grow all of my important flora like this? I am thinking of keeping mangrove, but that would involve Mineral or Miracle Mud for root supplementation, right? So can either of those things be incorporated into the DSB or Plenum? By the way, which of these setups would be better? Or would I be better off just getting some AragaMud, and if so, would the grain size of this cause a problem with the DSB or Plenum? I want to try and get all this right the first time, because I cannot decide which fish to take out of my imaginary aquarium. My current fish list (just what I would Like to keep, not necessarily what I WILL keep) IMO would be pushing the bio-load to its full capacity, if not farther. So now I'll give you the list of fish that I WISH I could keep, in order of personal preference:
*1 Ocellaris Clownfish
*1 Powder Blue Tang
*1 Yellow Tang
*1 Royal Gramma
*1-2 Yellow Head Jawfish
*2 Firefish (1 purple/1 common) Is this possible? Or will they fight?
Thats it for the must-haves, but I had also wanted Blue-Green Chromis and Yellow Tail Damsels. I do understand that these fish are meant to be kept in at least a small group, so I guess I'll have to scratch them off the list, huh. Anyway, I would reallly like some opinions on how I would go about keeping the jawfish with my substrate issue, as well as help on my substrate issue itself. But there is one more thing I must ask before your head spontaneously combusts lol. I have an empty 55 Gallon tank with a Rena Filstar XP3 and the HOB that comes with the 55 kit. This was meant to be a planted discus tank, but I just can't stop thinking about a triggerfish. If I end up not being able to help myself and decide that this is what will go in the tank, can I keep the filtration on it, but somehow plumb it into my main tank? Or would I have to go buy all new filtration for it and use it as a seperate system? Would I be overloading my filtration if I did that, or would it be ok because of the filtration that would already be on the 55? What I'm asking is do the pros outweigh the cons? I mean with that much more water, It would only make the entire system more stable, right? Or would the additional bioload just smother my main filtration. I plan on having my wet dry in the cabinet underneath my 29 gallon refugium, and I have no actual drilled plumbing (overflow or sump), but I plan on running my main tank water direct to my filter, and my filter outflow to my refugium, and pumping my refugium back to the tank. Is this correct? Any help would be appreciated. :rollface: