I'm New, Help!

[beck_bail]

Hi,

OK, Over last weekend I bought a 125 gallon tank from a friend. I've got the tank home and setup as it was before I bought it.

Now, what I want to do is setup a nice, colerfull, clean reef tank, where do I start? Here is whre I am.

I have lots of Live rock all stacked nice and pretty, along with live sand for the substrate.

Currently the fish is holding the following

1 Whale tang
1 Fox Face (tang?)
1 Yellow Tang
1 Flame Angel
1 clown (not sure what kind)
1 little blue guy with a yellow tail
1 funny looking guy, I'll have to find out what he is and post

1 Shrimp
1 Lobster
3 or 4 urchins
a handfull of turbo snails
1 star fish

Alge!!!

My plan is:
1 get the water readings all where I want them to be.
2 build up my maintance crew (hermits, snails, stars, nudibranches etc)
3 Figure out what fish I have will be a problem for a reef tank
4 Buy coral and other stuff

Now, I don't want to spend a fortune all at once. I figure $40-$80 a month. Slow but surly I'll get there.

So, now my questions.


What do ya think of my plan? What am I forgetting, what do I need to consider. I've seen cleanup crew packages for sale, but for my tank what would be the best combinations/numbers?

Advice advice advice, thats what I'm looking for.

and Thanks

 

[shilo_1]

"What am I forgetting, what do I need to consider. "

You need to do research...read, read, read, and then read some more.
You have jumped in, feet first without knowing anything about the hobby. Not saying that you are doomed to fail, but there is a lot that goes into keeping a successful tank.
Also, unfortunately, this isn't a cheap hobby to get into. If you want to keep a reef, you will likely need to upgrade your lighting (sounds like the setup is FOWLR.)

You'll need to give more info on what exactly you want to keep, ie. hard corals, soft corals, mixed reef, etc.

BTW, welcome to RC.

 

[beck_bail]

Well, when jumping into a reef I'd think feet first is better than head first.

I think it has a very good lighting system. Here is what I know about it. The kid said it was a $600 hood. It holds 4 double flouresent bulbs (2 are burnt out right now), and takes up 3 outlets. One for the front lights, one for the back, and another for a cooling fan. Any suggestions on what I should be running in there for bulbs?

Hard vs soft vs mixed. I'm not exactly sure what I need to consider when making this decision. I guess I was leaning towards mixed... BTW, while I've gotton onto the subject of coral types, what the heck is LPS and SPS?

Oh, and reading, I don't think I've stopped all week. RC seems like it will be a wealth of information for me.

Rock on

 

[ambaratur]

[welcome]

And as for your stocking list I think that blue guy with the yellow tail is probably a damsel fish.

Also the flame angel and the foxface may nip at corals if you add them to the tank.

Deffinitely read a BUNCH like shilo_1 suggested. There is so much to learn and reading will help you save time and money in the long run. This site is a good start but just a few internet searches will help too.

I would also suggest a good book, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists " by Bob Fenner. You can buy it on Amazon or even at a LFS. It is a great place to start.

Good luck

 

[hairymushroom]

SPS- small polyp stony corals ( stick like or flat plates ) eg, acropora montipora.

LPS- large polyp stony corals (have big fleshy polypswiyh hard skeleton) eg, hammer coral , brain coral

as far as lighting goes i think that setup is too little for most SPS ( which you shouldnt be thinking about right now as they require a stable tank with intense lighting and strong water movement) and you should look into MH lighting . the first thing you should do is start a good maintenance schedule eg. waterchanges 10% weekly etc.

 

[hairymushroom]

if youre willing to do soft corals and lps the lights you have should be fine , and a mixture of 10 000k and actinic will give your tank a good white look, this is where your personal preferance comes in.

 

[salreus]

read all the articles in the this link until your eyes glaze over. Then rinse and repeat.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605

 

[beck_bail]

Good stuff, keep em coming.

So, I'm going to spend a few weeks reading, and putting a maintence schedule together, and reading some more.

I guess I'll start looking into LPS and Soft corals. Maybe think about trading in the foxface and flame, maybe.

What kind of numbers and types do you guys recommend for a cleanup crew for a tank my size, with my goals in mind?

Thanks