my first 120 gallon saltwater

[ilikeb00st]

hello, I'm new on this forum but have been fish keeping for a few years. I'm new at saltwater and here is my first soon to be reef tank.

120 gallon all glass aquarium 4'x2'x2'
DIY stand (partially done, structure wise will work on making it look nicer in the future)
Right now I'm running a 48" coralife CF 2x 55w actinic and 2x 55w 10k.
I have a DE 150Watts Metal Halide with 2x 55CF that I plan on adding to the tank after I get off my lazy butt and make a DIY canopy.
Tank is located so that it can be viewed from 3 sides and the rocks are place and stacked in the middle of the tank.

Filteration is just a regular external single overflow with a wet/dry sump and a mag 5 return pump. I also added a skimmer this morning and so far its been running great.

The live stock in the tank are purchased from a local aquarist who is getting out of the hobby.

3 clowns
1 coral beauty
2 lightfoot crabs?
3 brittle star fish
3 other starfish that I'm not familiar with
1 yellow/black/white fish I'm not familiar with (maybe some kind of angel)
2 anemones
2 damsels
various hermits and snails

 

[scubanoah24]

looks good so far. depending on what corals u plan to keep u may need to upgrade the lighting down the road

 

[Paco]

Re: my first 120 gallon saltwater

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15671871#post15671871 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ilikeb00st

1 yellow/black/white fish I'm not familiar with (maybe some kind of angel)

It's a butterfly. Not sure what kind.

 

[JamesJR]

the white and grey fish you have is a Singapore angel, chaetodontoplus mesoleucus.

 

[justinmcleod]

what kind of crab is that? looks fairly large.

 

[scsuboy18]

my experience in the past involving damsels have not been very good--and I don't recommend them to anybody. When I had my 75 gallon up and going I had to tear down my entire tank just to collect them--and yes, I did bring it to LFS for free. They are just very aggressive, and they are very quick and fast so trying ot catch them in such a large tank as that, you have to have virtually no water left to get it. Then again--that's just my own experience.

 

[usefulidiot213]

I have had one Damsel in my tank for about 3 years now. He is a total A-hole to anything and everything that gets to close to his litle rock hole. The good thing is he stays in that little area and doesn't bother any thing that's not in that area. I tried to catch him about a year and a half ago, but it didn't work out very well.

 

[ilikeb00st]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15674434#post15674434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scsuboy18
my experience in the past involving damsels have not been very good--and I don't recommend them to anybody. When I had my 75 gallon up and going I had to tear down my entire tank just to collect them--and yes, I did bring it to LFS for free. They are just very aggressive, and they are very quick and fast so trying ot catch them in such a large tank as that, you have to have virtually no water left to get it. Then again--that's just my own experience.

I did notice some aggression. They were originally purchased as test fish to make sure my water parameter were fine. Since it was my first time, I didnt want to experiment with more expensive fish. For some reason I of the damsels disappeared. Looked around the tank this morning and did not find it...so it didnt jump out.. maybe eaten by something in the tank? or sucked in the overflow? ...

 

[Shane Hoffman]

Damsels are horrible tank mates.....also I would recommend that you get rid of that sally light fot crab. I had one that when it grew to an adult took out one of my clowns after lights out. I am pretty sure he took it right out of an anemone.....

Thats just my experience. Good luck. The tank looks great by the way. Good luck......

 

[ilikeb00st]

took out both sally lightfoot crabs b/c i put some peppermint shrimps in the tank. I'm scared that the shrimp might end up being a snack to the crabs. 1 of my damsel is missing too ... could it possibly be the crabs?

 

[IridescentLily]

don't know the answer, though I did have a damsel for many years (had to move him out of the main tank), but I mostly wanted to say
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>
I'll be following your thread here,it's exciting when a new person sets up their first sw tank as a reef.
Good luck!

 

[robot2222]

looks good ...............nice selection of fish ........keepup the good work.