I have a 125g aggressive tank
Current setup
-1 inch Sugar sized sand base
-40lbs live rock(shark likes to knock down rocks like jenga, so I try to not to make a high aquasqape, just enough for him to hide and enough for my other fish to hide as well)
-proclear wetdry 125 series
-2 300watt heaters
-2 100 gallon rated protien skimmers (puffer and shark make a mess when eating, and increasing the skimming helped to keep the water parameters level and helps keep the water cleaner)
-extra powerhead for waterflow
-2 175 watt metal halide bulbs (I prefer the look of metal halides brings out the color of the fish more, but I think t5 lighting would sufficient to bring out the colors in an aggressive tank)
-moonlighting rig
my stock is
bamboo shark
porcupine puffer
hippo blue tang
emperor angel
whiteline trigger
maroon clown
I am planning to upgrade to a 300 gallon when the fish get larger, but if they were full grown, a 125 would be to small
100-200 gallons is quite a large difference, if you are running a 100, i wouldnt suggest more than 3 aggressive fish. a 200, maybe 6 to 8 depending on its dimensions.
current cost of my 125 setup
tank $300
lighting $400
rock $100
sand $50
heaters $50
wet/dry $175
powerhead $25
total $1100 not including livestock
as for suggestions, heres my suggestions
100 - 125
puffer
smaller angel (not a emperor or french, etc)
trigger
and possibly a wrasse/tang/eel/lion
up to 150
same list, maybe adding a wrasse/tang/eel that you didnt add to the 125
up to 180
just expand upon the 150 by adding another fish from that list
up to 200
puffer
larger angel
trigger
tang
lion/eel/wrasse
possibly a ray depending on dimensions of tank
add one fish at a time to see if ammonia levels rise or not, if they do, you have too many.
my tank is a lil different than most rockwise because of the personality of my shark and puffer, they are the kings of moving stuff, and if I added more rock, I wouldnt be suprised if they broke the tank. Most ppl have alot of rock because their fish/tankmates dont have such a personality to do that, and since its an aggressive tank, you can mix the live rock w/ base rock to be more cost effective. look at a few pictures in the photography section and there are some good examples of FOWLR setups w/ a fairly large amount of rock.
Floursents will work for an aggressive tank, but remember that better lighting can bring out colors, so id recommend a minimum of t5 lighting, which u can get the ballast for about $125 and bulbs run $40-60 depending on size.
