My 125 Gallon Diary

[jt41484]

Well i finally took the plunge into saltwater. Ive always wanted a sw tank and was never able to find the room for it. I just recenlty finished building my house and was looking at my lfs for a new tank setup when the lady asked me what i was looking for i told her i wanted to do sw and was looking for the largest tank i could afford. She proceeded to there classified bulliten board where to my surpise there was a 125 gallon tank setup for freshwater for sale. So i called the number and got directions to make a long story short i went and bought it came with stand "pressboard" glass tops and two 48" pc lights for freshwater. got all that for 300

 

[jt41484]

the current equipment in there are as follows
2 300 watt Visitherm heaters "sump"
Return pump is a Aquaclear 70
One 48"PC light " fish only for now "
Overflow Box
about 150lb's rock
crushed coral substrate approximatly 100lbs

 

[jt41484]

Current Stock list is as follows
1 Peppermint Shrimp "Very Shy"
1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Firefish
1 Rocky Angel
2 Green Chromis
1 Lawnmower Blenny
2 Turbo Snails
1 Green Brittle Star
what i would like to add is as follows
1 black Brittle Star
1 Hippo tang or 1 Blonde Naso Tang
10 more Cleaner shrimp
5 or more Peppermint shrimp
2 Percula clowns
1 Niger Trigger
1 Valentini Puffer
1 Dogface Puffer
A few different Shrimpgobys
1 Purple Firefish
1 Blackcap Basslet
1 Copperband Butterfly
1 Scooterblenny - Red
1 Blue Lobster
Any input on these lists would be greatly appreciated

 

[mcbdz]

So far looks good with what's in there. I would go with Hippo. Naso need larger tank. Puffers will eat inverts.
How long has it been set up? How did you cycle it? I would slow down a little and let everything adjust. While waiting please research what you want and see if it will go with what you already have. That will be way too many fish. Rule of thumb is 1 " of adult size of fish per 5 gal on new tank and per 3" in well established mature tank. Then you have to take into acount the bioload of the fish. Puffers, tangs, angels, triggers are large bioloads so you don't want more then maybe 3 in that size tank.

 

[jt41484]

setup for about 3 months cycled with 2 percs

 

[saba3516]

I agree with mcbdz your tank sounds good for now you do want too rush it. I have had my 125 set-up for almost 4 years now and only have a couple of crabs and 4 fish which are all doing awesome learned some hard lessons in the beginning about adding fish too fast. Just don’t rush it and add a couple more things that you really want. Buy small, you can always upgrade your tank in the future.