New FO Person - Advice

andymi

andymi

Member
Hey all,
I have been on the reef threads for months now and my 70 gallon reef is looking fantastic and running great so far (minus a pain in the arse Sally Lightfoot!)
Anyhow, this weekend I came into a 15 gallon tank and a blue lined trigger. After doing research I learned this just was not going to cut it. At the same time the girlfriend wanted to get a stars and stripes puffer. After research and such we went off to the LFS which has aquariums pretty cheap, and low and behold the guy covinced me to get a 150 gallon. We are just now in the process of building our own stand etc. I am going for what they call the "150 gallon on a budget" scenario (I know impossible to do).
Anyhow, since I have never had an aggressive setup with triggers and puffers, I am looking for your advice as to how it should be setup and such. I was thinking of getting maybe 20lbs of cured live rock, then maybe another 40 or so pounds of standard lace rock (cheaper). With 20 lbs in a 150 gallon will that cycle pretty quick? Should I also add maybe 20 lbs of live sand? Any advice on how to setup this tank would be great. Again we are just looking for things like puffers, triggers and maybe some larger tangs all in the same aquarium. (Oh and maybe an emporer angel or queen angel.)
TIA,
Andy
 
craigj

craigj

Member
With a tank of that size, you might want to add more rock, and definitely more live sand. I put 40 lbs. in my 75 and it took it about 3 or 4 weeks to cycle. As for your stocking questions, here's my insight. Triggers should not be kept with puffers or angels because of their aggression. If you really want a trigger, with a tank your size, you could add say a grouper, lion fish, harlequin tusk, eel, or wrasse. As for the budget thing...good luck!
 
pufferlover

pufferlover

Active Member
andymi; check out my post just now to the post titled Puffer. I really don't want to get long winded here saying all that again. This is a question that just keeps coming up and I understand why. I tried the same thing in my 120 with a Niger and it did not work lost the Niger and got my prize Puffs sick (they are fine now tho thank the lord). Now the Niger probably would have worked if added a long time ago but after a few years without one the Puffs had no desire to start with one in their tank. They stressed it out so bad within days it was sick and infected them and my Emperor Angel (which I should not have added either) and they both died, and it took me 6 weeks to save the Porks from going to. It was one of the worst times I have had in this hobby as those Porks are my prize fish and my favorites. I vowed never to do that again to them and altho I did give them 2 more tankmates I picked very carefully and now all 4 live well together.
 
andymi

andymi

Member
Thanks, luckily I have some time to do this right. I am still in the process of building the sand so I am asking questions and returning the things (equipment) i bought to hastily. I think we are leaning more towards an Angel/Community tank now. My girlfriend really likes the queen and emporer angels. Now I need to do some reading to see if I can put a niger trigger in with some angels and such. I also like chromis because they school together, but I need to make sure they trigger wont eat them (which I am sure he probably will).
--Andy
 
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