New Tank Setup Questions

[rubytuesday]

Greetings All,
This is my first post, and yes I have been a fish person many years ago when Reef tanks were really starting to become popular. On to the questions. I am starting a tank that will not be housing any corals. Possibly inverts but that is it. Mostly fish. Here is my setup. 125 with Wet/Dry, 25w UV, Berlin Classic Skimmer, some powerheads. I have about 4 inches of dry aragonite in the tank and about 125 lbs of Grotto rock in there as well. I am looking to use the Grotto as a base and add about 50 lbs of live rock on top for some filtration but mostly looks. The tank has been running with SW for the last week. I am thinking of adding LS, about 20lbs worth and cycling with some Black Mollies. Will the UV be a problem with the LR? Does anyone see anything that jumps out as a problem? I guess it is really a FOWLR, but may add a carpet or blue tip anemone and clown. Fish will be a med angel, purple tang, cleaner wrasse, some shrimp, possible a pigmy angel. All suggestions welcome. Thanks!

 

[fshhub]

welcome afoard,
what is grotto rock?
if you add lr and ls, you won't realy need the mollies, that will be enough of a load to start your cycle
don't run the uv or skiemmer until the cycle is complete
and one suggestion i do have, is to consider using the wet dry as a sump and not a filter, jsut use it for circulation without any bioballs or any type of media
your stock does sound ok, jsut watch the pygmy and the angel, amke sure they are compatible before adding,
and GO SLOW especially with stocking
HTH

 

[rubytuesday]

I think grotto is pretty much the same as lava?

 

[templar]

You should win a prize for being the 5000th member! lol
Anyway fshhub is right don't run the UV during the cycle and no real need for mollies if you have LR and LS.
I would use the wet/dry though as its a fish only tank which produces more waste then a reef tank. Atleast some parts of it like maybe some mech. filtration.

 

[rubytuesday]

Update:
After spending some time doing some extensive reading out there, there seem to be two camps. One says do either a reef or a fish only (no live rock), and not a hybrid or FOWLR. The predominant issue is if you need to medicate the tank, the LR will suffer. While I agree with this and I have heard out there that there are reef safe meds, I cant believe that they are as effective as more traditional (copper) methods. To that end, since this will be a fish only tank, the prudent thing to do would be go fish only and skip the LR altogether. I have also heard that running UV during the cycling is better for the process? Please comment on either issue.

 

[michaeltx]

as far as the uv I have no idea.. the good that comes out of useing LR outways the little hassles that come along every now and then using copper with LR will desemate the LR but the creatures in rock help keep the tank cleaner than conventional means..
I have a 55 sorta reef working on it I have more problems out of my 20 gal FO tank than the 55 with LR so to me I like its benifits.
Michael