Ready to buy fish - need input

[extremepcs]

Hi all,
I am going to be buying fish next week. My 125g tank has fully cycled and I already have a few inverts in it and they are doing well. I purchased the "janitor reef" pack from SWF which is:
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 20
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 20
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 25
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Lettuce Nudibranch: 2
Emerald Crab: 5
Coral Banded Shrimp: 1
For fish, I was thinking 1 of each:
Blue hippo tang
Percula Clownfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Not sure what else.

Any suggestions? I'm trying to keep it a peaceful tank and have the option to add coral down the road. The 3 fish above are listed as "reef safe" on SWF. They also say to not have more than 1 angel fish, which is fine.
Thanks!

 

[hot883]

Do you have plenty of live rock? (100+ lbs.?)
That list will be fine, do not add all at once though and once you have added your first fish you will then need to start QT the other ones. I would add a pr. of clowns, not just one.

 

[azfishgal]

Yeah!!! It's fish time! :happyfish Can't wait to see pics of your first tenants.
Husband has started my stand!

Won't be long now!

 

[extremepcs]

I have roughly 120 lbs in my tank and another 20-30 in my sump. A bunch of caulpera in the refuge chamber of the sump. So I need a QT? Ah man... Another month+ to cycle another tank?

 

[shogun323]

IMO, QTing isnt an option, it's a must. All it takes is one sick fish to infect your whole tank. Then comes the fun of trying to catch all of your livestock to treat them, which almost always means taking your whole tank apart. Unfortunately I am speaking from experience.

 

[extremepcs]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
Yeah!!! It's fish time! :happyfish Can't wait to see pics of your first tenants.
Husband has started my stand!

Won't be long now!
Not a lot to look at right now, but the crabs are fun to watch. The emerald crabs are my favorite. They hide in the rocks most of the time, but it's very cool to see them work when I can. Here are some pics.

 

[extremepcs]

Does it (QT) need to cycle for 4-6 weeks? Can it be just a 10g with a powerhead and heater, with no rock or sand?

 

[mandarin w]

A small tank 10 or 20gallon is fine, all you want in and on the QT tank, is a little HOB filter, water, heater, a light doesn't have to be strong at all, you can use the standard light that come with the tanks, and a piece of PVC or two for the fish to hide in.
You can use water from your dispay tank, this will help the cycle along, You might also run your HOB filter on the dispay tank for a couple days. This will help populate the filter pads with benifical bacteria for the QT.
It is best to get one fish at a time, unless they are paired. Like mated clowns.
I love the little firefish. either ones would work well in a reef tank, and they are not aggressive in no way.

 

[azfishgal]

Originally Posted by extremepcs
Not a lot to look at right now, but the crabs are fun to watch. The emerald crabs are my favorite. They hide in the rocks most of the time, but it's very cool to see them work when I can. Here are some pics.
Well....you have more to look at than me. I went into the garage to check on the stand being built and noticed my tank was not covered before the cutting began and it's now covered in sawdust! :scared: My husband vacumed it up, but now I'm going to have to give it a more detailed cleaning than I had planned.

BUT, I didn't complain as he's building my stand, rigth?

And I'm proud to say I ordered my QT yesterday so I will set it up at the same time i set my main tank up. That way it will be ready to go when I need it.

 

[jayeden]

you have pic of the entire tank?

 

[extremepcs]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
Well....you have more to look at than me. I went into the garage to check on the stand being built and noticed my tank was not covered before the cutting began and it's now covered in sawdust! :scared: My husband vacumed it up, but now I'm going to have to give it a more detailed cleaning than I had planned.

BUT, I didn't complain as he's building my stand, rigth?

LOL... I did the same thing. Generally men do not care about collateral damage while we are working

Kind of like when I was sanding a drywall patch over our bed and didn't cover up the bed with anything. My wife was very pleased with me! But hey, I finally fixed the hole, right?

 

[murph]

IMO For a new tank you can risk a no QT.
First find out how your LFS is holding his fish and when new arrivals are put in his tanks. Most LFS run copper in there FO holding tanks. If the fish in question have been at the LFS for 3 to 5 days in copper treated tanks you have pretty good odds there will be no parasite problems.
A good indicator that your LFS is running copper to avoid parasite problems (ick) is seeing two systems in the store with one that contains no inverts. A good LFS should have no problems telling you just how he is holding his fish and if there is any ambiguity to his answers at all assume that he is not running additives like copper or they are not carefully monitored. The latter is actually worse IMO. When chelated copper is used at the proper dose and monitored carefully there should be no problems with most species provided the exposure dose not become lengthy.
One species you mentioned, the hippo, is also known for doing poorly in small QT tanks.
The risk you will be taking here other than potential money lost is that you do introduce parasites to your system. If you do you will be looking at a fish-less period for your new DT of more than a month. This will however coincide with the amount of time it will take to set up and QT any new fish.
After these first additions go into the tank and hopefully do well and become established, by all means QT any new arrivals. Especially with a hippo in the system.
If it were me and provided the LFS makes the grade I would go with a pair of small percs and the hippo and forget about the angel for a few months. The hippo is on the carnivorous side for a tang and should present no problems feeding wise in a young system.
Good luck with the new tank.