will these fish be happy together? new set-up

[cody57]

i'm preparing to purchase a 120 gal. tank. i have a wet/dry system from earlier set-up. will go w/2 power heads and ugf. need to find a good and easy skimmer(the one i had w/my old set-up was too hard to get and keep it at the right setting). similar to my old set-up, i'd like to have a snowflake eel, red lion, fuzzy lion, fox face, humu humu trigger(sp), spiny puffer, flame angel and horseshoe crab. my old tank was a 55 gal. my past failures may have been too many fish or impatience of adding them. i would appreciate help on which of these fish may not get along together or maybe too many fish for a 120 gal. tank. thanks in advance for any help. cody57 p.s. in what order should i introduce these fish? thanks

 

[kev]

I would skip the foxface, humu humu, puffer, and flame angel. The lions and eel will get along fine, but the foxface and angel need really good water quality which you won't get with an aggressive setup. The puffer and trigger COULD nip the fins of the lions. OR, you could keep the trigger, puffer, eel, and skip the lions. You could add a couple more depending on what types of fish you plan to add, do you have any ideas? I would also skip the ugf, they aren't useful for a salt tank. The wet/dry with the two powerheads and skimmer should be good enough for that tank. What type of substrate are you going to use? I suggest a live sand bed(3-5 inches) with some live rock. HTH

 

[yetex]

I suggest that you rethink using an ugf (its old Skool)
Use a deep sand bed around 4" deep
and that might be too many fish for that tank but even if you do put all them in there you better have a top of the line skimmer on it with all the waste they will produce
you better get some more info from some of these other guys on here
it will save you time and money

 

[cody57]

thanks for you suggestions!! in looking over the internet sites i found one view anti-ugf and one pro. please excuse my ignorance, kev, but i was going to put the power heads on the ugf tubes for the ugf. how do you use them w/o a ugf? the fish i had most interest in were the humu humu, eel and the fuzzy lion. i had one before and she was quite timid. between the puffer and volitan lion, she wasnt getting much food. i was able to draw her to the top of the tank and hand feed her. she seemed to have quite a personality. the same w/the puffer. could i get along w/just the fuzzy lion? i saw on one of the sites live sand "directly from the ocean bottom". do you recommend this and if so, what percentage? 1/2, 1/4... thanks.

 

[cody57]

thanks for your help. do you know of a good skimmer that is easy to set-up and use that works well? i ordered several books on marine aquaia. dr. burgess's mini-atlas of marine aquarium fishes, saltwater aquar. for dummies and the conscientious marine aquarist: a commonsense handbook for successful saltwater hobbyists. do you guys have any comments about these books? thanks

 

[shmeeb]

you're not going to be that happy with "saltwater aquariums for dummies" i got it awhile back. some good info, concentrating on the very basic, but the author specifically singles out snowflake eels, lions, and a few others as fish that you want to avoid. he's of the opinion that beginners should stay away from agressive speices in general, and gives little info on how to care for them. IMO reef tanks are much harder to maintain than an aggressive tank.