Help on setting up the tank

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fishsticks7

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Messages
80
Location
ohio
Ok so i went to the fish store and I'm buying a 75 gallon tank. Everyone keeps giving me mixed advice on how many fish when to put them in what to buy and whatever. So this is what I'm planning on doing.
75 gallon tank
crushed coral
filter
heater
the guy said to get a pump or something to move the water around so im gonna get one of those

These are the fish i want to get

dwarf lionfish
panther grouper
porcupine puffer fish
yellow tang
black and white percula clownfish

Will these fish work together? is there anything else i need? How long should i wait before adding the fish and setting up the tank? Should i space out the fish? He said to get damsels but i read that they're agressive. Should i start out with a butterfly fish? i read that those are peaceful. would that make a good starter fish?
 
the panther will get way to big for a 75 gallon tank plus chances are he'll eat your clowns, butterflies are real sensative so they're not good starters. Cycling a tank can take up to 3 weeks, some real sensative fish don't do well in tank until about three months in such as some angels the water needs to season after it cycles. Another thing is that if you put the dawrf lion in with the clowns make sure the clown go in first, and that they are much bigger than the lion. HTH
JC
 
so should i start with damsels? how many? Then following those....the clowns? then maybe the tang? then puffer then lion fish?
 
sounds like a plan but if you want to avoid damsels because of their agressiveness which they are, i would start with chromis, i like green chromis, plus they like to school if you have five or more. another way to start a cycle is to put fresh shrimp in the tank from your local grocery store and leave it decay to give off bacteria. otherwise thats the order i would put the fish in the tank, but if you use chromis or damsels give the tank 2 days of running with nothing in it. and i would let there be at leaste 2 weeks between fish. unless they're small fish such as clowns, damsels, chromis, ect..
 
alright thanks for the advice. should i put in a couple snails or a starfish when i first cycle the tank? Will these help keep the tank healthy? What should i be checking for? I hear all these things like nitrate levels and stuff. What should i check for and when will i know its safe to put in a damsel? is a protein skimmer a good idea? How often should i clean the crushed coral and the decorations? I don't think im ready for coral. Will i eventually be able to put coral in with these fish if i feel im ready? Sorry for all the questions everyones probably answered a million times. I just don't want to kill all the fish.
 
no inverts before cycleing they'll die, they do help keep a tank healthy once the tanks ready, check for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph. during the cycle process ammonia starts out very high which normally kills all fish, after a few days nitrite goes up, this is when i would add the damsels, and finally nitrates jump up at this time do a 25 percent water change. also check the salinty. protien skimmers are good for controling small organic matter from becoming nitrates, but not to nessacry unless you do corals, i vac my substrate once a monthe with my 20 percent water change, but there is much debate about vacumening. are you gonna use LR. Corals need excellent water quality intense lighting, and good filtration, plus the puffer and lion probably wont work out lion eat inverts like shrimp not a coral but a common reef inhabitant, and puffers will munch on corals.
JC
 
I don't think live rock is in the picutre. I'm probably just gonna use the dead coral they have. It looks nice and i heard it'll be healthy for the tank or something. So no coral for a while i think. And definately not with the puffer and lion. So add all my fish and then some inverts? Would you suggest about 5 fish for a 75 gallon tank. A damsel, a clownfish, a tang, a lion, and a puffer? or is that too many? How long will it be before the fish start getting larger? How long do the fish last? thanks for all your help i really appreciate it.
 
they have a fish calc, on this page. if you go to the home page its at the top right. you prob wont be able to do inverts with a puffer. he'll eatem. lions and puffers grow really fast they can double in size in as soon as 6 months. ive heard clowns as old as 10 years. best advice i ever got for salt water fish is be patient one fish at a time take it slow it will be better in the long run.
 
the reality is that you should have LR (about 2 lbs per gallon, at least 1) and the cycle would probly be more like 6 weeks. If you don't have one get a good test kit. also you shouldn't use fish to cycle. put a peice of raw shrimp in, and cycle the tank with that. It will provide more than enough amonia to cycle the tank. after the tank cycles, then and only then should you add fish (one at a time) allowing two weeks in between each new addition. This will give time for the tank to adjust to the bio-load of each new addition.

Please don't place any fish in harms way by adding then prior to the tank cycling. 0X
 
So i got the 75 gallon aquarium today. It took forever and a day to set up and get the filter together. I bought a canister filter and a pump and a heater and cleaned the gravel for like 3 hours. But it still wasn't running clear so i figured it wasnt gonna get much better so i put it in the tank. It's kind of foggy right now but im guessing it'll clear up by morning. Then tomorrow i can mess with the salt and make sure the level is right and the pH and make sure its the right temperature. So thanks for all your help everyone.
 
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