SW newbie 125 gal set up

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thetonyage

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
87
Location
Northeastern PA
hey guys im new to the forum:n00b:, ive been keeping freshwater tanks on and off for my whole life. right now i have a 45 gallon hex tank with 3 red belly piranhas and a few tetras. i just acquired a 125 gallon tank from a friend of mine and i want to take the step up to a saltwater set up. ive kinda been into the carnivorous fish thing for a little while now and i would like to carry it over to saltwater species. im looking for some suggestions/advice so any input at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks alot.
 
What type of advice/suggestions are you looking for?

Types of aggressive fish? How to set up the aquarium?
 
Welcome to AA!

If you are planning on going aggressive for your SW tank you will need to do some research on good filtration methods. Most aggressive SW fish are messy eaters and you will need to keep the water clean.
 
well i know that i would like to have some coral and inverts. i want to have alot of colors goin on. so what fish would be good with coral and inverts and eat live fish?
 
in a 125 you can keep alot of diff types of fish since your doing a reef tank you will want reef safe species such as tangs,clowns,blennies damsels if you like em just add em last and lots more go to www.saltwaterfish.com in the fish profile it says if they are reef safe care level tank required size which a 125 is a pretty big tank so dont worry about that. then pic a list of fish ya think ya want together and post it here and we will let ya know if its a good choice.
Or take a look at melosu58 his proflie link is in my signature he has a awesome selection of fish in his 125.
 
what kind of filtration will i need if i have live rock and coral? my tank doesn't have any holes drilled in it. also what kind of lighting do you think would be required? i would like to have a wide variety of corals first, and then build my way up to adding fish once the corals and lr are well established.
 
fish list

heres a list of some reef friendly fish ive been thinking about. i ditched the agressive carnivore idea cuz i would like to have corals. these are just some fish that caught my eye so lemme know if you guys have any experience with them. whats their compatibility with eachother? im also gonna have a clean up crew-what would you guys suggest as far as that goes? anyways, heres some possibe fish choices for me:
orange spotted lawnmower blenny.
red scooter blenny.
possibly some kind of hogfish.
royal dottyback.
pajama cardinal.
flame hawkfish.
leopard wrasse.
goldstripe maroon clownfish.
pinktail trigger.
barbershop shrimpgoby.
zebra/lavendar/achilles tang.
and maybe some kind of reef safe angelfish.

any input on these selections is appreciated.
 
what kind of filtration will i need if i have live rock and coral? my tank doesn't have any holes drilled in it. also what kind of lighting do you think would be required? i would like to have a wide variety of corals first, and then build my way up to adding fish once the corals and lr are well established.

If your tank has no holes drilled that is ok, just buy a U-tube overflow from Eshopps. This will get water down to your sump, which you will also need to get along with a return pump to get the water back into the tank form the sump. For the retrun pump I would recommend and Eheim 1260 or 1262 they are very efficient and dont use too many watts. Plus they are rock solid dependable. You will also need a good protein skimmer, let me know what price range you are looking in because there is a huge variety here. Depending on what type of coral you want to keep, I would recommend T5HO in independant reflectors or Metal Halides. With either of those options you will be able to keep any type coral.
Your fish list can use some help, some of the fish you listed are very hard to keep alive and others may fight with each other if you keep all those together. Oh, and you have it backwards, you need a well established tank first then you can add coral later.
 
thanks for the reply. I have a reef octopus extreme 160 and an eshopp 25 gallon sump. I would like to build one of those Beananimal overflows w the 3 standpipes. info/advice? also about the fish list...what on the list would be the best combo?
 
thanks for the reply. I have a reef octopus extreme 160 and an eshopp 25 gallon sump. I would like to build one of those Beananimal overflows w the 3 standpipes. info/advice? also about the fish list...what on the list would be the best combo?

I am aware of who beananimal is but I have not read anything about his 3-standpipe overflow. Look into something like this if you want to take the easy way out: Overflow Box - Up to 200 Gallon - Dual - 9 in. x 3 in. x 10 in. | Wet/Dry Aquarium Filters | Filters | Aquarium - ThatPetPlace.com

In a nut shell and in my opinion from the top of my head:

Achilles need a bigger tank, bigger skimmer, more flow and lots of experience. They are very hard to keep alive.

pinktail triggerfish is hit or miss on being completely reef/invert safe

Leopard Wrasse are extremely hard to keep alive and to get eating.

Dottybacks can be mean to other small fish

That is a lot of Gobies.
 
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