Planning a new 125G SWFO tank

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Spiderman

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 20, 2004
Messages
45
Location
Madison, Wisconsin
hi folks,

i plan to upgrade to a bigger tank from my existing 25G SWFO tank in half a year's time. I have two tank-raised percs, a banggai cardinal, a royal gramma, and a clown goby, and plan to add:

chalk bass
bicolor blenny
yellowblue jawfish
sixline wrasse
blue tang
threadfin butterfly
comet (marine betta)
flame angel

....in that order. plus i plan to add around two dozen nassarius snails, a couple of shrimps - blood red, pistol, bumblebee; half a dozen emerald and hermit crabs; plus some stars and feather dusters.

some questions:

1. this combination looks compatible, unless others have experience otherwise? also, is this a good order of adding them? (of course, spaced out over several months).

2. since i plan to get a jawfish, should i go all sand or do a combination of sand + crushed coral? if so, how do i design that?

3. for those of you who have 125G tanks, how often do you change your water? what other equipment should i get? should i get a protein skimmer eventually?

4. butterflyfish are said to be difficult. any experiences with threadfins? i have roughly a year's worth of experience by then, so i can probably try out getting one?

5. what inverts do i get?

thanks, guys!

hope to hear from you guys soon (especially you, lando! :))

humuhumu
 
Wow that is a big tank. Your filtration is going to be based on your load of LR and LS. It is recommended 1 ½ - 1 pd of LR to 1gal of salt water. That is a lot of rock and sand and most of all money so you have to definitely consider that. Protein skimmers are good a removing un-dissolved organisms…what kind would again depend on your amount of LR. That’s a lot of fish you want to add….I hope you have a lot of patience. If you want to do it right and save your self time, money, and fish loss….you will want to QT all them fish which is highly recommended to do so for around 4 weeks per fish. That will keep from introducing any parasites or diseases in your main tank. Let me tell you from experience it’s an absolute must. I got lucky early in the game and in an instant I added a fish with out QT and was totally whipped out.
 
a combination of sand + crushed coral
The cc will end up on top. Choose one or the other. My choice was a DSB.

how often do you change your water
I have 240 pounds of LR on a DSB (6"-8") with a 30 gal sump and a protein skimmer. I'm still doing a monthly change of 15 gallons and will be doing more over the next few weeks as I battle a nitrate problem. That's probably due to my feeding habits a/o choice of flake food.

half a dozen emerald and hermit crabs
I've relegated my remaining hermits to the sump so they can't go after the snails. I do have two brittle stars, two cucumbers and two fighting conch.
 
Spiderman said:
4. butterflyfish are said to be difficult. any experiences with threadfins? i have roughly a year's worth of experience by then, so i can probably try out getting one?

I have a threadfin and he is doing GREAT. My 125gal FOWLR has a clown, coral beauty angel and naso tang. he is very hardy and was added after my tank was 3 months old. I did not QT (as I know I should). He had a few ick spots after a few days, but the cleaner shrimp, garlic added to food and good water parameters helped him take care of that in no time. He eats just about anything I put in the tank. I have heard to get them a bit smaller, they addapt to tank life and food better than larger ones. Mines about 3 inches long.

Great fish, lots of personality and not shy at all.

Jim
 
Dave,

Not a great pic, but here is my gang (with the auriga). I can never get decent tank / fish pics with my digital camera. I'm sure its operator error.

img_299483_0_e819947110640399ed9a25fe8e9e1965.jpg


Jim
 
You are definitely going to need a large clean up crew! Probably about 50 snails, 50 hermits, probably two cleaner shrimp and at least forty lbs of LR and 3"-6" of LS. or CC ( I would use one or the other)
One thing is for certain, you will need a protein skimmer. I have a BAC PAC skimmer with a surface skimmer box on my 125gal SW tank and it was the best investment I have ever made.
Good Luck, Post a pic of the new tank when you get it done.
Jason
 
Back
Top Bottom