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First off, hello everybody, nice site here, greetings.

So, here's my story:

I've currently got a 55g setup - pretty nice. For fish I've got two Percula Claowns, and a Yellowtail Damsel. Inverts I've got a bristle star, hermits, and snails. I'm going to pick up some Shrimp soon, I had a Coral Banded shrimp for a long time, but he passed on recently...

Anyway, I've been really pleased with my SW tank for some time now, had it running for a little under 2 years.

I've got a lot of other FW tanks (1 350g, 2 180g, 3 55g, etc) and today I thought, I would like to setup a new SW tank...

So I looked around and found out that by merging this tank with that tank, and splitting this tank with those tanks and moving those fish to that tank, I could come up with a completly empty 180g tank. And it's the nice Oak one to boot

So I started looking around and realized that I've actually got most of the required pieces laying around already to hook it up. I've already got the sand (dead, but I can pick u some live sand and mix it up), filters (1 sump, 2 Magnum Canisters + BioWheel output), heaters, salt, test kits, nutrients, supplements, food, etc, etc.

Basically all I need is lighting, live rock, and inhabitants. So that helps on the price (a little, lighting for tank that big is going to be... pricey) but I'm pretty confident I can get the technicals bit and bobs done.

So here's my plan/point/questions though:

I'm thinking about taking some time and trying to grow the sand/rock (at least some of it) from my existing 55 tank. I'm thinking I could take a few live rocks out and put them in this tank, then put some base rock in both tanks to try and multiple the rocks. I know this'll take a week or two, but if it helps to lower the cost a bit, I'm ok with it.

Question here is, will it take so longer to procure enough live rock for this tank that it'd be cheaper to just buy it?
Maybe just grow half of it, and buy the rest later... I'm not sure on that.

Next I've got questions about livestock. :88)

I want good sized fish, but not huge. I also do NOT want any carnivores. I'm not that good at being able to regualrly supply live/frozen foods so it's need to be able to live on either easy to reproduce tankmates (algea, pods, etc), or flak foods (preferred). As I noted above, I've got a couple Clowns and a Dmasel right now. Both of them are eating flakes, and as far as tempermant/looks/overall they are the perfect SW fish for me.

I've been thinking about getting a couple Clowns for the tank, some Cardinals, some Wrasses (maybe, not sure on these guys), some Firefish, and maybe some Blennies (I had a Scooter Blenny for a few months and quite enjoyed him, then he dissapeared...).

I've also been thinking about Angel fish, but they seem like a hot topic on whether they are truely aggressive, or not. Seems to be case-by-case really...

Of course if I had my way I'd also get one or two Mandrins ( ) but I'm not confident I could keep the little guy alive, and I will not accept the fact of killing such a wonderful fish...

So what fish suggestions do you have, and what maybe some Corals? Low light would be best really, such it's such a large tank. Besides, most of my favorite Corals seem to be low light anyway

Thanks.

Last edited by Joseph at 07-Feb-2005 01:31

Welcome to FishProfiles

180 Gallon sw...hmm, that sounds familiar

I can't help you with the LR question...I'm not really sure I get what you're asking...

But I'd love to help with fish. Are you going to have a fuge??

The possibilites are endless...you could go with any type of clown, maroon, saddleback, tomato, B&W, the regular orange...whatever floats your boat. Firefish are pretty hardy, except they tend to be jumpers so you have to make sure they can't get out. I think a nice group of Chalk Bass could look good in there. You have a choice of several tangs, hippo, yellow, sailfin, and even more wrasses, like the flasher or filament. My favorite wrasse is the six line, but they are VERY big pod eaters, so I'd suggest not adding one until the tank is very well developed. For algae you could go with a couple of lawnmower blennies. I think the bicolor blennies are cute too, but in a 180 I think they'd get lost. If you wanted, you could always do a school of blue-green reef chromis; they aren't my favorite but they are nice and hardy, as long as you keep 'em in at least a trio. Cardinals are pretty hardy, or at least the Pajama ones usually are. Not my favorite fish either, I always thought that it looked like someone chopped up three fish and glued 'em back together. But that's just me, a lot of people like them. There's so many choices...I wouldn't go with a mandarin until the tank it well developed either. Another member here has a 180 with the plumpest mandarin ever. With time, and a good supply of copepods, you should be able to keep one.

I don't really know too much about angelfish, you'll have to wait for Marc or Nate to get help with that one. >.<

I can't recommend corals either, as my tank is (or rather, is going to be...) SPS dominated, so I'm having MH lighting.

Hope I did help a little.

Again, welcome to FP, and g/l with your new tank. New tanks are fun.

Last edited by Ferretfish at 07-Feb-2005 05:38

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Welcome to FishProfiles!

OK, for your questions;
Mandarins will be nice in that tank, if you wait about a year after it is running good. This will ensure a good hardy stock of copopods for them, as they require these live foods to live. They will eat other stuff you feed the tank, but they need these to eat, in order to live.
Angels, well this depends on which angels you are looking at. As there are hundreds of different kinds available in the hobby, and many are aggressive, while others are extremely dosile. They range in size from the dwarfs (which are mostly docile and probably what you are looking for), all the way up to some that reach almost 2 feet.
Cardinals, depending on which you get, determines how many of them. If getting the bangi, I recommend you get a pair, as any more will eventually get killed when a pair decides to pair off. Even if they don't breed, the pair will kill off all the others in the tank. They will not harm any other fish, just their own kind. All the other cardinals, I suggest a colony, from 5 to more.
Wrasses are another good choice for your tank. Staying with the smaller fish, I would recommend the fairy wrasses, as these guys stay under a few inches, can be kept together (many kept with the same species), are very active, very beautiful, and mostly easy fish to care for. They come in almost any color you can imagine, as well as many come in rainbows of colors. Some have long fin rays, some rounded fins, they are just awesome neat little fish.
Some fish you are looking at, will be determined by the substrate you use. As many of them like to burrow, or "eat" the sand. By eat, they sift it with their mouths. So it needs to be small. I recommend the Aragonite sand if you can get it. Then just add a big ole handful from one of your other tanks to get it seeded for live sand. Some fish that I am talking about, are some of the wrasses, the firefish, the blennies, the mandarins, as well as others.
You should also look at a clean up crew. Like crabs and shrimps. I recommend you have 1-3 emerald crabs, about 50 snails of multiple kinds, about 50+ of the small hermit crabs, a couple sand sifting stars or several sand sifting snails, a sand sifting cucumber or two.
Liana has some good suggestions for you there too. The scooter blennies 1-3 of them, will do nicely as good looking interesting fish, but they will also keep your LR cleaned off as well. A tang or two will do nicely as well, but you may have to supliment their feedings with some algae foods. Chromis are very inexpensive, and in your tank, a school of them would really look nice. They are very active and would keep the tank looking alive with activity all the time.
As for the LR, I would suggest you at least start out with half of it as good LR, and maybe then seed the rest non-LR. As that size of a tank, if you have more non LR, it will take months to seed it properly.
As for the corals, there are several you can keep under the low or no light levels. Just be careful with your choices, as many of these require you feed them, as they don't get much food from zoalgae like those that require lighting. And some need to be target fed. If I was you, I would look into some PC lighting for that tank, as it is not "too" bright, and you can support many of the soft corals as well as many of the LPS corals. But one more thing to consider if you plan on corals, is you will have to watch some fish you put with them, as many will nip or eat your corals. For example, only true dwarf angels will leave your corals alone.
Hope this gets you started with your setup, if there is anything more you would like to know, just ask, as there are many good salties on this site, and most all love to help new comers.

HTH.....



_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

As for sand, I have a large supply of this sand:
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441781393&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030166&bmUID=1107782630202

It's very fine, and as far as texture is very similar to what I have in my 55g (which is all Live Sand). I'm not really to big on the Coral idea, just thinking about it sort of as a "mayb"e I'll keep an eye on the fish to reef compability though, so I don't end buying something that lcoks me into no-coral...

I totally forgot about Chromis, I'll want to get some of those indeed.

I used to have a Kole Tang, that was a really nice fish. I've read they are one of the least agressive Tangs, and be good in a group of 2 or 3, so I might pick up a couple more of those as well.

Also, please note that I fullly understand the essentialness of patience, and I may talk like I'm wantingto do everything "right now" but I know to hold out and be slow.

I just did a pod count on my 55g (the lights just came on a few minutes ago) and I was actually shocked to see that once the lights came on, there were tons of pods scurry about all over. I must have seen at least 30-50 pods in there. I might try put some of those pods into the 180g once I've got it cycled etc as well to try and jump-start that proccess. I also read about "SeaPods" today, that's sounds like a really cool product, especially for keeping Mandrins.
http://inverts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=Seapods&Category_Code=foodlive

I aslo think I'll stick to buying fresh Live Rock instead of trying to grow my own, but I will seed the sand myself. I do have a lot of Bristle Worms in my 55g though... (I've only actually seen one a while back, but the front of the glass looks like an ant farm when I don't scrape it, and I assume it's Bristles causing that).

I really appreciate all the suggestions and help, I'm really excited about this, and it's cool to be able to talk other people about it, and have you're help in making tough decisions.

<<---Loves fixing links

sand linky

pod linky

Also, please note that I fullly understand the essentialness of
patience, and I may talk like I'm wantingto do everything "right now"
but I know to hold out and be slow

It's a good thing you realize that. I think the RC saying goes, "In
a reef tank, only bad things happen quickly."

Marc...how come you never recommended those wrasses for my tank???

About the copepods...mandarins and 6-lines, to quote Calfo and Fenner,
are "Cuckoo for copepods." If you have a refugium, you will be able
to have a thriving population of pods that will let you keep these
special fish. That's what I'm doing with my tank now, the main idea of
having the fuge (other than to increase water volume and have a spot
for my skimmer...which BTW are you having one?) is for copepods.

Rats...class is over. I'll add to this after school.

Last edited by Ferretfish at 07-Feb-2005 13:50

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Liana, you maybe want to recheck my posts in your threads, I made a specific recomendation for the filament wrasse to you, hehehe. It is one of the fairy wrasses. But, I did not suggest more, as you have a little ways to go yet, before getting fish. I was letting you look around at what you have available.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

*hits head*



*didn't associate filament with fairy*



haha thanks Marc



-Formerly known as the Ferretfish