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As things are getting closer and closer to there actually being water in the tank I want to broach the subject of livestock. Here's what I've got so far. I listed the fish along with any concerns that I have with them. I'd like to hear your concerns too and any suggestions you have that I may not have thought of.

Emperor Angelfish
*** MAY EAT CORALS, SPACE ***
Coral Beauty
White Tail Bristletooth Tang
Achilles Tang
*** SPACE ***
Purple Tang
Yellow tang
Red Mandarin
*** NEEDS COPEPODS ***
Zebra moray eel
*** MAY EAT CRUSTACEANS ***
orange stripe prawn goby
radiata lionfish
*** MAY EAT CRUSTACEANS ***
 
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rygh said:
Nice woodworking as usual.
If nothing else, clean up the electrical box so it looks nice.
Have you tried closing the door with big clunky plugs in the Apex? That seems tight also.
Legal garage fire resistance rating? It was a pain for me when I went through the wall.
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I've not tried the plugs yet, but I have thought about it. I don't suppose that counts.

Nope, I'm sure there's several codes I'm breaking with this build. None of which I'm really concerned about though. Most house fires start in the kitchen or the garage, hence the need for a 1hr fire rated wall between the garage and the rest of the house. The house was built before that code though so it has a normal partition wall, and there's over 125 gallons of water directly on the other side of it.
 
Radiata lion wil eat anything that fits in its mouth. Not a may. Emperors get big, maybe be a bit on the small side tank wise in the long run.
 
Coral reefer said:
Radiata lion wil eat anything that fits in its mouth. Not a may. Emperors get big, maybe be a bit on the small side tank wise in the long run.
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So for the lion, I've got to make sure he's the smallest guy in there. I picked the radiata because he's the smallest of all the lionfish (at least that I saw).
The emperor I was hoping to be able to get through its change before it got too big. I think if I don't get him I'll get a few clams.
 
Emperor, and Achilles would be pushing it for a tank that size (sorry if I forget, it's still a Leemar 120 from the first page?) A purple and a yellow tang might also have tank size issues, personally those tangs I wouldn't do in anything less than a 6 foot long tank, 4 feet could work too if it has tremendous front to back depth. Bristletooth tangs tend to be smaller, so that one is fine. Coral beauty most likely will nip at whatever LPS corals you put in the tank, but then it may not, dwarf angels are unpredictable that way. The eel I have no experience with, but they do eat fish right? Overall I'm not sure of your theme for this tank, heavy reef with fish? soft coral tank with mostly fish? I mean I could give you ideas on what *I* would do, but you're not me :)

Bottom line though unless you're asking which ONE of those fish you could put in the tank it really looks like your "eyes are bigger than your stomach" (idiom my mom use to always tell me when I put too much food on my plate), but your tank really isn't that big of a tank to even consider putting all those fish you have listed in there. And again you want to think of a particular theme perhaps? If it were me, I would put 1 tang in that tank (bristletoothed), maybe a couple/few "medium" sized fish (dwarf angel or smaller), and then your smaller fish like a mandarin, clown, etc.. but again that's just my view, not necessarily what you should do.
 
+1 on defining a theme or strategy. It is not just for looks, but so that the fish area all happy together.
Lionfish: That means a specialized slow-predator tank.
Lots of big tangs: Tank size is an issue, as is veggie-feeding and pollution.
Big eel: Probably means special hand feeding when mixed with other predators.

If you don't have something specific in mind, I would suggest "mid-size-peaceful".
Yellow Tang + Coral Beauty + Goby are good.
(I might suggest a foxface over a yellow tang.)
Mix those with some mid size fish like cardinals, fairy wrasse, damsels, basslets, etc.
Yes, boring, and perhaps a bit similar to a lot of other peoples tanks, but there is a reason for that.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. That's a good point to have a theme. I'll have to give it some thought. Up till now I just picked what I thought looked cool and hoped they would go together.
 
I should say by "theme" I mean a general feel for what you want as a tank, not like those numbnuts over at ATM who themes fish to the profession of the other "I see you just got out of jail and you committed a felony to pay for this tank, so we have 8 convict tangs for you!"

:D
 
Well, for coral I'm going sps dominant. What can I say, I like the stix. Maybe a couple chalices and if my RBTA splits I may throw him in too.

The Yellow Tang and the Coral Beauty are both in my current 30 gallon and need to be moved to this one before they get much bigger. I can give up on the Emperor in favor of doing a few clams (maybe I'll shoot for one of each species of Tridacna), and I don't really need the lionfish or the Achilles Tang either. Originally I wanted to try and have one of each genus of tang but don't have the space in this tank (maybe when I do the 10' fish only tank). The eel I think I'm pretty set on. I found a great article on their care. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/index.php The only reason I'm thinking twice about it is because I couldn't have any shrimp in the tank. :\

Maybe I'll look into some firefish. I've never been a fan of cardinals (even though we have one in our current tank). I'm afraid a wrasse will out compete a mandarin for pods and I've heard too many stories about damsels being bullies.
 
Damsels surely can be bullies, but it's mostly a territorial thing, they don't need a lot of space but they definitely do want their own space. However most peoples tanks are on the order of the size of the territory they normally have in the wild so naturally they look like they're going all over the place. But they can be hit or miss really, I had a blue damsel (supposedly one of the worst) and it did fine in my softie/anemone tank with two tomato clowns, with 3 dwarf angels and a foxface. But that was a 120 gallon tank too (different dimensions), the super fast growth of the soft corals left plenty of hiding spaces and obscured sight lines.

I can feel the love for sticks, I still have that desire too. However I'm finding I'm having a hard time keeping soft corals happy in a small 40g breeder I've been messing around with. Not sure what's off, lighting, water chemistry, etc.
 
My current tank started with all soft and lps but it's been slowly moving over to sps. I think I've crested and now have more sps than anything else.
 
What an exciting day. @jestersix got my aquascape done and did such an amazing job.
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I love the overhangs and all the nooks and crannies. The eel pipe looks great too.

I also was able to work on my light mounting system.
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There will be a piece of 1/2" thick glass that comes out from where the aluminum U channel is and will support what ever led lighting I go with. I made it hinged so that I can move it out of the way when I need to do maintenance and so that I can pass cords through to the other side of the wall to the apex.
 
Looking great!
Very fun eel-tube. Good expanse at mid depth for coral.
Lighting plan should be pretty slick.
You might want to consider a net enclosure with some thin nice matching wood trim. Fish jump.
 
Calde0920 said:
Looks great can't wait to get my tank wet. How do you plan on getting tank cycled
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The rock had been sitting in a barrel with water for several months so I suspect there is some bacteria growing on it already but I'll likely still add ammonia to bring it up to 2ppm and monitor it to see it convert it. I'm not in a big hurry since my lighting isn't settled yet.
 
Kmooresf said:
Great build! Almost ready for water, congrats!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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It actually does have water already. @Coral reefer came by late the same day that @jestersix did the rock work and filled it up for me. I had to take the door off because as we were filling it it sank further down into the carpet and was pinching it closed. I'll have to take a 1/4" off the bottom of it I think.
 
I finally got the plumbing completed and thanks to @Vhuang168 who let me borrow a spare red dragon until the COR comes out. This allowed me to get water flowing through the system. I had previously only had the WAVs in the DT and they were a breeze to set up.

The skimmer is connected but I still need to dial that in. Right now it is producing too much foam and bubbles over. There is a drain line in the bottom of the collection cup that I just open up and have flow back into the sump.

The heaters are also connected and programmed in the apex. Right now they both come on right now at 72 and off at 73. Their internal thermostats turn them off at 79. I still need to calibrate all the probes. Right now the apex shows 72-73 degrees but the heaters are reading 77 degrees.

I also added ammonium chloride to officially start the cycle.

I forgot to post it earlier but I decided to notch out the entire corner of my sump to allow room for the arm of the door. This picture shows the arm in the down position but with the door off.
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