75 Gallon Setup Help

[chickenhawk]

Hi guys, I'm finally back into the hobby after buying my first house! This is what I'm going to run:

75 Gallon saltwater; glass Oceanic tank, Del Rey filtration system with submersible Rio pump, syphon tubes, skimmer boxes, 2 power heads (Rio 1400 & 200), outside hanging pre-filter boxes, plastic Bio-Media in a plexi-glass unit tha sits below the aquarium in the cabinet, heater, decorative coral, and crushed coral sand.

2 Tomato Clowns came with the tank so I'll have to include them. I really want to have a Porcupine and Dogface Puffer (I know that I'm a bit low on gallons, but I love those guys!). I also like the Humu Triggers, but I'm not sure how they'd do with the others. Please chime in with what you would put in my tank to help me with ideas. Please note that we are pretty far from our LPS (for fishy food) and price is an issue (I'm a teacher, we're only rich in knowledge:read:.....and a lot of the time not even that!).

I appreciate everyone's help!

[5xevy]

Welcome back to the hobby! Love your avatar by the way.

Your set-up looks good but am just wondering about the "plastic bio-media" you referred to. Are you talking about bio-balls?

I believe those puffers need at least a 100-gallon tank. The triggerfish, according to liveaquaria, seem to need at least a 70-gallon even though they get relatively large:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=255&N=0

What kind of tank did you formerly have? What do you teach?

[BIGgourami]

well humu's are on the peacful end of the trigger family, but each fish is different. i would give up the dream of those puffers in thius tank cause they get too big for a 75.

[chickenhawk]

Welcome back to the hobby! Love your avatar by the way.

Your set-up looks good but am just wondering about the "plastic bio-media" you referred to. Are you talking about bio-balls?

I believe those puffers need at least a 100-gallon tank. The triggerfish, according to liveaquaria, seem to need at least a 70-gallon even though they get relatively large:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=255&N=0

What kind of tank did you formerly have? What do you teach?


Yeah, I have bio-balls in the sump. I had a 55 gallon just starting off when I had to stop. I also ran a fresh setup in a 50ish hex for about 5 years. I've had a 12 gallon aquapod with live rock, a couple of corals, a dwarf angel, and a percula for the last couple of years.

I currently teach 1st grade, although I'll probably be teaching something different next year (newbies get changed a bit).

So say I nix the puffers, what do you think would be a good looking assortment?

[chickenhawk]

Do I really have to be puffer-free? Someone throw me a line..... Or let me know about some other cool fish that come up to you and are "visitor friendly" at the glass.

[Reefscape]

Well, i would certainly swap out the bio-ball media and replace it with live rock rubble...

Fish wise, potentially, you have a really good selection of fish available to you. Here are a few selctions, but i am not taking compatibility in the equation though, just suggestions...

1) Flame Angel
2) Yellow long nose butterfly
3) A shoal of 5 green chromis
4) Various Wrasses
5) Harlequin
6) Various Gobys

You could go on and on really..Research is your main key in choosing in habitants and when you find one you like, ensure you look up its compatibility with other fish and coral...

Niko

[BIGgourami]

you could do a velentini puffer or maybe a burrfish, another "pet" fish er the smaller eels snowflake, chain, dwarf morays.
some of the angels and tangs will become pretty tame and follow a hand around the tank.

[5xevy]

Oh I didn't think of that, the valentini saddle puffers are awesome! There are also the mimic ones. Only thing is, if you're considering having inverts they might not live long depending on the fish it seems like you're aiming for.

[chickenhawk]

Thanks for the help guys, keep the suggestions coming!

[chickenhawk]

I forgot to ask, what kind of cleaning crew would you set up for the tank as well?

[Reefscape]

As cleanup, i would start off with a mixture of 10 - 15 snails, mixture of 10 hermits and a couple of cleaner shrimp...

The algae cleanup packs that you can buy are, in my opinion, complete over kill....The ammount of cleanup crew a tank needs is dependant on the algae and bioload, no the size of the tank...

You have to start yourself off with a cleanup crew base line. Start of on the little side, and watch how they cope with the system, and add more if needed, in say batches of 5...and again, monitor their progress....

Niko

[chickenhawk]

When should I be adding these to my tank? Also, thanks for all of your help Niko, I really appreciate all of the time you have put in to help me!