New tank!

[Chase]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this forum but not to SW aquaria. I have a 75g reef tank in my living room and I made a deal with my wife a few months ago that she can have a new addition to the house if I can put a large tank in it.

The new sunroom is almost finished and my new 225g tank is in the garage screaming at me to set it up. I will describe the tank in detail at the end of this message but that may be boring to some so I'll get to my questions.

This will be a fish only tank with LR. I plan to have a trigger, eel, h. tuskfish, maculosus angel, lion, and miniatus grouper as the main members and I'd also like to add a large group of schooling fish. I'm looking for suggestions about a species of schooling fish that won't be eaten by their larger tank mates but will be small enough that I can keep a large group of them. Any suggestions?

My other question is whether anyone has had any experience with the "Kaelini" Live Rock from Live Aquaria.

Kaelini Live Rock (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=24&pCatId=400)

I would like to give the tank a different look than the normal Fiji or Tonga rock but without being able to see it first hand, I am heistant to spend $600 on it (2 boxes). I would appreciate hearing from anyone that has seen it up close or has heard of any good or bad reviews.

Now for the tank details:

225 gallons - (72" x 24" x 30") - with stand and canopy it stands about 5 feet tall.

Acrylic tank with built in overflow filled with bioballs to reduce noise and 2 (2") holes leading to a 50g sump with 2 micron bags and Euro Reef 12-2 skimmer.
1 (3000gph) pump circulating back to the tank through 3 double returns and 1 (1000gph) pump leading to UV sterilizer, 40 gallon refugium, 25 gallon holding/volume tank and a 1000 watt inline heater then back to the sump.
Substrate is aragonite sand bed with Nitrogen reduction system and I will add ~180 - 200lbs live rock aquascape.

This tank is built for 'over filtration' and I think it can handle far more bioload than described above but it is best to take it slow. Any comments or suggestions?

Joel

[DeltaUguy]

Actually I had a small discussion with the local reef guy/store (he owns it and is the only employee) about the Kaelini LR. He said it is among the best out there with a good mix of coralline colors. He said green, purple, orange, red were some of the colors he's seen. He also said it is very porous, making it great for biological filtration.

I'm not sure you will be able to find a schooling fish that will not be eaten by the Grouper and Lionfish. The only thing I can think of off hand is a small school of Convict Tangs. The do much better in groups than the other Tangs, as that is how they are found on the natural reef. They aren't overly colorful though. But adding those will overload the biofilter I'm sure.

I'm sure Corax and Oriongirl will have some thoughts...:D

[DeltaUguy]

Oh and...



WELCOME TO AQUARIA CENTRAL!

:D

[Chase]

Thanks! The info about the Kaelini rock is great and I'll look into the convict tangs. Regarding the biofilter, I forgot to mention that I will also plumb 2 fluidized bed filters or hang them on the sump. This and the LR should be able to handle it.

Thanks again - it is very good to hear that the rock is a good choice!

Joel

[Mandairn]

Just an ideal and most likly will not work, but any schooling fish may work... read me out ;) you need a larg number of them say 20 or so (keeping in mind some will get aten), they got to be the first fish in the tank and with a lot of small hiding spots. With the large # of schooling fish the preditor fish will have a hard time getting just one fish.

like i said an ideal will it work i dont know. safty in numbers.