new reef aquarium first time

Jesster

Registered Member
Feb 5, 2006
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I'm new to this hobbie but i have read on it for about the past year. I have a good bit of book knowledge, but no real experince. I have a 120g tank empty right now. When i told my 5yr old i was getting one to start a reef aquarium like where nemo lived. He jumps up and down yelling yeah we get to have nemo and dori live with us. So i plan on having LR and a DSB plenum along with skimmer as far as lighting im still trying to find one that i can afford and will allow me to have soft corals and some LPS corals and of course clownfish and a hippo tang. So i thought i could ask to borrow some experince and find out what kind of corals i should look at and what other fish i could safely include as well as any pitfalls I might need to be aware of any help is appreiciated

thanks Jess
 
A 120 gallon tank is probably deep. Assuming you want an anenome for Nemo you will need to go with Metal Halide lighting. As you have book smarts you know this isn't cheap. If you do not want to spend that much then I would go with power compacts.

You can about keep anything with MH lighting. If you go with Power Compacts you will need to be more selective. I have successfully kept hammers, torches, bubbles, leathers, polyps, mushrooms, sponges, and condy
anenomes under power compacts.

I would buy a marine book of fish that compares all species of common fish (I am away from home and do not have the book name). This will tell you which other fish you can keep besides Nemo and Dori.

This is my experience and I hope it helps.

Mike
 
120g to start, thats great. here are some other things to consider/ suggestions to start.

VHO lighting on electronic ballast, 1.5"-3" max of substrate, use "oolithic aragonite", 1.5lbs per gallon of liverock, use "dead rock" or base rock for anything under the sand, setup a refugium, use a skimmer that is rated close to twice your water volume, use a quality needle wheel type skimmer, parabolic type reflector for lighting, rodi unit, turnover rate of 10-15,

vho lighting because it's not as hot, extended bulb replacement, can keep corals, less electricity. less substrate because it may go stale when going too deep and besides it's easier to add then to remove. use base rock where you can because it will be covered by sand etc. and it's cheaper. love a refugium for nutrient export and biodiversity and natural food source. needle wheel type of skimmer because it usually uses less electricity than a beckett that needs a pressure pump. a good reflector to make use of all the light output. rodi a must. water flow is good but random/variable is better. try to keep your pumps external, very efficient powerheads or closeloop system and add fans where needed like lighting and indoor temperature reasonable should prevent you from purchasing a chiller.

you should be able to keep a diverse of low to medium light corals like mushrooms, tongue/plate corals, brain, toadstool/leather/colt corals etc. and your typical reef friendly fish like tangs, clowns, basslet, etc.

always include your typical snails, starfish, hermits etc. to cleanup the tank.
testing water and stock knowledge and stocking order is also a good idea. I am sure I missed some stuff so
 
Your clown doesn't need an anemone. Mushrooms are the favorite hosts of my clowns.
Youcantseeme.jpg
 
thats a beautiful reef tank i hope mine looks half as good when im done. PC lights are what i have been leaning to at least to start with and upgrade later to MH lights my tank is 24" deep so i figured the PC lights would work for the corals i start with and get some more demanding corals after i can afford the MH. I have some books on the fish compatabilty part but some differ in what they say, so i figured i see what other reefers keep with thiers might give me some ideas i hadn't thought of. Thanks for the pic its awesome and the advice
 
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I like T5 lighting myself as a compromise. only drawback is there's just no shimmer lines dernet.
 
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