Stocking Suggestions

[Wah-ya]

After much reading and studying up, and the much awaited income tax refund...lol, Im finally ready to jump into saltwater. After shopping around, the most trusted lfs will order me a new reef ready Oceanic 125 for 450.00, with the nicely finished oak stand costing almost as much. The 180 and stand combo is just 300.00 more....decisions decisions....lol.

Anyway....Im curious about stocking it. Will have the necessary amount of live rock and when its ready want to try my hand at soft corals, so hopefully the inhabitants will be reef friendly. I definitely want a pair of clowns...perculas or false perculas and banggai cardinals...one or perhaps a mated pair if I can find them and a royal gramma. Looking for suggestions on what would go well with this setup. I like some of the tangs...pacific blue and sailfin especially, most of the angels and the more reef friendly butterflies like the copperbanded. Maybe a blue chin trigger? Id prefer to keep the bio load light to moderate and not subject any inhabitants to overcrowding or newbie mistakes, and I DONT completely trust the advice of any lfs. So who better to ask than seasoned hobbyists who arent trying to sell me something..lol. As always, any help or advice is most appreciated... :bowing:

 

[jessie]

i have a 135 with a hippo tang and a sailfin tang in it. i also have 2 percs, a mandarin and a lawnmower blenny in it. all of mine seem to get along well, and they are quite chubby now too. nobodys been picking on anyone lately, but i added the sailfin first. so when i added the hippo, the sailfin was a little aggresive, but the hippo was bigger and that seemed to stop the sailfin after a couple days.

 

[Wah-ya]

Thanks for the info...

 

[Max]

hey, I'm not sure how reef friendly a copperband will be with soft corals. I've seen where some of them do ok but, there is a very real chance that it will eat you out of house and home. As to the trigger and others may not agree but, I dont' think that reef friendly and trigger go together in the same sentance. I've never heard of a blue chin though so... I ,"if this is your first s.w. tank", would probably wait for a while on the tang they can be sort of picky and I've seen where lots of people have bought them first thing and have major ich issues. If you get cardinals I'd go for more than 1 I love watching my tro hanging out in their cave and interacting. I started with one and it didn't move around much but, after I got it 2 friends well it was a new fish ,"thanks O.G."
Also this really is just a personal preference so take it as you will. Tanks over 125 can be hard to clean/tend to I always make sure that I can reach pretty much anywhere that I'd need to reach . I hate to need to call my brother, father etc when I have a problem at 11 pm .
You're smart not to toatally trust the lfs I've seen all sorts of garbage from live sand," $30 sand with water that will make no difference at all for your tank", to selling people a tang to put in the 10 gallon tank that they just sold them. I also however wouldn't completly trust what you see on line either. We all make mistakes and there is more than 1 right way so I'd just go with the common consensus.
Welcome to A.C.
Chris
P.S. SURGEON GENERALS WARNING SALT WATER FISH KEEPING IS ADDICTIVE !! OH I SEE YOU'VE ALREADY GOT YOUR TANK TOO LATE FOR YOU.

 

[Wah-ya]

Thanks for the great info, Chris. I really dont want to make this thing too complicated at the onset. Just soooooo many kewl looking fish...and I cant have them all....lol.