New 75g/Predator ?'s

lnelms2

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 27, 2008
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Miamisburg, Ohio
Had a friend move to Chicago, he knows I'm into fish so he gave me his 75g saltwater setup. I was really excited until I saw how dirty his tank was, he did little to no maintenance it seems. You could barely see through glass.


Everything in the tank was brown/black and purple. Luckily I had a 75 sitting around so I got it all to my house and put it in the new tank.

There's about 3" of sand, and around 10 decent sized live rocks, and he was running 2 Emperor 400's with the biowheels. No powerheads or anything.

I put a koralia 1 in there and took the biowheels out of the emperor's, I saw a Aquaclear refugium mod that I'll be doing to a AC110 and I'll use that to replace the emperors.


*As far as filtration/circulation goes is this all I will need?
I would like multiple predators that can coexist in this sized aquarium. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Pic of the tank now
 

FLESHY

Polypterus
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Jan 7, 2006
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Awesome! The only problem is that a 75 is a little small for a lot of preds. But more room is always better. I had a spotted grouper that I kept in a 75 for a couple years before giving him back to the store. I would also get some more rock. Your going to want to build caves and the such for your fish to hide and sleep in.

Good to hear that you are planning a sump, they are easier, and better than other methods of filtration saltwater wise. I would also recommend a skimmer for a predator tank, with AquaC being my favorite brand. Flow wise, I would turn it up. One koralia 1 in a 75g is nothing. I have three 4's in mine, granted its a reef tank, but still.

Good luck, keep us updated with pictures and the such.
 

Heathd

Fire Eel
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Mar 9, 2010
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The fuge mod to the AC 100 would really help, IMO. The equipment sounds OK to me, just stay on top of cleaning out the filter pads in the emperor, and I would be tempted to add a couple of small power heads low in the tank aimed up just a little to help push some water around and help keep crap from settling on the bottom.

I cant really tell how much live rock you have, but it doesnt look like much. I would be tempted to add some more if I was going to do some messy preds. I would also be tempted to just say to hell with the emperor 400 and replace it with a good skimmer.

Lions, scorpions, and anglers would do well for this tank. Smaller eels like the jeweled or snowflake would do well in this size tank, but I would make two rock piles for them to hide in and poke their little heads out (you will likely need more LR for this, just for the sake of comfort and cover for them).

There are some puffers out there that will work for you as well. I would do more investigating on all the above fish though. For most of them, if they can fit it in their mouth, they are going to eat it, and a lot of these would love whatever clean up crew you add to the tank.

*edit* I dont see where you said you would be doing a sump, but I am with fleshy. If you have the means to do one, then by all means, do it. If you are going to do a pred tank, it would be far superior to what is going on now.

*edit 2* it should not be read as me saying to have two eels in a 75. I just read what I wrote and say how it could be interpreted as that way.
 

lnelms2

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 27, 2008
663
76
61
Miamisburg, Ohio
FLESHY;4389335; said:
Awesome! The only problem is that a 75 is a little small for a lot of preds. But more room is always better. I had a spotted grouper that I kept in a 75 for a couple years before giving him back to the store. I would also get some more rock. Your going to want to build caves and the such for your fish to hide and sleep in.

Good to hear that you are planning a sump, they are easier, and better than other methods of filtration saltwater wise. I would also recommend a skimmer for a predator tank, with AquaC being my favorite brand. Flow wise, I would turn it up. One koralia 1 in a 75g is nothing. I have three 4's in mine, granted its a reef tank, but still.

Good luck, keep us updated with pictures and the such.
Thanks. I have a couple 4's in a box somewhere I can throw in there. As far as preds go, I've seen some anglers, maybe some lionsfish I just don't know what's compatible with what...


Heathd;4389354; said:
The fuge mod to the AC 100 would really help, IMO. The equipment sounds fine to me, just stay on top of cleaning out the filter pads in the emperor, and I would be tempted to add a couple of small power heads low in the tank aimed up just a little to help push some water around and help keep crap from settling on the bottom.

I cant really tell how much live rock you have, but it doesnt look like much. I would be tempted to add some more if I was going to do some messy preds. I would also be tempted to just say to hell with the emperor 400 and replace it with a good skimmer.

Lions, scorpions, and anglers would do well for this tank. Smaller eels like the jeweled or snowflake would do well in this size tank, but I would make two rock piles for them to hide in and poke their little heads out (you will likely need more LR for this, just for the sake of comfort and cover for them).

There are some puffers out there that will work for you as well. I would do more investigating on all the above fish though. For most of them, if they can fit it in their mouth, they are going to eat it, and a lot of these would love whatever clean up crew you add to the tank.

*edit* I dont see where you said you would be doing a sump, but I am with fleshy. If you have the means to do one, then by all means, do it. If you are going to do a pred tank, it would be far superior to what is going on now.
Yeah there's not a lot of LR, maybe 40-50#'s. Yeah I didn't mention a sump, right now the tank is on my dresser so there's no room for a sump. Once I move I'll have adequate room for one. And by "love the cleanup crew" did you mean eat them, or love them cleaning up the tank after them?
 

Heathd

Fire Eel
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lnelms2;4389356; said:
And by "love the cleanup crew" did you mean eat them, or love them cleaning up the tank after them?
The eels will eat them. I think the scorpions and lions will leave them alone.

Puffers would munch on them too.
 

FLESHY

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2006
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Central Wisconsin
Heathd...I loled a little reading your thread. Though I ninja'd you and you were writing down all that stuff not knowing I had basically said the same thing. Heaths advice on the preds is good...that was basically what I was going to say, but if you have a quality LFS you can basically have whatever you want, trade it in for store credit when it starts to get a little cramped and just keep getting whatever fish you want. My brother did this in FL with his 125 reef. Mainly just with tangs. There comes a point where those guys just need more room than most of us can give them.

That being said...give us some animals that you are interested in and we will give you the pros and cons to all of them, and things that may or may not get along with them in our experience. Most online fish stores also have compatibility guides, but thats really only a starting place. wet web media has excellent compatibility articles that might be worth your time to check out.
 

Heathd

Fire Eel
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FLESHY;4389376; said:
Heathd...I loled a little reading your thread. Though I ninja'd you and you were writing down all that stuff not knowing I had basically said the same thing.
Haha, dirty!
 

FLESHY

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2006
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Central Wisconsin
Anglers and lions should be good together. Virtually all anglers could most likely be held for life in your setup. Depending on what sort of lion you chose, you could also house it for life in a 75. You might have to hand or tongs feed your angler and lion to make sure there are no feeding competitions, because although lions are slow swimmers, they will most likely beat an ambush predator to the punch. My .02
 

Heathd

Fire Eel
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Mar 9, 2010
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I vote angler. They are some of the coolest fish IMO. I also like flame hawks, but he would likely get eaten by any other pred you may keep.
 
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