LTA tank suggestions.

[LD50]

I have a pair of black saddle back clowns hosted by a long tent. fungia coral atm in a 50g hex. I picked up a free (moms buddy just wanted it gone) old school oceanic 75 with no center brace and uber thick glass today and was thinking about setting it up to be the clowns tank, here is what I had in mind.

HOB over flow into a 29g sump with macro or algae scrubber 450-500gph actual return flow, a HOB Reef octo skimmer rated for 125g and a wave box for flow/filtration.

A 4" sand bed with a few nice chunks of LR spread across the bottom with little or no stacking.

2x clamp on 150w 10-14k MH units plus a 108W T5HO actinic strip.

Stock would include a nice clean up crew, the two black saddle back's and maybe a dwarf angel (bicolor or flame) or a mandarin/blenny/goby. I want to let the tank mature for several 6-9 months then add a nice purple LTA (saddle backs natural host) and possiably a purdy clam.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions would all be appreciated.

 

[FLESHY]

The setup itself sounds awesome as long as the tank is in good enough shape that it wont bother you.

Scubber plus an awesome skimmer will leave this tank with perfect h2o at the stocking levels you have outlined.

A big enough algae scrubber will certainly help keep copes up in the tank, but I would recommend more rock for the mandarin, and even so, you are going to need to supplement copes I think.

Just never had good experiences with that fish, make sure you get captive bred ones.

 

[LD50]

The setup itself sounds awesome as long as the tank is in good enough shape that it wont bother you.

Scubber plus an awesome skimmer will leave this tank with perfect h2o at the stocking levels you have outlined.

A big enough algae scrubber will certainly help keep copes up in the tank, but I would recommend more rock for the mandarin, and even so, you are going to need to supplement copes I think.

Just never had good experiences with that fish, make sure you get captive bred ones.

The tank is older but is in great shape except for 3 small scratches on the front glass that I can totaly live with. The stand is nice solid oak but was hit by a 2 y/o with a sharpie so I have some sanding and or painting to do .

If I go for a mandarin I will deff make some small cave/cove formations for him to set up home but I want the tank to maintain a somewhat open feel as opposed to a huge reef build up that feels cramped with rock. Other than the pods that the scrubber produces what kind of supplaments could I feed?

 

[FLESHY]

The rock will act as a hiding/living space for the pods.

Other than that just having a large tank, scubber, fuge, and dosing pods.