starting 120

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
oakes

oakes

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 13, 2009
321
5
48
40
Lynchburg, VA
So I am starting a 120gallon pred. tank. I will have a 75gallon sump with a SWC Extreme 200 protein skimmer, atleast this is the skimmer I've been looking at and will most likely get. Been reading around and will probably have a 1" sand bed unless told other wise. Not sure how much rock I will have yet, but will have a good amount to provide hiding spaces. Stock and lighting is the only thing I'm concerned about at the moment.

I was thinking of stocking it with a lion, puffer(5" one), 2 eels 1 snowflake and one g tile, and maybe a trigger and a tang of some sort.

Tank is 48"x24"x24". Not sure what lights I need, right now I do have a 2 bulb fixture from homedepot that can support regular t8's I believe. Should be enought light for preds right?

005-2.jpg


006-1.jpg
 
For a fowlr tank, lighting is up to you. In the fixture you have I would run one marine- glo bulb and one power-glo bulb to get that sw look. IMO but I'm a sw noob.
 
Light doesnt matter for the preds...what you want is enough light so you can see your fish, make them realize that there is a night and day cycle, and so that you can keep stuff growing on your LR (Thats optional, but I would support it.)

So basically its up to you.
 
Yeah, I'd want to keep stuff growing on the rocks so I will look into what I need. I'm hoping to have the sump finished by this weekend and not sure when I'll get the stand done hopefully by then as well.
 
Aquatraders t5's should work...just make sure you have enough. Or shop lights. Look around for the best prices. Keep in mind that shop lights will require you to replace the bulbs with a better color bulb.
 
Forgot I also have a t12 fixture with 2 bulbs, all these were used on freshwater so I'll just need to upgrade the bulbs in them but that won't be a problem.

Decided I'll probably be getting my sand and base rocks from marcorocks.com and then add a piece of live rock from my LFS or try some Live Sand Activator from IPSF.

Do you think 1.5" to 2" of sand will be too much? Just tring to figure out how much I'll need to get.

Also, when adding dry sand will it make a difference if I add sand before/after I start adding salt to the water? Wondering the same with the dry rock as well.
 
What i do with the sand is ....

Take a 2L coke bottle, and chug as fast as possible.
Once empty you will have a huge buzz
Rinse bottle out good, and remove paper
Fill with dry sand
Then sit in tank and let the bubbles flow to the top and the bottle will slowly fill
once filled tip the bottle upside down and let sand out
Notice sand goes out and cloud stays in bottle
Once sand is all gone from bottle quickly turn bottle right side up and remove
Dispose of water
repeat
 
oakes;4450367; said:
That's a great idea, will have to look into that!
Click to expand...

Ya...to be honnest I am a little confused on how this works...canuck...you should make a video.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom