New To Keeping Fish

[jodi]

I have decided as a feature to my living room I want a large fish tank.

I have been looking at the following;

Rena Aqualife Classic 150 cm x 51 cm x 70.5 cm (543 lts) Though could go up to the 700ish ltr one if range of fish would be better

Rena XP3 external filter
200W and a 300W heater
two twin 30W lighting

I will custom build a stand myself.

But what else do I need I want marine with live rock and coral.

As for fish what can you recommend, i rather a few large evil looking ones than loads of little ones.

Thanks in advance

Jodi.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, a 5 foot tank huh? Thats a big one . You can do a lot with tanks that size. Combining big fish and corals can sometimes get tricky as the bigger ones tend to be coral nippers. Some larger tangs and wrasses might be suitable if you want bigger fish with corals. I'm not the most experienced in that area though. A few things to consider as food for thought:

Check out the stickies here for lots of info.
Filtration, (sump, or modified canisters?)
Flowrate (20x tank volume reccomeded, gets fun in big tanks)
Protein skimmer (gonna need a big one especially if you get larger, messy predatory fish)
Lighting (on a tank that length and depth if you want corals you pretty much need metal halides)
RO unit (pretty much required for a tank that large)
Cost (be prepared, you're looking at multiple thousands of dollars here... not cheap)

 

[jodi]

Thanks for the advice.

I know about the cost I been warned about it, would love something shark looking but i doubt you can get anything like that,

I shall look at the things you meanted.

 

[SkiFletch]

If you're really into corals, you could heavily stock a coral tank with a big trigger fish or maybe lionfish as well... Those are pretty reef safe, but they eat anything they can get in their mouths

 

[G7EG]

Alright Jodi,

As I said get your notes out!

 

[heads of fish]

all i would say before jumping into the world of marines is do as much research into everything as possible. its so expensive that you dont really want to do things wrong and cost yourself more money or kill any of the fish an invertabrates