Rio 125 Marine Set Up

[foley69]

i have decided to shut down my rio 125 from breeding ellioti and now i want a marine set up so far for the set up i have

*rio 125 tank and cabinet
*JBL cristalprofi e900 external
* t8 lighting

in the next week or so i will be getting 11kg of uncured liverock and ocean rock, red sea max salt, ro water, coral sand, tmc refractometer, debaiting to get the tmc nano skimmer or v2 400, and some sort of phosphate remover for the external.

stocking wise once cycled i am unsure any ideas will be taken on board and i will be posting pics as progress goes on

thanks andy

 

[ben1987]

dont get ocean rock, its not pourus enough to become live over time. Reef bones on the other hand could be

btw. Nice starter tank too

 

[foley69]

ok well i might just stick with all live rock will only do good one thing i was thinking of was how to stock it heres what i had planned

carpenters flasher wrasse, chalk bass, some sort of dwarf angel, dusky jawfish, purple firefish, clowns, sand sifting star fish and various shrimp. now obviously not all them for the tank its just an idea of what would be ok to go into my tank.

any other ideas will be appreciated

andy

 

[seffieuk]

to the salty side

Dont forget you will need at least one powerhead in that tank for flow aroudn the rock a koralia 2 or maybe 2 x K1

Seffie x

 

[Harry1996]

dont forget that uncured rock smells a bit are you going to have a fowlr or a reef? if your going to have a reef you need better lighting. but you can have soft corals it T8 lights

 

[foley69]

well i was initially going to just have fish only system but we have some nice mushroom corals in work so might get myself one or 2 of them but i will be eventually upgrading to t5 and maybe add a couple of LED strips to the flaps of the hood not too sure yet hopefully i can get started soon i cant wait to get my first marine tank going.

btw. Nice starter tank too
[/quote]

cheers i couldnt see myself starting out any smaller as there isnt much that will go in less than 125 litres

 

[Harry1996]

with my tank im going to buy some LEDs about £22 for a stip of 48 blue leds ands maybe some white ones too. i would agree with what you said 125 liters is the smallest really for a marine. i wish i had the rio 180 but it would have been a little to big for my room but the rio 125 is a great little tank. i got mine new so i got t5 lights with it. i would go for a reef personly its much mor colourfull and it only costs a little bit more than a fowlr

 

[AK77]

Before you set up the rio, decide whether or not you want to have a sump in the cabinet. Getting the tank drilled and making any adjustments to the cabinet is a hell of a lot easier in an empty tank, rather than retro fitting one when you have the rock and water in the tank!!

The sump allows you to hide equipment like heaters, protein skimmer and reactors. It also increases the overall water volume, making the water chemistry more stable. You can also have a refugium with macro algae and a deep sand bed, which helps purify the water by removing phosphates and nitrates, which is beneficial and sometimes necessary to keep corals.

 

[foley69]

i wasnt planning on having a sump i am just going to make it as simple as i can as i already hav a 55g and 25g tank in my room so i cant afford to reli pimp it up im just going to add tons of liverock, an internal uv sterilizer and a tmc nano skimmer which does up to 125 litre aquariums i may add some polyfilter to the external aswell if i was to add corals what would be ok and also what would be suitable stocking from what i have put in my previous post for the tank?

 

[AK77]

i wasnt planning on having a sump i am just going to make it as simple as i can as i already hav a 55g and 25g tank in my room so i cant afford to reli pimp it up im just going to add tons of liverock, an internal uv sterilizer and a tmc nano skimmer which does up to 125 litre aquariums i may add some polyfilter to the external aswell if i was to add corals what would be ok and also what would be suitable stocking from what i have put in my previous post for the tank?

I really wouldn't bother with the UV unit in the tank. A UV is much better utilized on a quarantine tank to help ensure your fish are disease and parasite free before they enter your aquarium.

The external filter is also not necessary as it serves no real benefit to a FOWLR or Reef takn, unless you were to use it as a fluidized reactor for running phosban and activated carbon.

As far as corals go, mushrooms, zoas, xenia, green star polyps, kenya trees and leather corals like toadstools and finger corals are all good for beginners.

For a list of livestock, have a look on liveaquaria.com's nano section

In your 125, I personally wouldn't go for more than 4 fish, otherwise you'll forever be struggling with nitrates and phosphates, both of which need to be at near trace levels in order for corals to do well.

Pair of black and white false percs
Goby (lot of options here)
Royal Gramma

5 bumble bee nassarius
3 astrea
1 orange lipped conch (you will need to target feed this with pellet food until your sandbed has sufficient food for it or wait until this time before adding it. I target fed mine and its doing fine)
1 x fireshrimp (If you get a yellow watchman or 3 spot goby, get a pistol shrimp instead. They form a symbiotic relationship and live together in a little burrow - check youtube for videos)

 

[foley69]

right i was thinking along the lines of


3x chalk bass
1x coral beauty
1x blackcap basslet
3-4x cleaner shrimp
1x sand sifting starfish

would this work ??? and ok maybe scrap the uv i was going to use the external purely for carbon and some sort of phosphate remover

 

[seffieuk]

right i was thinking along the lines of


3x chalk bass - sweet fish
1x coral beauty - can nip corals
1x blackcap basslet - lovely fish but can be aggressive
3-4x cleaner shrimp - too many imo, i would go with two
1x sand sifting starfish - i'm afraid not, he will starve

would this work ??? and ok maybe scrap the uv i was going to use the external purely for carbon and some sort of phosphate remover

Should be ok, with weekley water changes of 25% and a skimmer

 

[foley69]

why not the starfish my gf will be devastated what do they feed on as one of my work mates has one in his set up and is doing great of course i was planning on adding the starfish once the tank is nice and mature. o yea and i was planning on having a deep substrate for a dusky jawfish as well

 

[seffieuk]

Unfortunately they don't do well in tanks less than about four-five foot. They just can't get enough food and are very difficult to spot feed

Seffie x

ps maybe she would be happy with little asterina stars that we all get on our live rock

 

[foley69]

ah rit ok as long as she see's a starfish she will be happy hahaa theres so much i want lol one thing i was really planning on getting is a carpenters flasher wrasse ?