Starting my first saltwater tank :)

[SnowflakeMorayEel]

Hi! I'm a new member. I want to start a saltwater aquarium in the near-future, but i need some tips and pointers (and possibly some fish ideas and names)!

Planned Tank Size: 75 gallon

Planned fish: Snowflake Moray Eel, Antenna Lionfish, Striated Angler, and a Barbfish.

Planned inverts: A cleaner shrimp (Possibly), A few starfish, and some anemones.

Coral: Yes

Live Rock: Yes.

 

[arcab4]

good size tank!

i would pass on the cleaner shrimp unless you it to be a tasty expensive snack for your eel, lionfish, etc.

anemones...you'll have to worry about them stinging your fishes if they get close....i would vote no on like a carpet anemone but you might be okay with a bubble anemone as long as the lighting system is sufficient.

corals...depends on which ones you're interested in. some may become snacks for the fishes or get harassed enough that they die off.

live rock...every saltwater tank needs that.

if it was me..i'd have to decide if i wanted a FO (Fish Only) tank (with the fishes you're considering above) or go with a community tank (more corals..smaller fishes etc).

if you go FO, then you don't have to shell out extra money for a really go lighting system. but if you go with more corals, you'll need to take that into consideration. for example...i have a coral/community tank so i just upgraded my lighting to LED's. The Hydra 52HD: http://amzn.to/1SVm8E0

either tank will need a good skimmer. i'm using an older version of this skimmer (Bubble Magnus)
http://amzn.to/1SqdL9d

then you'll need some powerheads for the tank. lots of options but i use these on like my 60 gallon. you'll probably need 2-3 at least. (Tunze 6045) http://amzn.to/1rb0Pbs

and then if you want a sump/refugium etc. that's another long topic haha.

yea...much different than keeping freshwater..just more upfront cost. but just as fun as freshwater!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

As stated, 75g is a good sized tank. Sounds like you are wanting to do an aggressive reef? You can do that a few ways - easiest is to do more or less a FOWLR but with some non-demanding corals thrown in. Either way, anemones need strong lighting, good water quality, and a mature tank (6+ months established).

Make sure you really want a few fish that are more or less sedentary, your predators aren't exactly active swimmers. And adding any active swimmers will be adding expensive snacks.

I haven't had any of your selected fish, so I can't say as to their compatibility. Not sure what a barbfish is - maybe barber fish? If so, the lion or angler will eat it.

Pass on shrimp for the reason arcab stated. Also starfish look cool, but most are not sustainable in a home-size tank. A brittle star would work if fed regularly, however I would imagine it would be likely to be eaten.

Try to arrange your rock so there are several caves / overhangs for the fish to have visible hiding spots. Also make sure that the rock is very secure (and on the bottom glass, not on sand) with the eel. And that the top is escape-proof.

You can get mostly dry rock and seed it with a few pieces of live rock. Or, if you have a local reef club you can often find people selling live rock for silly cheap.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Whoa, your tank sounds aggressive. Definetly use rockscaping to your advantage, and like CAPSLOCK said, you'll need several caves.

- C. Smith