fish selection + couple of questions

[drewspuppet]

I want to start my first saltwater tank in a 75 gallon aquarium. I have time to devote to the upkeep of the tank and love for fish. I am not that interested in building a reef, but I do want to do live rock and fish.

I am just learning about salt water species.

Does this list sound alright? Do some of these need a reef to thrive?

Cardinals
Black + white clownfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Threadfin Butterfly

any other suggestions?

Also..

How do you add water and must I use RO or distilled? Do you out there take bucket loads from your RO filtered spout to your tank or is there some better way.. Can I get an idea as to how often I would be doing water changes for a fowlr tank?

And finally- business travel. I live alone and am a glass artist and in the summers I travel to art shows on many weekends and am gone for 2-4 days. My parents live close to me and I know I could make them a trade for watching my fish but it would eventually start adding up the number of glass items I would have to trade so was wondering if I can just count on my parents to look in on my fish in case of power failure in the area or if on a 4 day trip stop by one day. Maybe not a good idea, if not I will find the right solution.

Thanks, andrew

[lunatik_69]

First of all, welcome to the best site in da world
Congrats on switching to the dark side(salt lol) and for starting with a 75gal.
Having a fowlr is the easiest to take care of, IMO. The fish selection that you have picked sounds fine for a fowlr tank. If you where to later change your mind and want a reef tank, you might have to get rid of the last two on the list. Some ppl have a CB with a reef tank with no problems, but I wouldnt take the chance.
As for the R/O water, Yes, DO NOT use tap water for top off. R/O is the best that you can get. There are different ways to introduce the R/O water, I just pour it into the sump from a new 5gal gas container. When you do travel, you can buy an automatic feeder if your parents cant pass by. The good news is,for you, a fowlr is the easiest as in maint. and least expensive to start. Good luck and if you have any other Q's, please dont hesitate. Luna

[wastemanagement]

Welcome to the 3reef.
Your probably not going to have any troubles with leaving your tank for 3-4 days just a good feed for the days befor to leave, top off you water befor to go and the timmers for lights should take care of the rest.
If you choose to use a sump you could incorperate auto top off into it with your RO unit aswell

[aquaboy]

you can also have a resevoir with RO water that gets pumped to tank when water level goes low, jus refill that resevoir every 4-5 days or more. Your fish list is fine, and Luna, CB's are pretty safe being from the centropyge genus family thingamabobber. There are rogues though that find your LPS to be yummy



WELCOME TO 3REEF!!!!!!!!!!

[lunatik_69]

Aguaboy, you might be right, but I dont trust ANY angel or butterfly fish with corals. I have had some bad exp.s with them before and it was a nightmare to get them out.

[aquaboy]

That sucks