120g Mixed Reef Build - Newbie with lots of pics

those darn inner nerds, one never knows when they're going to jump out lol

yes, what is your grand plan once you set up in terms of what you want to keep? I'm definitely curious.

 

Proposed Stock Plan

So, the overall plan was to set up a LPS/Soft dominated tank to start and maybe bring in some SPS after a year or so. So the DT is on order and should be here on Saturday. The rock has been curing for a week now so I’m hoping the cycle will be completed in 4-5 more weeks or so. Then I’ll add the 50lbs of live rock from Live Rock ‘n’ Reef and the CUC… I’ll call this week 0. I’ll wait a week or two to be sure I don’t get another cycle and to let my first batch of fish get through quarantine.

So, here’s what I’m looking to put in and when I plan to introduce them. Note that I may not buy them from the store I linked here but for those who aren’t familiar with the species (mainly my family J) this should give you an idea. I’m sure I’ll be bringing home various impulse buys from the LFS of course!

I’m really looking for input here guys so please don’t be shy. Obviously the timeline will be based on how the tank is doing… especially with the trickier stuff like the anemone, mandarin, etc.


Week 0:

• 120g Quick Crew w/ hermits from Reefcleaners.org
• Will also get some Chaeto, some Red Gracilaria, and some Ulva Lettuce for the refugium.

Week 2:

• One-Spot Foxface
• 5 x Barred Dartfish
• 2 x Percula Clownfish
• 2x cleaner shrimp
• 4x fire shrimp
• 2x Red Brittle Sea Star
• 3x red serpent star

• Purple Tip Frogspawn
• Sun Polyps
• Pulsing Xenia
• Metallic Green Hammer
• Brain Worm Platygyra

Week 8 (around my birthday... hint to the family):

• Dwarf Flame Angel
• Royal Gramma
• Red Spotted Blenny
• Purple Firefish Goby

• Green Star Polyp
• Assorted Mushrooms
• Armor of God Zoo
• Purple Flower Pot
• Orange and Green Polyps
• Zoo colony

Week 14:

• Hi Fin Red Banded Goby and Pistol Shrimp
• Exquisite Fairy Wrasse
• Kryptonite Candy Cane
• Alien Moon Brain

Week 26:

• Purple long tentacle Anemone
• Blue Linckia Star
• Maxima clam
• Superman Chalice

Week 40: (being optimistic with my refugium!)

• Psychedelic Mandarinfish

Week 52: (being optimistic with my water quality!)

• Electric Flame Scallop

 

I think your list looks great, really nice variety and colors and such.....of course, you know the mandarins can be tricky to keep and should have an established pod system unless you train them to take prepared foods. The only possible nix I have for your list is the blue linkia starfish. These are very difficult to keep in our reef tanks and usually don't last very long - slowly starve it's really a shame because they are so beautiful.

I can tell you've been doing your homework! Continue to read and read and read some more.....I still am learning new things every day in this hobby!

 

You may run into compatibility issues between the 4 fire shrimp and the cleaner shrimp. A 120 isn't really that big so there isn't that much space for them to separate.

 

Thanks FishKeeper! I know the mandarins are picky eaters so I'll wait till I have a good solid pod population before getting one for sure.

As for the Linkia, yeah... I was afraid of that. Saw some conflicting info on them that if the tank was big enough they could scrounge enough food. Probably better safe than sorry though... certainly don't want to bring an animal in the tank just to slowely starve it to death!

 

Yeah, I may drop down to just 1 fireshrimp and add a few of the small peppermint shrimp instead. Thanks for the advice Daniel.

 

LC works!

Hey, just ran another phosphate test after adding the LC lastnight... went from 38ppb down to 9ppb! Nice. Will test again in a couple days to see if the PO4 starts to creep up again. Will keep testing and dosing LC until Po4 stays below 20ppm for a week straight.

 

I wanted to ask this before and I'm sorry if it's obvious but what is LC? (already tried the cursor trick

 

ah, sorry about that... I mentioned it a week or two ago further up in the thread.

LC stands for Lanthanum Chloride. It's a chemical that bonds with Phosphate in the water column and causes it to percipitate out as a powder. I'm using the SeaKlear brand phosphate remover for swimming pools.

The idea is to keep pulling the PO4 out of the water as it leaches out of the rock. Once the tests stop showing PO4 in the water column, the rock should be ready to pull out of the rock tub to put in the display tank without fear of it leaching more Phosphates over time.

Whatever PO4 was bound up in the rock get's left in the bottom of the rock tub as a powder to be thrown away.

 

wow, that's awesome! thanks for the clarification. I will need to remember that.