120 gal sps/ribbon eel tank +

[Ishai Thatcher]

Hey y’all, this is my build! I tried starting a build thread before, but nobody replied. I’m giving it another shot because this build is super cool and I think a lot of you will enjoy it more now that it’s much more progressed!

what I got going so far: 120 gallon aqueon tank with dual built in overflows, triton 44lorida crushed coral/ Arag alive special grade, macro rocks/ shelf rocks, 2 vortech mp10’s, 2 vortech mp40’s, 2 battery backups, reef octopus regal 200int varios skimmer, vectra m2 return pump,
2x 300 watt titanium heater elements controlled by a Neptune apex, 2 radion xr15 blues installed in a t5/led hybrid fixture.

I just started my cycle!

I have 4 DOS dosing pumps which aren’t in use yet, but they will feed the tank, dose 2 part, chaetogrow, phyto, and do auto water changes.

To the left of this tank is a table with 3 different tanks on it, and one large one beneath it. From right to left, a 25 gallon cube that I drilled with an x Aqua in/out overflow, a Fiji cube 32 gal with an external overflow, and lastly a 10 gal Fiji cube with an external overflow. These tanks will drain down to a 75 gallon aqueon beneath them, which then drains to my triton sump.
The 25 gallon and the 32 gallon both have an mp10 and an xr15 radion pro. The 10 gallon is lit by an AI prime 16 hd.

last is some of the animals I have in qt, actually they have been in qt for like 4 months so I think there are officially clean fish! I have 2 white ribbon eels, 1 black ribbon eel, 1 garden eel, 3 engineer gobies, a yellow halichores wrasse, a blue tang, a gem tang, a wartskin angler and a giant angler, 3 chalk bass, a pink bar goby/ shrimp pair, a gold Midas blenny, a mystery wrasse, a pair of bangai cardinals, and a Picasso percula female x black storm male clownfish pair!

 

[Jekyl]

Looks nice! Won't the predators eat your fish though?

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I forgot to mention that I will be doing trident controlled dosing using brs 2 part. I also have a biomedia reactor, a carbon reactor, a sediment filter, and a uv sterilizer which I’m gonna plumb to a manifold which will be run externally by a vectra s2. I will also be using no3 po4x a little bit. I’m also gonna have a huge refugium in the triton sump with 2 ai prime fuge lights and 4 tunze ecochic refugium lights.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

Looks nice! Won't the predators eat your fish though?

The big fish are going into the 120 gallon, all the little ones are going into the smaller tanks. The anglers have some tanks all to themselves! The thing with the ribbon eels is that they get super long, but there mouths stay rather small. That way they can only eat fish that are like skinny bodied and 1.5 in or under. So I should be able to get away with putting the tangs and some other bigger fish with them. Even some maroon clowns will be fine. The eels won’t bother large shrimp either. I should be able to put a halichores wrasse in there but I’m gonna have to wait until it’s big. And I’m also planning to put some anthias and fairy wrasse in there, but they can be bought large enough as well!

 

[shred5]

The big fish are going into the 120 gallon, all the little ones are going into the smaller tanks. The anglers have some tanks all to themselves! The thing with the ribbon eels is that they get super long, but there mouths stay rather small. That way they can only eat fish that are like skinny bodied and 1.5 in or under. So I should be able to get away with putting the tangs and some other bigger fish with them. Even some maroon clowns will be fine. The eels won’t bother large shrimp either. I should be able to put a halichores wrasse in there but I’m gonna have to wait until it’s big. And I’m also planning to put some anthias and fairy wrasse in there, but they can be bought large enough as well!

I had a ribbon eel in my reef before.
They do eat fish like clowns, royal Grammas smaller fish like them, mine certainly did. This was a long time ago and was told they wont eat them they are mostly blind.
Since they are mostly blind there is a chance they may go after something larger like a tang though. I have seen eels in displays swimming around with a tang in its mouth before..
They are also escape artists.
They do look cool in a reef aquarium though and can be a pretty cool thing to do. We used to have a lfs store that had a reef display right at the bottom of a stairwell and that thing was smack dab in the middle of it. Very impressive and it was what gave me the idea to do it.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

I had a ribbon eel in my reef before.
They do eat fish like clowns, royal Grammas smaller fish like them, mine certainly did. This was a long time ago and was told they wont eat them they are mostly blind.
Since they are mostly blind there is a chance they may go after something larger like a tang though. I have seen eels in displays swimming around with a tang in its mouth before..
They are also escape artists.
They do look cool in a reef aquarium though and can be a pretty cool thing to do. We used to have a lfs store that had a reef display right at the bottom of a stairwell and that thing was smack dab in the middle of it. Very impressive and it was what gave me the idea to do it.

Yeah my experience of them is similar, they are blind enough to try and catch things that are definitely too big for them to eat, which can cause injury. I hope I can make it work though, they are stunning. I wasn’t planning on trying any small fish, so hopefully it works out. Do you think they would be fine with bigger inverts like large cleaner shrimp?

 

[shred5]

Yeah my experience of them is similar, they are blind enough to try and catch things that are definitely too big for them to eat, which can cause injury. I hope I can make it work though, they are stunning. I wasn’t planning on trying any small fish, so hopefully it works out. Do you think they would be fine with bigger inverts like large cleaner shrimp?

You know I have seen pictures of different eels with cleaner shrimp in their mouths cleaning them so you might be ok.
Might depend on how hungry it is.

 

[Ishai Thatcher]

You know I have seen pictures of different eels with cleaner shrimp in their mouths cleaning them so you might be ok.
Might depend on how hungry it is.

Well we are gonna see!

 

[Fin Jackson]

Very nice! I can't wait to see the final product!