120-SR Predator softie build

[Oredigger77]

I just posted over in the welcome forum but I figure I'll start my build thread tonight too.

We managed to get a IM SR-120 used from our LFS early in November. We bought some rock and have been playing with the rock work while I figure out how to get electrical to where we want the tank. It looks like we're going to get our dedicated 20 amp circuit run next week so it's time to start planing the next phases of the build.

The tank came with two Radion XE30w pros and a bunch of other assorted pumps and heaters as well as an ATO. I've still got to go through that box and see what we want to keep, what needs to be replaced and what new stuff I need to add. For now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with the tank and then I'll work out how to do it.

I'm more interested in fish so I want to start with a stocking list and go from there. So here's what I'm thinking at this point:

Two - Marine Betas
Two - Regal Angles
Two - Maroon Clowns w/ anemone
One - Harlequin tusk
One - Purple tang
One - Whitetail tang
One - Melanurus Wrasse
Three - Lyertail Anthias

I'm thinking CUC will primarily be urchins but we'll probably top off snails and hermits occasionally too. For coral I think it'll mostly be softies with maybe some euphyllia. We'll probably have some rock flower nems as well.

Any suggestions at this point? Probably after Christmas, I'll go through the box of equipment and post what I have for some suggestions on equipment.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Wow, great tank— Enjoy!

Marine Betas are definitely cool looking fish. I never got one because a few people were complaining that theirs basically hid most of the time; I just pass that along g in case you want to research it and see what you think.

Melanirus Wrasse are very popular; I also would say check out a Paddlefin and Lunare Wrasse (and maybe a Checkerboard) as contenders, if you like nice 8-9” Wrasse.

Keep the photos coming, and best wishes!

 

[Oredigger77]

Wow, great tank— Enjoy!

Marine Betas are definitely cool looking fish. I never got one because a few people were complaining that theirs basically hid most of the time; I just pass that along g in case you want to research it and see what you think.

Melanirus Wrasse are very popular; I also would say check out a Paddlefin and Lunare Wrasse (and maybe a Checkerboard) as contenders, if you like nice 8-9” Wrasse.

Keep the photos coming, and best wishes!

I'm going to try and get the bettas in as the first fish. Then I'll have a month with them or so before I introduce the next fish. There are a lot of hiding places in my rock work but I can see into most of them so I don't this will turn into the disappearing fish. I'm also hopeful the lyretails will help to get them out swimming around and that maybe pairing the bettas up will give them more confidence. We'll see though.

The Melanurus is a transfer from my daughter's 40. He's pretty enough I don't mind him but mostly we're just worried about him being too large for the 40. We're also bringing over the purple from the 40. He's a jerk so I'm a bit worried about him and the bettas or regals. I think the tank will be large enough for the purple and the white tail but the purple will probably be the last fish we introduce.

 

[Oredigger77]

The brave one swam out of his cave completely to snag some food for dinner along with eating everything that blew into the cave so that's a big success in my book. #2 has disappeared and I haven't seen them since I took that photo earlier but food was definitely blowing into the cave and the portion I didn't know was above it so it probably got food if it wanted too.

 

[Oredigger77]

The GHA has been getting out of hand so I wanted to bump up our clean up crew. I added two urchins a red and a blue tuxedo.

They went in yesterday and I'm already seeing some nice clean rock where they've been. Today's big addition was our third fish. Originally we wanted to get a magnificent foxface but as we thought about it we decided we'd rather add another captive bred fish to the tank so instead we got a Goldline Rabbit fish. He'll end up a but bigger then we'd prefer but I think they look pretty cool.

We got a foot of snow this morning so I was a but worried about the fish getting delivered today but he showed up swimming in the bag. Which ended up being the best photo of him I've gotten.

He's hiding in the back of the tank where I can barely see him but can't get a good photo hopefully he starts relaxing and eating soon.

 

[Oredigger77]

I went out to buy some phyto today and ended up coming home with a space invader pectinia that I've been looking for. It's more green and yellow then I would have guessed from the photos online.

Just a baby compared to the big one we picked up a couple of weeks ago but I'm excited to get our pectinia garden going. I've got a plan to add one more in this part of the tank if I can find a totally different color morph.

And then in what may prove to be a bad decision I grabbed one of the anemones I've been planning for the tank, a little bubble tip. Assuming we can keep it happy and healthy for a couple of months I'd like to get a Colorado Sunburst too as well as some rock flowers and a mini maxi.

We'll see. According the a lot of people around reef2reef it's way to early to add a nem but as you can see in that pectinia picture my white rocks have turned mostly purple with that I think in coraline. We'll see how it does but I'm mostly confident.

I've done almost 20 gallons of water changes this week adding fish and corals so I'll be curious what the parameters will be tomorrow when I test.

 

[Oredigger77]

So far the nem seems pretty happy though he's moved a bit to get out of the current and he isn't looking quite as big as he did yesterday but his color is better.

Got my testing done and the numbers are a bit weird this week. I had to mix up a new batch of NSW and got that tested as well.

NSW
1.026 sg
8.4 dkh

Tank
Sg 1.026
pH 7.9
Phosphates 0.11 ppm
7.7 dkh
380 ppm calcium
20 ppm nitrate

 

[Oredigger77]

Everything is looking good and happy this week. The RBTA developed some weird white things on its tips after a day or two and I posted a different thread asking about it but didn't get much for a response. It went away after we got our nem guards on the pumps wednesday and the flow decreased a bit. The nem never moved from where I put him which I assume means it's happy there.

The sand is starting to look ugly so I ordered a package of snails and a cucumber so we can start getting that moving. I also might have gone a bit crazy at the tidal gardens sale on Saturday and I picked up 6 new corals and both the snails and the corals should show up Tuesday just before we get hit with the next snow storm. The coral was all LPS except for one sps frag that I figured might do well since the nem is.

I did a 10 gallon water change today and got the water tested. The salinity crept up a bit but well within the margin or error Ill make sure I it with a little extra top off this week.

1.027 sg
8.0 pH
8.2 dkh
405 ppm ca
0.1 ppm phosphate
15 ppm nitrate

The rabbit fish is also a bit of a home wrecker. He and the brave regal have teamed up and explore the tank constantly. While the cowardly regal and mostly moved into a cave on the opposite side of the tank occasionally the three of them swim around together but mostly it's these two buddies.

 

[Oredigger77]

I just realized that somehow I have two seperate build threads. I only started one but it seems half of the posts have been stuck in another thread by the same name. Any ideas how to fix that?

Today was another fun day. We got our next round of clean up crew including two strawberry/tiger conchs, a spider conch and a yellow cucumber. The snails are doing great and moving around the tank more then I would have guessed. It's fun seeing their eyes and trunks.

The cucumber came looking rough and after a couple of hours isn't looking any better. I've got a thread in the invert forum asking if it can be saved or if I need to toss it before it nukes my tank. So far the repays are mixed. Any ideas here?

I got my 6 corals from tidal gardens sale and they threw in a bonus favia. All of the corals are perking up and I'll grab some photos of them tomorrow the ones I grabbed still look pretty rough since it was right after the dip.

I just fed the tank though at they all gave a nice feeding response. The pavona I picked up even snagged some frozen good that seems like it would be too big to eat. It looks like they all will make it.

 

[TheWB]

I just realized that somehow I have two seperate build threads. I only started one but it seems half of the posts have been stuck in another thread by the same name. Any ideas how to fix that?

Today was another fun day. We got our next round of clean up crew including two strawberry/tiger conchs, a spider conch and a yellow cucumber. The snails are doing great and moving around the tank more then I would have guessed. It's fun seeing their eyes and trunks.

The cucumber came looking rough and after a couple of hours isn't looking any better. I've got a thread in the invert forum asking if it can be saved or if I need to toss it before it nukes my tank. So far the repays are mixed. Any ideas here?

I got my 6 corals from tidal gardens sale and they threw in a bonus favia. All of the corals are perking up and I'll grab some photos of them tomorrow the ones I grabbed still look pretty rough since it was right after the dip.

I just fed the tank though at they all gave a nice feeding response. The pavona I picked up even snagged some frozen good that seems like it would be too big to eat. It looks like they all will make it.

I got nothing for ya on the cucumber, never had one, but I hope you get some help from the other thread. Everything else is looking good.

 

[Oredigger77]

I got nothing for ya on the cucumber, never had one, but I hope you get some help from the other thread. Everything else is looking good.

I just flushed it. It started floating around the tank so I'm pretty sure if it's not dead it would be soon.

 

[TheWB]

I just flushed it. It started floating around the tank so I'm pretty sure if it's not dead it would be soon.

That’s too bad. Hopefully you get some credit or something. Where did you get them from? I’ve been pretty lucky with online orders of fish (only 2 so far) and coral (about 20 frags) but not so much with the inverts. I try to get those from the lfs now.

 

[Oredigger77]

@reefcleaners the problem is the cucumber was only $7 but they required overnight shipping for it that cost $44. At this point I think I'll just let it go since I'm not on paying for that shipping again. If the three conchs can't do the job and I need more help cleaning the tank I'll throw another one in on my next order. We generally have had good luck with reef cleaners and I'll use them again.

 

[TheWB]

@reefcleaners the problem is the cucumber was only $7 but they required overnight shipping for it that cost $44. At this point I think I'll just let it go since I'm not on paying for that shipping again. If the three conchs can't do the job and I need more help cleaning the tank I'll throw another one in on my next order. We generally have had good luck with reef cleaners and I'll use them again.

I’ve used them and it’s been ok. I don’t care for the use of usps when the service is so unreliable right now though. My last order from them was 2 days late and then placed in a very hot drop box at our community mailbox. I got snail soup. Since then I just go to the lfs for cuc. I’m not getting very many though, for a first time setup where you want a large population of different kinds of snails, etc.. then Reefcleaners would be the go to, just not in the summertime if you don’t want to pay for overnight shipping.

 

[Oredigger77]

I’ve used them and it’s been ok. I don’t care for the use of usps when the service is so unreliable right now though. My last order from them was 2 days late and then placed in a very hot drop box at our community mailbox. I got snail soup. Since then I just go to the lfs for cuc. I’m not getting very many though, for a first time setup where you want a large population of different kinds of snails, etc.. then Reefcleaners would be the go to, just not in the summertime if you don’t want to pay for overnight shipping.

I did pay for the overnight shipping on this one since it was required for both the spider conch and the cucumber. At this point I've got all the clean up crew I think I'll need for a while. We'll see. I don't really like going crazy with the CUC since then they eat everything and die then whatever they were eating comes back worse.

 

[jcolliii]

Love my urchin - have one of the types you have, a tuxedo - and he's a super hard worker.

 

[Oredigger77]

Love my urchin - have one of the types you have, a tuxedo - and he's a super hard worker.

Yep, we have a tuxedo and a pincushion in our 40b tank and they do the best job of anything cleaning up. We just went with two tuxedos this time because the pincushion wasn't available. We may add one in the future if necessary.

Our red tuxedo wrecked a path of destruction through algea and even the epoxy paint on the life rock last night you can see the clean spot on the arch behind him.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Limpets might be more resistant to the tusk. Worth a try.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Also could try abalone. Pretty tough ang maybe too big for the tusk to even grab, but very thorough grazers.

 

[Oredigger77]

Limpets might be more resistant to the tusk. Worth a try.

I actually just added a couple of limpets in the last cuc order but most of them went in our other tank I only added 3 to this one because that was all I could get off the shell they packaged them with. I'd like to get an abalone but I don't think I've ever seen one for sale but for now we'll see how the clean up crew does and if they need more help so far the rocks are pretty clean it's just the sand that needs some work.

I guess it was in the half of the thread that has been moved to another thread but we ended up dropping the tusk from the stocking list since it was looking like we had too many large fish and not a lot of smaller ones. Right now the plan looks like:

2 x CB regal angle fish
1 x Gold lined rabbit fish
1x Pintail wrasse
1 x Rhomboid wrasse
1 x Exquisite wrasse
2 x Maroon Clowns
1 x Melanurus wrasse
1 x Purple tang
1 x White tail tang

My youngest daughter is obsessed with a porcupine puffer at our LFS and while I know it won't fit in the tank long term it's really hard to keep telling her no. Her and "her puffer friend" are very cute playing through the glass together.