Hype for my new reef tank set up

Jwise · May 14, 2022

I will soon be getting rock, sand, and water within the next 4 weeks in my new 125 gallon 6ft aquarium just ordered a reef octopus regal 150sss skimmer for it. I am so excited to get it all set up, im going to try something new as far as lighting because im going to have a mixed reef with three separate islands. For the middle of the tank im going to get an AI hydra 62pro. Then for the sides two AI hydra 32 pros one for each side and im going to try and fit diffuser panels on them to see what comes of it. Cant wait to see the results as far as par spread go. Im also hype for stocking and cant wait to see the reef up and running with the fish selection that i choose. Probably going to wait 8 to 10 months before i worry about adding any coral and am going to start with softies side and work keeping my dosing up to par to maintaining them and then acclimate them to me dosing more to compensate for lps, and sps growth later on as i notice them taking more elements as they grow. As for flow i got two Ecotech Mp40s one on each side of the aquarium place on opposite sides one close to the back and the others closer to the front of the tank. Got the screen mesh for top from brs and wont have problems from jumpers. I will have to send a pic when i got it all set up and have fish/coral in the aquarium.

Jedi1199 · May 14, 2022

Jwise said:
I will soon be getting rock, sand, and water within the next 4 weeks in my new 125 gallon 6ft aquarium just ordered a reef octopus regal 150sss skimmer for it. I am so excited to get it all set up, im going to try something new as far as lighting because im going to have a mixed reef with three separate islands. For the middle of the tank im going to get an AI hydra 62pro. Then for the sides two AI hydra 32 pros one for each side and im going to try and fit diffuser panels on them to see what comes of it. Cant wait to see the results as far as par spread go. Im also hype for stocking and cant wait to see the reef up and running with the fish selection that i choose. Probably going to wait 8 to 10 months before i worry about adding any coral and am going to start with softies side and work keeping my dosing up to par to maintaining them and then acclimate them to me dosing more to compensate for lps, and sps growth later on as i notice them taking more elements as they grow. As for flow i got two Ecotech Mp40s one on each side of the aquarium place on opposite sides one close to the back and the others closer to the front of the tank. Got the screen mesh for top from brs and wont have problems from jumpers. I will have to send a pic when i got it all set up and have fish/coral in the aquarium.

Sounds exciting!!

Question? what are you going to be dosing? Most softies do not extract trace elements that require dosing more than a simple water change. Most tanks that require dosing, are replacing the trace elements like calcium and others that are taken up with larger, more mature SPS corals.

I do not "dose" my tank at all. I have a very large selection of corals. The SPS do just fine with water changes at this point. They are far from mature for sure, but with 16 fish and over 100 corals in a 55g, i would know if I needed dosing for sure.

Jwise · May 15, 2022

Jedi1199 said:
Sounds exciting!!

Question? what are you going to be dosing? Most softies do not extract trace elements that require dosing more than a simple water change. Most tanks that require dosing, are replacing the trace elements like calcium and others that are taken up with larger, more mature SPS corals.

I do not "dose" my tank at all. I have a very large selection of corals. The SPS do just fine with water changes at this point. They are far from mature for sure, but with 16 fish and over 100 corals in a 55g, i would know if I needed dosing for sure.

Yes i do understand that about softies not needing much in way of absorbing minerals/elements and will only dose when necessary. (More than likely once the lps and sps corals go in.) I use all of the red sea dosing products from trace elements, to ab reef energy. I will also use thier alk, cal, and mag dosing. I have use it before on reef tanks and it always seemed to be a good product and have had happy corals from it before.

dedragon · May 15, 2022

i would probably wait another week til the ecotech radions go down in price as the new g6 is coming out and purchase the g5 over the ai hydras as i dont think you will need the diffuser panel at all with the radions

Jwise · May 15, 2022

dedragon said:
i would probably wait another week til the ecotech radions go down in price as the new g6 is coming out and purchase the g5 over the ai hydras as i dont think you will need the diffuser panel at all with the radions

It just helps blanket the par with leds regardless of which ones they are and makes it similar to metal halides so my corals with get even dispersed lighting and will allow the lighting to get to the underside and base of the corals a lot better and will also eliminate hot spots which leds put out

Devaji · May 15, 2022

nice I like the 6' 125! grest looking tank.

Jwise · May 15, 2022

Im planning on keeping coral groups together im going to do an all softie island, a lps island, and a sps island to help curb aggression between corals growing to fast for others and to give space so there should be no sweeper tenticles stinging the others im probably going to try and grow green star polyp on the back of the glass instead of a backcover

Jwise · May 15, 2022

the other nice thing about separate islands is it also helps to curb aggression between fish and gives more swimming space because i was planning on adding a yellow watchman, three Red Dart Fish, Two Purple Firefish, a Helfrichis Firefish, a Royal Gramma, a diamond Watchman sandsifter goby, a Wardi tiger sandsifter goby, a Mgnificant Foxface, a Golden Nugget Maroon Clownfish, a Tomini Tang, Hippo Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, White Tailed Bristletooth Tang, and a Purple Tang, ( which im introducing all the tangs at the same and am trying to get them as small as possible time to help reduce any aggression issues.) a Blue Spot Jawfish, a Pajama Cardinal, a Bellus Angelfish, a Tail Spot Blenny, and last but not least a Solar Fairy Wrasse. Its going to look finaminal with all those amazing color contrasts and i cant wait. I talked my stocking list over with several people to make sure it was ok with that selection and they all said it was good and im planning on adding all fish when they are small and so they wont ever have to transfer which is good for stress reduction and im always going to feed a ton of seaweed on opposite sides of the tank and i make my own food mixed with everything from bryn to mysis shrimp to hikari carnivore and herbivore and seaweed extreme, i mix with vitamins and garlic and seaweed, i also mix in some pe flakes and then i freeze it all together so the fish get all that variety every meal.