The “Holy Crap It’s Actually Happening” 125 Gal

[litsoh]

I’ve finally pulled the trigger and got a 125 gallon tank a couple months back. The shock still hasn’t worn off yet so I hadn’t thought of making a build thread until now since things gave started to settle in a bit more.

At the moment I’m running a 125 gallon fowlr tank, no intention of stocking corals (it’s illegal here anyway). Current tank inhabitants are
2 clowns
1 firefish goby
(newly added)
1 yellow longnose
1 threadfin
1 flame angel
1 royal gramma
1 mccosker’s flasher wrasse
3 banggai cardinals
1 fighting conch

They’ve already been in there a couple of weeks and are pretty settled in. Everything else will be coming in at the end of this week and the tank should be pretty well filled out by then! In the meantime here’s how the tank is looking.

 

[litsoh]

Not running a QT at the moment, so all my fish have been/are coming in pre-qt’d by Dr. Reef and I’m very satisfied with everything so far. My clowns and firefish look stunning.

Tank has also been seeded with pods a few days ago from Reef by Steele and I’ve been dosing phyto just to get a population on its feet

 

[litsoh]

Eventually when the rest of my order comes in I’ll check to if the tank can accomodate more life, and then if everything looks good I’ll be trying to catch a yellow tang off one of the beaches here. By then I’ll hopefully have more knowledge and means to do a qt for the tang so that I can add it in as well.

Along with the tang I’m also thinking of a mandarin goby, probably my favorite fish, and a foxface.

Of course that’s all reliant on how much my tank can take

 

[kevgib67]

I can feel your excitement, following!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Reefer911]

What kind of communist empire are you living in that you can house actual animals in a captive environment but can’t keep (imo) a lower life form in that same environment?

Disregard. I see it’s Hawaii

 

[litsoh]

What kind of communist empire are you living in that you can house actual animals in a captive environment but can’t keep (imo) a lower life form in that same environment?

Disregard. I see it’s Hawaii

At any rate I’m perfectly fine with not keeping them. I don’t think my skill level (and wallet) is up to par with the requirements needed to keep ‘em alive. If I ever wanna add a bit more color to the tank I can always go the macroalgae route anyway

 

[Reefer911]

True True

 

[litsoh]

True True

The tradeoff is that I can get yellow tangs for free from our waters, and possibly flame wrasses. I'll have to double check the laws for that one though. I can't remember if I saw it in the list of approved species to take for recreational use

 

[litsoh]

New ones came in the mail today, not pictured is the royal gramma that’s hiding a little bit. Hopefully in a few days he’ll be a little more daring and show himself, that and maybe the flame angel won’t be too much of a bully

 

[kevgib67]

New ones came in the mail today, not pictured is the royal gramma that’s hiding a little bit. Hopefully in a few days he’ll be a little more daring and show himself, that and maybe the flame angel won’t be too much of a bully

Ya, royal gramma are shy at first but eventually will be out and about a lot.

 

[litsoh]

Ya, royal gramma are shy at first but eventually will be out and about a lot.

Yeah I've read that it takes a little bit for them to adjust. Hopefully he can entice my firefish to come out a bit more too

I noticed the flame angel picking a bit at the gramma and the threadfin while I was acclimating them in the bucket but I'm hoping the two butterflies together can keep him in check

 

[kevgib67]

Yeah I've read that it takes a little bit for them to adjust. Hopefully he can entice my firefish to come out a bit more too

I noticed the flame angel picking a bit at the gramma and the threadfin while I was acclimating them in the bucket but I'm hoping the two butterflies together can keep him in check

Your gramma will do that open his mouth and posture thing. That is enough to put the other fish in my tank into their place.

 

[litsoh]

Your gramma will do that open his mouth and posture thing. That is enough to put the other fish in my tank into their place.

Oh yeah I saw that a bit in the bucket before they went in, way to fight back my dude

 

[litsoh]

I’m trying to supplement their diet with some nori but they seem to ignore it save the threadfin that rarely will nip at it. Hopefully if I just keep it in long enough they’ll eventually get curious and try it out. Same goes with some clams on a half shell. The only one that seems to be brave enough to try it is my threadfin

 

[Gumbies R Us]

New ones came in the mail today, not pictured is the royal gramma that’s hiding a little bit. Hopefully in a few days he’ll be a little more daring and show himself, that and maybe the flame angel won’t be too much of a bully

Some great looking fish!

 

[litsoh]

Lil' Sushi Vert the Royal Gramma and Gobi Wan Kenobi the Exquisite Firefish have finally gotten comfortable enough to be out and about with the other fish in the tank. I think the Finye West the Flame Angel just needed a few days to get used to everything in the tank as he no longer chases around the other two. It's finally a lot easier for me to check if everything is eating their fair share

There's a bit of algae growing on the back panel of the tank now that has a bunch of holes in it from when Finye grazes, and maybe I wasn't looking all that closely before but I've now noticed some pods scattered around the glass - either tisbe, tig, or apo. Hopefully that means that there are a lot more crawling around in the sand and rockwork. I'm thinking I'll seed a bit more in a few days to make sure a stable population is set for the eventual mandarin

 

[litsoh]

Pods are out in full force today

 

[litsoh]

Other than the pretty minimal algae growth on the glass I've noticed some brown algae growth on some areas of the rock. Should I start looking into adding more cuc than just the pods at this point?

 

[litsoh]

Don’t mind the diatoms that I’m currently fighting, but I took advantage of the sale that petco had on some rock and made some additional arches and some caves. My flame angel is definitely enjoying his time weaving around