Needs some help, major renovation what...

Hello everyone,
Its been a while since I have been here but I need your help. We are doing some major major renovation in a old house. We had reinforced the floor for my 120 gallons tank but now I have to move it because of the renovations, the only place I can move my tank too is in my sons room with the furnace is hanging from the floor so we can't reinforced that floor for my 120. The only solution I see would be to downsize to a 55 so I could keep my tank in my sons room, so the floor could support it.

I actually have 2 question

I have a blue tang, yellow tang, 6 chromis, 2 banggai cardinals, 2 clowns. would a 55 gallon be ok for just 4 to 5 months, until renovation is over?

I have an orphek led unit and my 120 gallons is 2 feet deep and I now the 55 are not as deep, i am a little confuse about how high should I mount my unit on the 55, my guees would be to start it high and lowered it until my corals gets happy. what hight do you think I should start it?

Thanks for your help
Marie

 

1) If the tangs are less than around 5", they would be ok short-term. Everything else will be fine in the 55g.

2) I'd start with the lights at the same distance from the sand as what they are now over the 120g.

As an aside, if your joists and flooring are in great condition, the 120 should be ok in the bedroom, as long as you can place it parallel with the house (spanning across multiple joists) and against a load-bearing (outside or center) wall.

 

I agree with Mr Bill. A 120 should be fine provided the structural integrity of the floor is intact.

Ok... now the much, MUCH, MUCH more important discussion:

If you are doing a renovation on the house, it's the perfect time to upsize! Take the opportunity to build in stuff during the renovation to support the tank like plumbing through walls/floors to support a remote sump or building it into a wall with a fish room behind it. Look at the renovation as the perfect opportunity to get a bigger, better looking, easier to access tank! ;D

 

I would suggest you try to peruse even bigger tank if you are building it as an "in wall" aquarium! I would definitely say that two tangs would be fine for a 120 but the bigger the tank the more room you have for fish and others things you might want to have in the future.