Opinions on my plans for my 125g

I had plans on sectioning off my 125g with a vented piece of acrylic. Roughly 40g will be reef, the rest FO. I had this idea because I thought it would be interesting to have reef and non reef fish together, but in a safer environment.

With proper filtration and circulation, does this sound like it will work? or would this be an epic fail on my part?

I'm open to any comments or suggestions

Thanks


PS>>> New to corals, not to SW

 

Generally FO systems are a high nitrate system, the predators are big messy eaters. You would need some way of controlling the nitrates if it were to work. To me it would be easier to have two systems. The reef section would need higher quality lighting, meaning you would need two light fixtures anyway, or waste your money on a higher end fixture for the entire tank. Then the different filter requirements for the two systems. You would need overkill filters to clean the water up for the reef portion, just be much easier to have two systems in my opinion.

Jake

 

Two words, water changes

 

I'm not sure how the aesthetics would do, but from a system perspective it would work. All depends on load.

 

Agreed. It would be tough to keep a system like that for SPS, because the FO side would have a lot of messy eaters. On the other hand, if you had a really good skimmer, didn't over feed, and did decent water changes, it could work.

Aesthetically though, I'm not sure how it would look. I mean, would you have T5s or MH over the sps, and PC or flourescent bulbs over the FO side? Trying to visualize it in my head, and it doesn't really work for me...

 

Sounds like a great Idea to me. But, as already stated, it will be a pain to keep going efficiently.

 

Just use a solid piece of acrylic and keep the water seperate you may have to use a black piece of acrylic to keep the fish from fighting if they are not compatible.Use the highest lighting you will need for the whole tank.Use 2 seperate sumps for the sections.

 

I did this years ago, I glued an acrylic seperator into a 180. I kept some beginner corals on one side with a few reef safe fish and the other side was FO. I had 2 sets of lighting. It was OK but never looked great IMO, the transition did not look good. After about a year, I replaced the 180 with 55 reef and a 125 FO, both hooked to a common 55g sump. I think separate tanks would be a better approach if you have the room, hooking them to a common sump shouldn't be a problem as long as you manage the bio load.