Predatory reef?

do any of you guys have lots of agressive fish along with corals? I was looking to add a couple wrasses, a grouper, and a large eel, and possibly a lionfish to go with my 4 tangs. Or would it be better to setup a fish only tank and add more peaceful fish to my reef?

reef is 180g.

and i have a 125g sitting in the garage.

Thx.

 

do a 180G reef and a 125G FOWLR!!!!! D

 

time to load up that 125 with your predators... problem with your predators is not the coral so much... but the other inhabitants such as cleanup crew. snails, shrimp, and crabs.

 

Stick 'em in the 125. Wrasses, unless reef safe, are likely to nibble. If you've got everything locked down and aren't attached to your tangs, an eel would be fun. Groupers will eat the tangs unless they're really small, and groupers get big faster than most fish. Lionfish, eh not my cup of tea but I'd say you could do the most with them. If you got an eel, there's a REALLY cool one on Live Aquarias Divers Den. Only something like $900.

 

thx..would i have to have a sump and protien skimmer with the 125 fowlr?

with it haveing about six larger fish?

 

yes be best because they are messy eaters and produce a lot of waste

 

FOWLR's actually have a much higher bioload than reef tanks... those big fish really have a huge bioload, so sump and protein skimmer are necessary... i think the filtration requirements are pretty much the same for a FOWLR but you don't have to fine tune it quite as much...

and while they can tolerate more nitrates, it's still not a good thing, i'd say you could have nitrates around 5ppm or less with fowlr, and with reef you wouldn't want to go over 1ppm.

but it seems like FOWLR folks just let the nitrates go crazy up to 30-90ppm

 

Just think about it like this. FOWLR - Money should go into skimmer and fish. Reef - Money should go into lighting, powerheads, protein skimmers, fish and corals. Ugh now I don't even want to set my reef up lol.

 

it is possible but not very common. most would rather have smaller flashier fish rather than large fish. i think it would be cool with a lionfish in there. like a species reef tank.