advice for 300+ gal fowlr

[livingreef2004]

i was going to upgrade my 90 gallon reef tank next spring when i move into my new house but have since decided to keep the 90 the way it is and go for a large predatory fish tank i would like to keep a white spotted grouper a niger trigger a dogface puffer harlequin tusk and a moray of some sort.
what type of filtration would give this tank the water qualitythat these fish require im new to large fish and could use some good solid advice for this project. do these fish look to be compatable and will a 300 or 360 be large enough for all of them?

[Craig Manoukian]

My LFS has a 300 that he keeps sharks, rays, and large angels, thalasomma wrasses, lions, triggers, puffers, and groupers. He keeps about 1/4 inch of sand and has a huge skimmer along with circulation pumps. He has only three pieces of LR. He generally keeps about 5 feet of livestock in the tank which is right at the 1" of fish per 5 gallons of tank capacity.

[livingreef2004]

can you suggest a skimmer that willl handle the load of this setup

im not really on a budget for this setup but would like to keep it in the middle of the road as for price thanks craig

[mps9506]

Here some suggestions for skimmers:

Euroreef CS8-5, or external version if you prefer.
My Reef Creations MR-3 or MR-4.
LifeReef VS3-48 or 60.

Lot of other models to choose from.
Thing I like about Lifereef and My Reef Creations is that you deal directly with Jeff or Andy who make the skimmers and they can tell you what you need in a skimmer and what you don't need, what you can expect and how things should work.
A lot of times you can save some money with the Euroreef however because the cost of the pump is included, but a lot of the bigger eurreefs cost as much as a large Beckket skimmer with an approriate sized pump.

Any how just some info. I've used Lifereef skimmers, and have been happy with them and the service. I'm getting a Euroreef skimmer here soon, and know three locals that use MRC products that couldn't be happier.

All I can say is on a tank like that, don't skimp on the skimmer. It'll make life better for you.
Mike

[livingreef2004]

i have had a tought its rare but here goes i talked it over with my gf and instead of getting the 300+ tank for fowlr we have decided to get 2 180 gallon tanks one for the reef and one for the fowlr i was thinking about putting these both on one filtration system would this be a bad idea because of the large bioload of the fowlr tank even if i use a skimmer like the mr4 rated for a 500 gallon tank? i would like to put them both on the same system so i can save some space and have the filtration in one mechanical room instead of 2 mechanical rooms

[mps9506]

bad idea IMO.
there is a guy in charlotte doing something similar (three 180 one reef and two fowlers I think). I'm sure many others have done it also. But if you plan on having those heavy eaters I would keep them on a seperate system.
You would be saving yourself a lot of troubleshooting down the line. Under the intense lighting, algae would go nuts. What would happen when one of your big fish got sick and you needed to treat the tank? It's not easy to QT a foot long or larger grouper.

The filtration system for a fowler does not need to take up a great deal of room. The biggest thing would probably be a protein skimmer. You don't need to run a refugium or huge sump, no kalkwasser or ca reactors.

Mike

[Witfull]

^ true

[livingreef2004]

thanks witful and mps9506 i had not even thought of the intense lighting from the reef tank causing the algae to go wild its a good thing im starting the planning for these projects so early i believe that good planning is very valuable in this hobby and the experiance of others like you all make that very easy thanks

[Maxx]

Couple of observations.......
Two smaller tanks wont necessarily be cheaper than one big one.
However if given a choice of a 90 gallon reef and 300+ FO, or a 180 reef and a 180 FO, I'd go w/ the two 180's.
I'm still assuming you could use one room as a fish/mechanical room to house all of your pumps, skimmers, sumps, etc....
I'm a big proponent of using the biggest freakin skimmer possible.
This website has a good explantion of how to figure out what size skimmer you need.
http://www.superskimmer.com/Display%20Tank%20ETSS.htm
F/O tanks tend to run dirtier, than reefs, but the occupants are much more able to tolerate the conditions than the reef will also.
Do you have a scientific name for the white spot grouper? Thats the only one that can be a problem in your system as many groupers will reach very large size in a short amount of time. I reccomend Scott W. Michael's books "Reef Fishes", for fish husbandry and captivity requirements. His 2nd book in the series, "Basslets, Dottybacks, & Hawkfishes" has its entire first chapter devoted to groupers....good reference books for anyone.
Finally, I also agree w/ MPS5906 on having two seperate systems as opposed to one large combined system, Unless you went BB on both and got an obnoxiously large skimmer and really kept up on your maintenance. More moeny to keep em seperate, but much less hassle IMO...
Nick

[mps9506]

I still like the idea of the 300 gallon fowler. You can get some nice fish in there. Not much more impressive to the gerneal public than large angels, groupers, triggers and wrasses. Color size and activity.
But no way I would put it on the asame system as the reef.
Mike

[livingreef2004]

the grouper is Epinephelus ongus it grows to 12 inchs heres a link to a lil info http://www.wetwebmedia.com/epinephelus.htm
its about three quarters of the way down the page i really love large groupers like the bumblebee but i think the white spotted will be an ideal size for a 180 i want some room for harlequin tusk, niger trigger and some sort of moray i want a dogface puffer in there but some people at my lfs have told me that they will get very agressive and that they will eat the edges of the tank and everything else they can get at anybody have experiance with that?
im dying to get into the new place and get started at this can you guys tell?