Firefighter and a reef tank.....

[shrive81]

Hey guys,


so i am getting my tank up and running here in the next week and will be a 100g Mode inifinty tank. I am trying to plan out how i want to do this tank as I am a full time Firefighter and gone alot usually in 2-3 day stents at work. I do have a wife and kids at home that can help (kinda) but trying to decide what would be the best course of fish and corals for my life style. I am wanting a tank with bright colors only. I love torches and zoas but any advice would be greatly appreciates. I will be running the new control 4 system and willing to do what i need to help with care while i am gone via automation but any advice or insight into this would be a great help...

Thanks
Happy Reefing

 

[Uncle99]

ATO is a must.
Auto feeder.
An auto doser when that piece is required.
A heater controller for safety.

id think SPS is out as they require super stable chemistry.

but softies and LPS are on the table, LPS have a million colour.

 

[shrive81]

Thanks ya so I have the control 4 system to monitor ph and Be able to control remotely. I added the ato and temp control that I can use as a backup for the heater... I will have to look into auto feeders and see what ones are ideal

 

[shrive81]

I was hoping that softies and LPS were within my range of care

 

[Tastee]

I agree with 3 out of the earlier 4 pieces of advice - ATO, doser and heater controller. An autofeeder isn’t required as long as your family are happy to ’feed the fish’ daily (once or twice depending on what fish you wan). My wife loves that bit and with an Apex controlled tank connected to Alexa turning on a feed cycle is as easy as ‘Alexa, tell Apex Fusion to feed the fish’. Then dump in the food. We prefer to feed our piscine pets ourselves as we like to feed a mix of frozen food and watch them devour it.

 

[Mike from TN]

Hey guys,


so i am getting my tank up and running here in the next week and will be a 100g Mode inifinty tank. I am trying to plan out how i want to do this tank as I am a full time Firefighter and gone alot usually in 2-3 day stents at work. I do have a wife and kids at home that can help (kinda) but trying to decide what would be the best course of fish and corals for my life style. I am wanting a tank with bright colors only. I love torches and zoas but any advice would be greatly appreciates. I will be running the new control 4 system and willing to do what i need to help with care while i am gone via automation but any advice or insight into this would be a great help...

Thanks
Happy Reefing

Thank You for your services as a First Responder!

 

[Zionas]

Do you have any plans in mind for fish?

 

[eric33014]

I'm a firefighter also. Automate your system as much as you can. I have no one coming by on my shift days to check on things. So I use the apex like it should. Safety safety safety. I use wyze cams to monitor visually my tank and sump. And the apex can do anything you want it to. Feeding you are stuck with pellets if you go auto. But they need to be fed. I have stuck with LPS, goni, blasto, torches, zoas and scolys. Plenty of color. All do well while I'm gone. Again the more stable you make the system the better. Stay safe brother.

 

[vlangel]

If you add ornamental red macro algae to the tank, its growth will take up a lot of nutrients. Choose something like red grape caulerpa or red titan. The red color is a beautiful addition to any aquarium. The red macro algaes do not need as intense of lighting so that can help control nuisance algae. Just choose a light that is adequate for the coral you decide on.

I have 17 fish in my aquarium system and have to feed my fish well to keep the macro algaes from up taking all the nutrients, and I do not run a skimmer.

Here are some pics.

0 new items by Dawn Gilson

photos.app.goo.gl

0 new items by Dawn Gilson

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[stylolvr]

Welcome to R2R, and enjoy the build!! Lots of good advice to find throughout the forums.

 

[Zionas]

Where I am (China) it’s hard to find ATOS for sale. Maybe because the hobby is so new in my place.

I’d say at most get some easy LPS and softies and skip SPS until you have more time and experience. Fish wise I’d have no more than 2 larger fish in a 100g, which I assume is a 4ft tank, and the rest should be smaller fish.


For some fish suggestions:

-Ocellaris Clownfish pair (I’m not a fan of the designer Clowns and never will be)

-Royal Gramma or another Basslet / Assessor type fish

-Small group of Chalk Bass

-Small group of Scissortail, Blue Gudgeon, or Zebra Dartfish

-Purple, Red, Helfrichi Firefish (only get one unless you can get a confirmed pair)

-Bangaii Cardinalfish (keep one or a confirmed pair)

-Pajama Cardinalfish (keep one or a small group)

-Halichoeres wrasses (Yellow Coris, Melanurus, Red Lined etc.) (Needs a sand bed)

-Fairy and Flasher Wrasses

-Pink Streak and Possum Wrasses

-Goby and shrimp pair (Needs a sand bed)

-Blennies (Tailspot, Midas, Starry, Bicolor etc.)

-Tomini, Squaretail, White Tail, Yellow Eye Kole Tang (only Tangs I’d put in a 100)

-Chrysiptera damselfish

-Dwarf angels

-Long Nose / Flame Hawkfish

-Lyretail Anthias (some smaller Anthias species too, but need to be fed ideally 3 times a day)

-Maybe: Marine Betta (they can get to 8”, aren’t very active, but whether they’d be okay in a 4ft tank I’m not sure)


If I were you I’d have a pair of Ocellaris Clowns, a Royal Gramma or similar type fish, a Goby / Shrimp pair, a Halichoeres wrasse, a dwarf angel, and one of the 4 Bristletooth Tangs as what I’d consider to be the “bare essentials” for a 4ft tank in the 80-120 gallon range.

If you want bare bottom (not a fan of it personally) then skip the Goby, Dartfish. Some people keep a bucket of sand in the tank for their Halichoeres wrasses if the tank is bare bottom but not sure how that works so ask. Hawkfish and I think Blennies do just fine in a bare bottom.

Aquascaping I’m a fan of a more rocky aquascape over a very spacious arrangement. Gives more places for fish to hide if they need it.

 

[shrive81]

Do you have any plans in mind for fish?

Thanks for the great info guys, ya so I got that new control 4 setup that I can automate a lot of things so I just have to get use to it and I know they have a lot of products similar to the apex on the horizon,

as for Fish I have spent pretty much all my time researching proper start up and components and basics chemistry for the tank I haven’t had much time to start thinking about fish... I have a two daughters and they want clown fish obviously (dang you finding Nemo hahaha ) so I will start with two clowns then start adding after that every 2-3 weeks... will probably make a really cheap QT tank that as soon as a fish is done in QT and goes in the tank I will get another fish in the qt tank...

fish I will most likely get:

pair of clowns
Some sort of tang or two
Gobi
?
?
?
I will research fish a bit more once I get the clowns in and really start to nail down my list

 

[vicefire17]

I’m a firefighter here in Toledo Ohio. The single most important thing for me was an ATO. Everything in my tank can survive a couple of days without me being there. I just make sure the ATO tank is full before I go to work. I worked a 24/48 schedule. I now am an Arson Investigator so my schedule is a little more flexible, but definitely the ATO is something I couldn’t live without.

 

[shrive81]

I’m a firefighter here in Toledo Ohio. The single most important thing for me was an ATO. Everything in my tank can survive a couple of days without me being there. I just make sure the ATO tank is full before I go to work. I worked a 24/48 schedule. I now am an Arson Investigator so my schedule is a little more flexible, but definitely the ATO is something I couldn’t live without.

thanks man ya I have a ATO ready just need to plane to make sure its enough gallons, the wife at home can always monitor things for me but dont want to have to rely on her... Ya im in southern California and during fire season we can get stuck at work for week or two so the wife will have to come in to play at some point hahahaha

 

[Tastee]

I agree with the automation comments - if you can afford it that will take care of a lot of the hard, complicated work.

I have fully automated my RODI and ATO (Apex based) so unless something fails (which I have optical sensors to alert me and redundant float valves to stop floods) my tanks could effectively run forever without needing any attention there. You can also automate skimmers to empty themselves into a waste locker or straight down the drain If you want. My big tank has 5 litre containers for dosing fluid so that only needs topping up every couple of months (depends on consumption of course).

The only things I touch weekly in my tanks are the filter socks (225 micron filter mesh cleaned weekly), and in the smaller one the skimmer. Some use filter rollers to reduce this maintenance frequency. In an LPS/Softie dominant tank running it ‘dirty’ for a week is not an issue in any case.

Good luck!

 

[vicefire17]

My husband works crazy hours too so he’s not much help. Fortunately I now work a Monday through Friday + on call schedule. You guys have had it rough out there. Stay safe!

thanks man ya I have a ATO ready just need to plane to make sure its enough gallons, the wife at home can always monitor things for me but dont want to have to rely on her... Ya im in southern California and during fire season we can get stuck at work for week or two so the wife will have to come in to play at some point hahahaha

 

[vicefire17]

I also have a Wyze camera that I can access from my phone so when I’m stuck at work I can still watch my tank. Gift from my son

 

[shrive81]

I also have a Wyze camera that I can access from my phone so when I’m stuck at work I can still watch my tank. Gift from my son

Good idea is it just a indoor camera you have pointed at the tank

 

[eric33014]

Good idea is it just a indoor camera you have pointed at the tank

I have one pointed at the tank but the blue from lights can wash out the picture. If you want to see inside put close to glass. Cheap and easy cameras. I've even done time lapse of my scolys with wyze.

 

[vicefire17]

The blues are intense so I put it right up against the glass. I’m not sure if a light comes on when I access it from my phone, but my fish will swim up to it for a close up