for a qt tank it doesnt have to be huge its just some where to observe and treat if necessary .

in a qt tank you can have liverock but just a small amout as you want to be able to see your fish.my qt is a 30g it has liverock in it and i add some pvc for added shelter. strong lights arent required.

if you plan to use this tank as a hospital tank then your liverock will need to be removed as alot of medications will kill all life in it anyways.


a basic qt tank could be 30g
no sand or any substrate
small amount of liverock
heater/power head
pvc for hiding places
lights havent got to be expensive just something so your fish doesnt hide all the time and scare off every time you approach.
water changes regulary:)


pretty much the basics of what a tank can run off of:)

1st saltwater tank
 

Hey Daveycoopa
Good point.Dragon wrasse off the list.
What would you do with a 120 gal fowlr or any one else for stocking just to give me some ideas as I have some time before this tank is cycled.
Thanks

The Blue Throat stay's fairly small..8 -9" max
Nice fish...If you want a trigger, then that's the 1 to go with IMO

wouldnt worry about fish for a while, your cycle is gonna be short(amonia wise) as there isnt much for dead life in the way of rock so the only amonia you will get will be forced from something like rotting food or shrimp.....but as you add fish your gonna have more amonia and not enough life built up to keep up with it. once that happens breathing problems will happen with your fish and most of your inverts will die off quickly. its a bad route to go down as live rock is the main filter in your aquarium. adding dryrock is just a way to increase your rock load and keep your cost down while waiting for it to become live......which is as long as it would take life to populate in its crevaces you should have enough live rock to keep your system going.

the good thing is you have a decent sized aquarium so your tank wont be affected by fish waste too much at first if you keep your bio-load small(fish numbers and size)....the solution to pollution is dilution :):)

8-9" is avery big fish for a 4' tank, granted it would take along time to get that big but to have any other fish in there would be asking for disease sooner or later.

I meant for a trigger,it's fairly small. :)

it is indeed i want a niger trigger again so bad but i know how big they get and i dont have the room:):)

Deffinately do your research. Every tank is different and will act differently under different strains. When I first setup my 65Gal tank, one piece of liverock came with a fish. VERY SURPRISED TO SEE him when the sand finally settled enough to see him. I paniced and did as much reading as I could to help him stay alive through the cycle. Granted I stayed with most others in this hobby and purchased 50lbs of live rock and 20lbs of base rock(to help with costs). It was a lawnmower blenny that came into the tank as soon as it was setup. I can almost guarantee that reefwars is right. Without algae the lawnmower blenny will perish. Live rock deffinately helped him. I had to special feed him till the live rock started to produce the much NEEDED algae. I also used and stand by this now, a chemical called Stability which I think helped a great deal, but no way to prove this. Stability is introducing the biological filter that reefwars is talking about. I tested everyday, sometimes twice a day and never had an ammonia spike. But once again you need the EXTRAS from live rock to help your tank. I, of all people deffinately love to try new things in this hobby so let me know which way you go and how it turned out. And deffinately do NOT put glass on the top of the tank. I did with mine and I also have a skimmer. I almost lost all of my fish due to this and would recommend against it no matter what the case. It was due to the lack of Oxygen exchange at the surface of the water due to no air can get through glass. And as for plumbing, can't help you there as I do not have a sump on either of my tanks. Good luck.

1st saltwater tank
 

Thanks again for all the advice.I'm learning alot.
I Understand the live rock cycle.I was planning to add some live rock.I could always buy more live then first planned and not use all of the eco rock.
Gonna go open top for sure.Will add a screen top if I decide to have a fish that is a jumper.
Got time do do more research on the fish list.
If I do decide to get the blenny how long should the tank be established (a year)?
Think the blue throat trigger is going to be a 50/50 out there.
I will hit you guys with another (researched) fish list later.
Gotta get the tank up and cycled first.
The skimmer ect should be here end of the week.
Just gotta figure out the right return pump.
How do you do the quiet stand pipe (return)?
Whats a herbie.Anyone know a good link for diy
I know slow is the key
I will post some pics when I start getting it going.Week and a bit I hope.
Thanks
Rob

Since you're doing only fish, dwarf angelfish are very colorfull and would work great. They aren't jumpers, and for the most part, aren't aggressive to other fish.
Smaller tangs would also be a very good choice for you. There are some from the Zebramosa family(not the sailfin tang), the Ctenochaetus family or the Acanthurus family.
Blue Throat triggerfish get a maximum of 9 inches in the wild. In your size of tank, they would be fine as they wouldn't likely reach that size. I would start with a smaller one as others have suggested. I did a lot of research before I added mine to an almost identical tank size and he has been very happy.
As for a lawnmower blenny, a year would probably be a sufficient amount of time for the system to develop to handle that fishes needs.

For your rock, the more live rock you add now, the quicker your system will be ready to handle the bioload. If you only add a little live rock, you're just going to have to be more patient and wait longer for your tank to develop.