noob chronicles.....planning

[SaltyDog143]

Ok decided I am going to name these the chronicles, why? Well why not?

so to recap, we have our tank 120ga, sump aprox 50gal, with divider compartments, steel stand coming next week, we have researched and planned for fish and corals and so far here is what we have come up with

fish we like and want -
- bicolor blenny
- red elongated dottyback
- Ocellaris clownfish
- one spot foxface
- yellowtail damselfish
- mandarin dragonette, one day way down the road
- and dont forget the cleaner crew of snails, hermit crabs, and maybe a starfish or two

corals we like and want -
- ricordea (mushroom)
- zanthus (polyps)
- euphyllia (lps)
plus other soft corals to host such things as the clowns and maybe a crab

Almost evrything we see that we like falls into the "beginner" category, so we are really cool with that. This should mean that we dont need super strong current, super strong lights, and not overy aggressive fish, which are reef safe.

Aquascaping, the idea in our heads is to do a lagoon or C shaped corals with the opening of the C facing the front of the tank with some hidy holes and caves as well as someruns through from front to back, we also want to keep a nice swin run behind the back for free movement.

with current flow around this my thoughts are to add 4 smaller powerheads instead of two larger so that we can direct flow better around and through our structure.

for lighting I am thinking led, just one set for now and add a second one later as demands start to rise, I am guessing it will be a couple months before we ever add fish or corals so not critical just yet, hell we havent got rock yet, we are still planning.

thoughts on a skimmer, well, not my strong suit here but the route I am thinking is possbly a reef octopus classic 150 int, according to the manufacturer specs should do 120gal even under heavy load, it is fairly inexpensive @ $225, gets good reviews, but the trade off is that it isnt very quiet. Our sump is set up with an 8" reservoir where the sump will fit so some of the other skimmer wont work as they require deeper water.

so this is my plan so far, what do you all think? Please pipe in and tell me I'm on track or I'm a fool, I have big shoulders I can handle it. Btw if you tell me a fool, please tell me why, lets at least be constructive in our name calling, lol