Buying a used tank?

[charile1]

This is my first sw water tank? What other equipment do you think I need? Powerheads? More live rock and sand?

55 gallon predrilled reef ready tank with built in overflow with wooden Stand

Black Hood with 4 Built in Lights

2 x 55 watt Power compact atenics with independent ballast & switch.

2 x 55 watt Power compact daylights with independent ballast & switch.

1 x moonlight (10 blue leds)

1 x Americle 20 gallon wet dry filter with bio balls.

1 x 9 watt UV steralizer

1 x 700 gallon per hour pump to siphon water from wet dry to tank.

1 x Back pack protein skimmer with Rio 800 pump.

1 x Stainless Steel heater

2 x Glass lids for the tank

Around 20 + pounds live rock (coraline encrusted)

One inch bed of live sand

All plumbing as the tank is running now.

1 x Snowflake Eel (14 inches)

1 x foxface (5 inches)

1 x Domino Damsel (3 inches)

1 x Three stripe Damsel (1.5 inches)

1 x Niger Trigger (3 inches)

1 x Red Fairy Wrasse Adult (4 inches)

Misc testing supplies.

Aquarium Salt more than 10 lbs.

 

[NCreefwannabe]

How long has this been running???

 

[xtrstangx]

More rock, more flow, maybe ditch the wet/dry with that skimmer and replace it with a 20g long sump with an ASM G1-X with a fuge.

You may also want to consider selling/trading in those fish.. I'd rather go with a more peaceful tank (chromis, clownfish, gobies, blennies, dwarf angels, and wrasses).

 

[NCreefwannabe]

thats if he wants coral maybe, but for fowlr its fine lol.

 

[charile1]

I'm thinking about selling the fish and getting more peaceful fish with snails and crabs. Do you think the lighting is good enough for coral?

What's wrong with the wet/dry and the skimmer?

Which powerheads will be good for a 55g?

The guy had the tank running for 3 years. When I move it I will try to keep most of the water.

"20g long sump with an ASM G1-X with a fuge" - to advance for me now.

 

[NCreefwannabe]

I have over 20x tunrover in my 55. I have 2 seio m620 powerheads. Found them on sale at liveaquaria.com

 

[charile1]

I purchased two maxi jet 900. I also bought the Portable Refractometer from liveaquaria. Do you have any experience with this?

I'm looking into this ro/di system on ebay. Anyone has any comments?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...mMakeTrack=true

 

[BurntOutReefer]

the MJ900s arent enough for a 55G with rock in it...just IMO...not enough flow will spell trouble later.......is this a FOWLR or will you do coral....? if FOWLR then I would keep the wet/dry.....and do water changes once a week maybe 10~15% to keep nitrates in check.....

 

[charile1]

I just changed my order from the 600 to 900s. They are going to kill me. So two 900s and the inlet from the wet/dry is not enough? The current owner is not using any powerheads.

Right now it's fowlr but I would like to change the fish and get some coral in the future.

If I don't use the wet/dry what can I do with it? Can I use it for something else?

I plan on doing water changes but the current owner has done a water change in years. All he did was top off.

 

[Z-ReefKeeper]

First off

[welcome]

Before you do anything you need to read everything you can about this hobby. This is a great place to get tons of info so spend some time and don't rush. As far as the setup goes the lights should be fine for most soft corals. Ditch the Bio Balls if you are going to have this tank as a reef setup. The bio balls will become Nitrate factories as time goes by. Use the wet/dry as a sump to house your skimmer and heater. Invest in more Live Rock and increase your flow. Good Luck