empty 55 gallon, just starting, recos?

[AlaskaRon]

Still dry, ready to fill it up. 55 gallon with OTP new Whisper filter, Penn Plax UT-55 undergravel filter, USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light.

1) Any recos on basic protein skimmer? Probably won't start with a sump till I get my feet wet (pun intended).
2) Would love to get a lobster. Will that limit fish choices later?
3) Are there any soft corals (non-zoas) that don't have any healths risks like palytoxin?
4) Ideally I'd like a tank with lots of weird or colorful eels, shrimp, etc. Not interested in common tangs, clownfish, etc.

5) Any other recos that will make life easier / easiest with a new saltwater tank -- stuff that you wish somebody told you whenever you started out.

thanks in advance...

 

[Isaacs55]

Still dry, ready to fill it up. 55 gallon with OTP new Whisper filter, Penn Plax UT-55 undergravel filter, USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light.

1) Any recos on basic protein skimmer? Probably won't start with a sump till I get my feet wet (pun intended).
2) Would love to get a lobster. Will that limit fish choices later?
3) Are there any soft corals (non-zoas) that don't have any healths risks like palytoxin?
4) Ideally I'd like a tank with lots of weird or colorful eels, shrimp, etc. Not interested in common tangs, clownfish, etc.

5) Any other recos that will make life easier / easiest with a new saltwater tank -- stuff that you wish somebody told you whenever you started out.

thanks in advance...

1. Check out HOB reef octopus or aqua c remora
2. It will limit your fish choices later
3. Everything in this hobby you should consider a health risk and always use caution a safety while working in your tank
4. Should work fine just do research on each for compatibility
5. 55 gallon tank is terrible for a lobster in my opinion. ..go with a 75
Get a good amount of dry or live rock (this will be your filtration system, same for sand)
Get your feet wet ASAP so you can add a sump
Get rid of the whisper filter
Get rid of the under gravel filter
And choose a new light...
Other then all that your good to go lol

 

[gone fishin]

-- stuff that you wish somebody told you whenever you started out.

The stuff in the link

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074

 

[Chinamom]

my first tank was a 55 gal. it was nice but hard to aquascape because they are narrow.
no underground filter for saltwater- sand and live rock

 

[Shawn O]

Still dry, ready to fill it up. 55 gallon with OTP new Whisper filter, Penn Plax UT-55 undergravel filter, USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light.

4) Ideally I'd like a tank with lots of weird or colorful eels, shrimp, etc. Not interested in common tangs, clownfish, etc.

5) Any other recos that will make life easier
thanks in advance...

First off, go to liveaquaria.com and research the basic stats for every fish you are interested in before you buy any. That sized tank is too small for any kind of Tang and many eel species. It would be a good general rule to assume no fish larger than 4" long in a 55. I have the same tank and it's very limiting in fish choices. It would be good to stick to small fish to give a good variety without overcrowding issues. Diversity is great, and fun. Research fish compatibility prior to each fish purchase.

It would be wise to make up a fish wish list and take it to this thread and ask Steve to go over it. He's very knowledgeable in these matters. Plan your fish purchases from the start, buy your fish in the order of least aggressive to most aggressive. Add them slowly, probably one per month or so, to allow your tank to adjust to the increased bioload. Use RO or RODI for all water added to the tank to prevent algae.



A good HOB skimmer rated for 75 gallons or more is recommended. Switching to a drilled tank for using a sump, as recommended by Isaac is a good idea. I sure wish I had started with a drilled tank.

Good luck.

 

[AlaskaRon]

thanks

thanks

very grateful to all so far for the candid recos.

Realized the next day that undergravel filters are for freshwater only...

not sure why 55 gal is too narrow a footprint for small lobster?

same with HOB filters (Whisper or Aqueon) -- i know they are cheap but I've seen lots of SW tanks with clear water using them...

what's wrong with the USA Orbit Marine light? got xlnt reviews on Amazon...

 

[shifty51008]

Lobster will be fine in the tank but most like colder temps like low to mid 70's.

The whisper filter will work for running carbon to clean the water but i wouldnt use it soly for filtration, use enough rock and sand for that. Around 50-60 lbs of rock

The light will also be fine for soft corals, lps, and some sps but not for the higher light sps and anemones

 

[CStrickland]

A 55 is too narrow because in a sw tank a lot of your filtration is done by bacteria in the rock. It is hard to get enough rock and make it look nice and not just like a pile-wall

For the $$ you spend on an orbit you can get a much better light. If you use the search function at the top right of the page you will find many threads about it.

Palytoxin is mostly just a zoa/paly thing, but if you are concerned about that stuff you might want to goggle mushroom allelopathy, and lps stinger too. There are a few defense mechanisms going on in our tanks

Liveaquaria.com is a good place to learn about what the animals are going to need so you can set up a nice home for them. You can search for "lobster" or just browse for what will fit in a 55

Good luck!

 

[Shawn O]

not sure why 55 gal is too narrow a footprint for small lobster?

same with HOB filters (Whisper or Aqueon) -- i know they are cheap but I've seen lots of SW tanks with clear water using them...

With only 12" front to back, if it gets large enough it will not be able to turn around in the tank, even without rock. See: Blue Spiny Lobster

HOB will be fine if you do it right. I have the Aquaclear 70 and ditched the sponge and replaced it with filter floss (to remove uneaten flake food floating around) which is changed out twice per week. On top of that I run a couple of Purigen packs (removes Nitrates), and a pack of Phosguard (phosphates) and two bags of BioMax (to help with bacterial filtration).

The Biomax is needed (i believe) due to the 55's width, which prevents using enough rock for bacterial filtration. Try this; stack 55 lbs of dry rock on a piece of cardboard the same dimensions of the tank and try to make it lok good and still leave room for the fish to swim.

 

[CStrickland]

I don't have nitrate issues in mine. I've got about 30# in there, I feed a lot. Most like more, I just did what looks good to me. I haven't needed any bags of chemicals, just the gear in my sig

 

[Shawn O]

My Nitrates are always high with 10% weekly WCs. Adding the skimmer and Purigen are definitely bringing them down. When I started using the Purigen, it seemed there was less gunk for my skimmer to pull out. The Biomax is probably not needed, but it's paid for. Besides, it's still like new and helps hold down the floss and Purigen.

 

[CStrickland]

Might depend on the definition of "high" too. I'm happy if mine stay under 10, some like a lot less
I might get a skimmer this autumn, curious to see what will happen.

 

[shifty51008]

According to live aquaria a reef lobster only reaches 5" so why wont a 55 gal work? I doubt he wants to keep the type of lobsters you get at red lobster

 

[AlaskaRon]

xlnt link Waterkeeper

xlnt link Waterkeeper

thanks for the great link.

The stuff in the link

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074

 

[CStrickland]

Is there a problem with this thread?
I have a notification from yesterday afternoon for a post from op that isn't showing up here, and the notification doesn't clear when I visit the thread. Just me?

 

[AlaskaRon]

CStrickland: I haven't posted in a while since I've been scouring the "Setting Up a New Tank Thread". If this posts OK, it seems the thread is fine.

Still looking for any reasons why the Orbit Marine USA light I bought (haven't opened yet) wasn't reco'd by Isaac55. It got great reviews by reef owners on Amazon.

 

[CStrickland]

It went away a little while after I posted that, I guess it was a ghost post!
Afaik the main issue with the orbits is weak leds, last I checked they were like .5 watt - that's not good enough, for comparison mine are 3w and I have more for less $. Like they invested in bells and whistles like thunderstorm effects and remote controls that nobody uses after the first week, over quality hardware and bright LEDs. Full-spectrum is clutch too. But I only shopped them enough to know they weren't for me. I'm sure they have their fans who know a lot more about lights, it's not really my bag so just two cents.

 

[Sk8r]

The danger is minimal if you treat tank water carefully as you would with something nasty: don't scratch your nose, bite a fingernail, rub your eyes, mouth-pipette, or dink around without gloves on. It's mostly a contact reaction, usually worse over time---it certainly doesn't leap from the tank and attack. Treat all marine organisms with respect and just glove up before entering what is a small alien world.