I have been into saltwater aquariums for almost 3 years. I have a 55 gal tank with 4 fish, 2 clowns, a blue tang and a bi-color angel. I use to have 3 clowns but one decided to make a jump for it! Also, I had a coral beauty, 2 at different times, but they died as well as a yellow tang. I have a reef octopus 100 skimmer, heater, vortech mp10 powerhead, hang on penguin filter(when I had a fresh water tank) and a ro/di system and a mainland reef led light. I have on piece of live rock from when I started and plan on adding 20 lbs in 3 weeks after it cures. I would like to start corals soon. I just would like to know what if anything I need before I start. Also, I am a little scared to start fearing I don't have enough to make them grow. So any help and /or suggestions would be great.
little help
- Thread starter moose897
- Start date
I would recommend that you do some research on the fish you purchase for your tank, many of those listed (Blue Tang, Bi-Color Angel, Coral Beauty, Yellow Tang, absolutely no more than 2 Clownfish) require tanks much larger than yours so you are setting yourself up for failure. You really need a total of at least 50 pounds of rock in your system if you plan on keeping more than one or two small fish for bio-filtration. I think you are still going to be short of rock even after you add the additional 20 pounds. Most of your equipment is high quality, so that is a big plus. Since you plan on starting to keep corals, you are going to need to have a good understanding of saltwater chemistry, I would recommend you start by reading the articles at the top of this forum under the sticky "Setting Up, How To", they contain a lot of valuable infromation that you need to understand.
Best of luck!
Best of luck!
Greybeard
New member
Hi Moose,
'mainland reef led light'... is that perhaps 'marineland' led? The intensity and color of your lighting is of supreme importance when keeping corals. If it says 'reef' light, you're probably good for soft coral, zoanthids, mushrooms, etc... but I'd need more lighting details in order to recommend any of the more light loving corals. Nothing wrong with soft corals, that's where I started, mushrooms, leathers, colt coral, xenia... it can be quite attractive, and is probably fine under your lighting.
You didn't mention substrate, do you have a sand bed? Crushed coral? Bare glass? It makes a difference... 1 lump of live rock, unless it's a 50lb lump, is probably insufficient surface area for a healthy biological filter. The 20lbs you're adding will help dramatically, but it's still a little light... most folks recommend somewhere between 1 and 2 pounds of rock per gallon of water. With a good sand bed, that can be reduced a little, but the more limited your bio filter is, the fewer animals you're going to be able to support. I'd look at another 50 lbs of live rock... or even dry base rock, which will grow into perfectly acceptable bio filter habitat, given a little time.
The fact that you've lost 2 coral beauty angles and a yellow tang is concerning... 1st, depending on the size of the fishes, 2 tangs, 3 angels, and a pair of clowns is a pretty full 55g tank, especially with limited bio filter habitat. You might check and post your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite readings. Don't overload the tank's capacity to process waste materials... and my one key piece of advice... MOVE SLOW. Picking up a half dozen fish and dumping them in at once is generally a bad idea, especially in a fairly small, or fairly new, aquarium.
'mainland reef led light'... is that perhaps 'marineland' led? The intensity and color of your lighting is of supreme importance when keeping corals. If it says 'reef' light, you're probably good for soft coral, zoanthids, mushrooms, etc... but I'd need more lighting details in order to recommend any of the more light loving corals. Nothing wrong with soft corals, that's where I started, mushrooms, leathers, colt coral, xenia... it can be quite attractive, and is probably fine under your lighting.
You didn't mention substrate, do you have a sand bed? Crushed coral? Bare glass? It makes a difference... 1 lump of live rock, unless it's a 50lb lump, is probably insufficient surface area for a healthy biological filter. The 20lbs you're adding will help dramatically, but it's still a little light... most folks recommend somewhere between 1 and 2 pounds of rock per gallon of water. With a good sand bed, that can be reduced a little, but the more limited your bio filter is, the fewer animals you're going to be able to support. I'd look at another 50 lbs of live rock... or even dry base rock, which will grow into perfectly acceptable bio filter habitat, given a little time.
The fact that you've lost 2 coral beauty angles and a yellow tang is concerning... 1st, depending on the size of the fishes, 2 tangs, 3 angels, and a pair of clowns is a pretty full 55g tank, especially with limited bio filter habitat. You might check and post your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite readings. Don't overload the tank's capacity to process waste materials... and my one key piece of advice... MOVE SLOW. Picking up a half dozen fish and dumping them in at once is generally a bad idea, especially in a fairly small, or fairly new, aquarium.
I do have a sand bed and it is a mainland led. sorry about that. I'm starting to think about going to a 90 or 120 gal tank. therefore i was going to start by setting up a sump and upgrading my equipment to support that. I don't know yet. one of the coral beauty's died right after I had an accident at work and I was in the hospital for 5 weeks. I was going to get fish food that day but obviously didn't make it and she had 3 kids to tend to so the tank was the least of her concerns. the other one died soon after I got a new fish in and they both died from ick. I add fish every once and awhile. only the original 2 clowns went in at the same time, the others were all separate. I do appreciate the time you took to respond. I really do think I'm going to change to a bigger tank but its going to take time.
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