need some reefkeeper wisdom...

nick.congelossi

New member
I just got a 55g tank from a friend that didnt want it taking up space in his garage anymore, it is a really nice tank with a beautiful wood cabinet base so i can't let it go to waste. the problem is all the equipment he gave me with it was for a freshwater cichlid tank...

i already have a 30g reef and i do not want to make too much more of an investment in lights, plumbing, coral and such for this new tank.
can i put live rock and sand under regular flourecent lighting or will it die?
what types of fish will do well in a 55g that is mostly open space in a pretty basic setup?


another idea i had was to stack the corals and LR i already have in my 30g on one side of the 55g and light only half the tank with my h/o light leaving the other half lit with plain flourescents, making half the tank a reef and the other half open water with sandy bottom. i think that would be some cool aquascaping but i'm new at this whole hobby so i could be totally wrong and i dont know if it would work.... opinions?
 
You could do a fowlr tank reg flourecent will be just fine just no coral I have always thought that a 55 gallon with a Volitan Lion would be really cool.
 
In addition to the fowlr, you could add mushroom corals which can be easily kept under n.o. fluorescents. Get a few color varieties, let them spread all over the tank, and you'll have an awesome, low maintenance setup.

Stacking the corals off to one side might look rather odd. I'd place the lighting fixture in the middle so that you only have shadow on the far ends of the tank.

Try to avoid the temptation to get a huge predatory fish; a 55 gallon is still a pretty small tank. I personally prefer to watch active colorful small/medium sized fish darting around. Makes the tank look bigger too.
 
Mushrooms, zoas, bubble coral [stony], suncoral [must be fed]. I'd second the no-large-fish move. With a 54, I find keeping gobies and blennies gives my fish room to have territories and grow to full maturity---my ywg is a show fish, face like a bulldog and attitude to match. I have goby pairs with pistol shrimp, a blenny with attitude who lives in a digitata, and chromis and dartfish. A mushroom tank with colorful shapes, interspersed with zoas, sponges, and a lowlight stony like bubble will do very well for you---and if you ever do upgrade the lights a little, up to HO, T5s, you can probably keep digitata sps with no problems, and any softie at all---check on various colts, leathers, etc re light requirements, but they're much lower than a mh reef, and very showy.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10465836#post10465836 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Potsy
In addition to the fowlr, you could add mushroom corals which can be easily kept under n.o. fluorescents. Get a few color varieties, let them spread all over the tank, and you'll have an awesome, low maintenance setup.

Stacking the corals off to one side might look rather odd. I'd place the lighting fixture in the middle so that you only have shadow on the far ends of the tank.

Try to avoid the temptation to get a huge predatory fish; a 55 gallon is still a pretty small tank. I personally prefer to watch active colorful small/medium sized fish darting around. Makes the tank look bigger too.
Agreed on the fish thought :)
You can get a pile of base rock pretty cheap, make two "islands" at each end. Place a bunch of smaller fish (chromis, small anthias, a clown or two), That would be a fun, cheap, easy tank to keep.
BTW - what type of filtartion (hang-on, AC70? etc..) came with the tank.
 
Re: need some reefkeeper wisdom...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10465029#post10465029 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nick.congelossi

another idea i had was to stack the corals and LR i already have in my 30g on one side of the 55g and light only half the tank with my h/o light leaving the other half lit with plain flourescents, making half the tank a reef and the other half open water with sandy bottom. i think that would be some cool aquascaping but i'm new at this whole hobby so i could be totally wrong and i dont know if it would work.... opinions?

Exactly what I do. MH over 1 half of thank, just vhos on other. There are plenty of creatures that do not like the full blast of MH's. Lots of corals and fish hang out on the low light side.
 
the tank came with two aquaclear 110 hang on filters used with the cichlids, a 4 bulb long flourescent light fisxture, 2 heaters and a full glass top. Not to mention a beautiful wood stand with cabinets that i dont have on my 30g.

my problem is i already have some frogspawn, tree pulsing xenias, candy cane and a very large (1' wide) bubble tip anemone in my 30g reef that i don't want to lose in the move. if i made an island on one side of the tank and focused the light on that side would i be able to keep them healthy? the other side of the tank would be open water with a sandy bottom lit by plain flourescents, maybe some artificial reef like one of those ceramic pirate ships just to create some structure for the fish to hide out in...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10466179#post10466179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nick.congelossi
the tank came with two aquaclear 110 hang on filters used with the cichlids, a 4 bulb long flourescent light fisxture, 2 heaters and a full glass top. Not to mention a beautiful wood stand with cabinets that i dont have on my 30g.

my problem is i already have some frogspawn, tree pulsing xenias, candy cane and a very large (1' wide) bubble tip anemone in my 30g reef that i don't want to lose in the move. if i made an island on one side of the tank and focused the light on that side would i be able to keep them healthy? the other side of the tank would be open water with a sandy bottom lit by plain flourescents, maybe some artificial reef like one of those ceramic pirate ships just to create some structure for the fish to hide out in...
Yeah, I think you could do that. I believe I have seen a few tanks (with thread links from RC) that had a large island off to one side and then a slope down to a sandy bottom with some different macro algeas growing there. Might work out okay for your set-up. You would have to use some form of grow light bulbs in the fluorescent fixtures. And keep the fish to the smaller vs. larger variety :)

And, you can mod one of the AC's into a small 'fuge as well.
 
thanks so much for all the advice guys, any other opinions will be greatly appreciated, i love this forum lol really helps newbies like myself.
 
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