New2Salt 55 Gallon help

[Sagemcdonald]

Hi all,

I was wondering if you guys could help me out with what corals/fish I should get for my 50 Gallon tank. I am new to the salt water scene, but have kept freshwater fish for over 15 years. My tank is tall and similar to a 30gallon tank length wise. I do want to have 2 clown fish for sure.

 

[nereefpat]

The clowns will be fine.

Look into flasher/fairy wrasses, gobies, blennies, basslets, cardinals, damsels, etc.

Fishes to stay away from: triggers, tangs, full-size angels, puffers, butterflies.

You'll have to tell us more about your system (dimensions, specific lights, equipment) to get more advice, especially on corals.

 

[emilese]

What types of corals do you think you'll want to keep? Softies? LPS? SPS?

 

[Sorcha2]

There are a few small types of puffers that would be fine in that size of tank but they will eat snails and crabs. Valintini puffers would be a good one to look into. Most of the easily available puffers in the saltwater trade do grow too large for that size of tank though.

Royal Gamma is another pretty fish to look into.

There are also some very pretty varieties of wrases that would work.

Cherub Angel might work. I've never had one though and sometimes I hear they can pick at corals.



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[JUNBUG361]

Hello & welcome. How old is your tank?

 

[Jekerry]

I have a 54. My goby and cardinals seem to work great together. Watch out about anenome. If you want one, get it first and let it settle. I got mine at the same time as corals and it kept moving and stinging them. Ended up returning it.

As another noob, one word of advice in a smaller tank is to figure out which corals can be near each other and how fast they might grow and run out of room. We have had to shuffle things around due to bad interactions that could have been avoided with more research. For example, every other coral got upset if our hairy green mushroom rock was near it. Oddly, if you smell them, they do actually stink! We ended up putting the rock way up high, way in the back, and as far as possible from the others.

We have found that the Duncan, frog spawn and hammers seem to be ok fairly close but not touching. Our Rasta leather is annoying since it will actually lay down to it can feel another coral up and irritate it. So you have to keep in mind not just it’s reach standing up, but also laying down.

I guess i’m Saying you can’t do enough research or add things slowly enough and even if you do, I am guessing like for us and the Rasta leather, they will still confound you with unexpected behavior.

Oh! And do dip all corals. Even if they come from somewhere really trusted.

This is a fun hobby. We are having a blast, but it is not easy.

Jane