Purchased an established 55 gal tank.

[Shawn O]

My original plan was to buy a 120 gallon tank but it's since been put on hold for another couple of years. My wife found an established 55 gallon FOWLR tank on the web and practically insisted I buy it for my first tank, since I couldn't to the 120. It looked good and the fish were healthy looking so I jumped on it. This was Friday evening.


The tank had nine fish and four or five small hermits in it;
1 Matted Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus) approx. 3-4"
1 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica) approx. 3"
2 Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris ) approx. 1.5" and 2"
1 Clarki's Clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii) approx. 3"
2 Pajama Cardinals (Sphaeramia nematoptera) 1 full sized (?) and 1 80% the size of the larger.
1 Neon Dottyback (Pseudochromis aldabraensis) approx. 3"
1 Purple Stripe Dottyback (Pseudochromis diadema) approx. 2"


The tank came with 2" of sand, 30-40 lbs of live rock (can't estimate very well by looking at it) with some Coralline algae starting to grow on it, a D1HTNANO25W 25 watt heater, an Aquaclear 50 (or 25) HOB filter and a pair of small (brand unknown) power-heads. Fish and tank: $175.

For an extra $45 he gave me a 10gal tank to use as a sump, a submersible return pump with PVC drain and return pipes, HOB overflow box, two heavy duty gas can-like water transport cans and some API test kits: Ammonia, PH, Nitrate (x2), Calcium, and a partial bottle of water treatment (for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, etc.)

I think I did pretty well, even though it needs a heater upgrade and a skimmer.

As for the fish, they all looked really healthy and swim, breathe and act normal. The Purple Stripe Dottyback seems to protect her favorite rock from the smaller Cardinal and the larger Pajama Cardinal seems to bully the smaller cardinal a bit. The File Fish occasionally charges the fire fish or the cardinals. Seems like territorial staking behavior to me.

We transported about 2/3 of the original water with the rocks and livestock, leaving the sand in the tank. It was a coolish evening so I wanted to get the tank set up as quickly as possible when we got it back home. I put the heater in the 5gal pail most of the fish and crabs were in but two fish were hidden in the other buckets inside of the rocks so I needed to get them all in the tank right away, as the water was cooling down pretty quick.

I tried to keep the sand storm down by placing a dinner plate on the sand to pour the water on but it decided to float away as soon as the water started hitting it. At this point I just said screw it and poured the water in. Once the loose water was in I placed the rocks on the sand, not aqua-scaping at all and poured in the rock bucket water. After the cloudiness subsided about halfway I moved the heater to the tank added the fish and crabs. The Dottybacks came out of the rock eventually and they were very pretty fish, for sure. The tank water was down by a third so I made up as much sea water as I could with the amount of IO I had on hand would allow, 4 gallons.

Saturday I ran out and bought some more IO. The wife came along to look at some fake corals (to give the tank some color o_0) and insisted I buy some snails and crabs since Petco had them 30% off that day. I bought the last 5 hermits (Scarlets) and the only snail I could find, an Astrea. When we got home I slowly made up the last 12 gallons, four at a time. Unfortunately, the only way I have to determine the SG in the tank is with the floating thermometer, which has a little salinity gauge on it.

On Sunday I decided to check the water quality to become familiar with testing fish tank water. The Ph read 7.8, ammonia was roughly .25 and the Nitrate was in the red. The reference card only listed 80 and 160 on the high end, my sample coming in somewhere between. I'm assuming these high levels are due to stirring up the sand bed while adding the water. Later that day the fish seem perfectly fine but the hermits seemed a little too lazy.

Do any of you think the high Nitrate level will go down on it's own or do I need to do a ton of water changes to lower it? A skimmer is not an option for at least a month or two.

Unfortunately, it's currently located on the floor in my dining room, against the wall next to the dining table. As soon as I can build a stand and canopy for it I'll post some pictures.

Thanks for reading this very long-winded post. :thumbsup:

 

[fishgate]

I think you are screwed.

 

[Cymonous]

You need to start doing some heavy water changes. Not only for the nitrates, but to get rid of that ammonia reading. You need 0ppm, not .25ppm.

 

[Shawn O]

I added the water treatment but it only made enough for about 25 gallons. Stupidly, I didn't do another test afterwards. I will retest it after work and do some more water changes. I don't know how old the API test kits are. I read that they can lose accuracy as they get old. Do they read higher or lower when they are too old?

 

[BigCountry74]

nitrates are gonna run high in a FOWLR tank, because there is not a lot of filtration. keep them under 80 and you should be fine.

 

[Shawn O]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Is the use of nitrate reducing chemicals even useful in a skimmer-less system? As long as I can get them down to a reasonable number I'll be happy. Some day when I decide to try out corals I'll definitely need to get them down to near zero. I figure I can replace the sponge in the HOB filter with some floss to remove some of the cloudiness but need to find a way to reduce the nitrates now.

 

[BigCountry74]

fastest way to reduce nitrates is large water changes. if i had to guess, i'd bet that sand bed is full of detritus, hence where all your nitrates are leaching from. before you do your next water change, stir up that sand bed real good by vacuuming it out (replace the vacuumed water with the new water etc). i bet all that tanks needs is a good old fashion cleaning. before you do that though, put your fish in 5g buckets while you clean it though. easier that way.

 

[Shawn O]

Thanks, will give it a go ASAP.

 

[Clownfish Chris]

Also, check your sponges and filters any filter media. You will want to clean these weekly. Once you get a skimmer, you will be able to use the sponge only on a limited basis as it is a nitrate sink.

 

[CStrickland]

I would add something to buffer the ammonia, and nitrite (which I don't see a # for?). Seachem Prime is one product, but whatever your LFS has. Fish can be damaged by trying to breathe their own waste. I would imagine that between you getting the tank on Friday, and the first water test on Sunday showing ammonia, they have their gills burnt some already.

I don't think you should add anything else to the tank for a while, no matter how much your wife insists or how cheap it is. 9 fish is more than I would put in a 55, especially since some of yours are territorial. If you don't have a lid, I'd get one on there too so they can't jump out while they are establishing themselves.

FOWLR tanks are fun! good luck

 

[Shawn O]

Clownfish_Chris, I gave the sponge a quick rinse, not really thorough though.

CStrickland, no nitrate test kit yet, picking one of on the way home from work, along with some more buffer. No, no more fish unless I decide to re-home some or the current fish. The Clarkii is probably going to get too big for the tank (for my tastes, that is), never cared for Pajama Cardinals but like the Banghaii Cardinals. The Matted Filefish may go as well. Time will tell.

EDIT: CStrickland, It has two glass covers that are open along the back for piping. I've placed a large piece of 1/8" plexi over the top of the tank for now. when I build a stand and canopy I'm going to put a screen on the tank to prevent jumping if it's needed. If I build the canopy right I may not even need any sort of extra cover. We'll see.

 

[Shawn O]

Replaced sponge with floss, changing it out every 3 - 5 days. Tried to vacuum out the sand bed, it just vacuumed the sand up with the water. o_0 Thinking of just replacing the sand, since there's only about an inch when leveled out.

 

[BigCountry74]

you might be able to get some trade in credit at the LFS for the fish you do not want. you can also sell them on CL. try to get the fish out before you reboot the sand bed. will make it easier no doubt. always much easier, less stressful to reboot the tank with no livestock etc, even if you have to house them in buckets/heaters/powerheads for a few days . you will be fine, reads like you have some good husbandry skills. dont overthink anything and you will be good to go. thats what our wives are for....haha

 

[Shawn O]

dont overthink anything and you will be good to go. thats what our wives are for....haha

lol, I hear that. Actually, the wife sees the tank like she does the car. Buy fish food and that's it, same as buying gas for the car and nothing more. o_0

I've been trying to tell her since I started planning on a tank. I need this, this and this immediately. These things I'll need further down the road. I can't make her understand that at the very least; a skimmer, a larger sump (for more live rock) and power heads are pretty much the minimum on equipment I needed to start. I keep getting "just get one piece this month and in a couple of months get another piece you need". It would be one thing if I did it that way and bought the basics and had it up and cycled before adding animals. This thing already has animals and I don't want them to die, regardless of whether they were expensive or not.

Oh well, I'll just do frequent WCs and hope they survive until I can get a stand, sump and skimmer for them.

 

[BigCountry74]

here is what you do. when you buy something for the tank, let her buy something from her store. clothing, shoes, new purse etc.

i mean hell she is going to anyway so might as well use the tank for leverage haha


oh and I do not think you need a sump. thats gonna open the door for a lot more complexity (aka money).

try to find a reef octo bh-2000 (it's a hang on the back skimmer). that's all you really need on that 55

i run one on my 40g long and it keeps my nitrates near 0 with once a week water changes. i am attaching a pic (skimmer is top left). I run cheato and a bag of chemi-pure elite in that hang on breeder box also (top middle). the bh-2000 will be large, but this skimmer is the best hob you can get for that 55, its runs via a 500gph pump . this tank is only 2 months old also but it's pretty dang stable atm, esp with that skimmer. i brought it in primarily to help with all the brown stuff leaching off the 90lbs of dirty dry rock i tossed in there lol

 

[Sk8r]

THere's a sticky up there ^^^^ SETTING UP: print that monster off and read the areas that seem to cover the situation.
Problems:
Ammonia and nitrate short term: water changes, 30% first day, 20% every 2 days until ammonia zero, nitrate much lower. Aim for NO ammonia and nitrate as low as you can push it.
How did you move the tank? If you stirred up the sand when you moved it, it's going to be a mess, and will likely cycle. Fish may die. Usually you toss the sand and get new, and still expect a 5-day ride to a short cycle. If you can do nothing else, get that extra tank full and functioning with bare glass and put all the fish into it.
Your desired parameters (excluding nitrate and ammonia which I push to zero or close re nitrate) are in my sig line. Try to hit them.
Salifert tests will give you an accurate reading. I wouldn't trust any test that has has been lying about with its tank in a mess.
Get a sump and a skimmer and ditch the canister. For a return pump, you need a Mag 9.5. (which is noisy) or a quieter pump that delivers 950 gallons an hour.
Keep the fish ammonialess and underfed in that clean-water tank (call it a qt and keep it in the closet when not in use) and use your test kits and supplements to get that water in order.
I use Oceanic salt. It's a good mix. There are other good ones. Buy salt in bulk: the 7 gallon Oceanic bucket, eg. Your water needs will make that far more economical. Get an Autotopoff unit if it had none: that will keep your water in order, and will feed to your sump to prevent salinity spikes.
You also need your own ro/di filter. The unit is pricey at the outset but the replacement filters aren't. This will mean you can mix up a water change cheap. Conditioned tapwater is not the way to go. City water may contain arsenic and heavy phosphate and other things the conditioners can't remove. Evaporation piles these minerals up and up and up leading to the reason that guy sold this tank.

Good luck! Good find!

 

[Shawn O]

Yes, the sand was churned up pretty good when the water went back in, I should have just used all new water (and no sand) but it was late in the evening, so ...

I've been dosing the tank with Amquel every 2~3 days and replacing the filter floss to keep the harshness down. I'll probably just vacuum out all of the sand and go bare-bottomed until I set up the other 55 on the stand. Will be building and plumbing it at the same time I put it on the stand. Thanks for the suggestion on the Mag 9.5. Is the Oceanic that much better than IO? Will be getting an RO/DI as soon as budget allows, for now the RO dispenser down the street is supplying my water needs. An ATO is on the purchase list between sump/skimmer and an RO/DI unit.

 

[Sk8r]

I just know Oceanic supplies high cal and mg, which is useful for coral tanks, but mostly that it comes in large 7 gal barrels, which is far more economical than buying little boxes. I know 50's well, having run one for 7 years, (it's now a freshwater) and know the pump size and the evaporation rate in our area (gallon a day, which makes a ro/di of your own real useful.) That's a good size of tank, and the fish it has are a pretty good crew, if you can save them. Now that that sand is settling, it should be ok, but it's very likely to provoke a cycle, which is why I'd get those fish to clean water and leave them until the tank is stable.

 

[Shawn O]

Would it help to just remove the sand and do a large water change or will the rock cycle again?

 

[Bpb]

This sounds awfully similar to my first tank. 55 gallon fowlr running for $200, and I had no idea what I was doing at all. It's going to be tough. You can research things for months and years, but actually setting up and watching things happen will teach you alot more and make sense of what you're reading.

What happened when you stirred up all the sand is what will happen to any tank. Being you're 10 days in, and didnt actually remove alot of the garbage in the sandbed, just release it, your "nutrient" (should be termed "waste" byproducts) content, or NO3 and PO4 will skyrocket and stay elevated for some time, fueling alot of algae growth. You're lucky it was a shallow sandbed! Either way, were I in your shoes, and I purchased a running tank, knowing what I know now. I would go ahead, bite the bullet, and buy a couple 20# bags of dry caribsea special grade aragonite, pull ALL the sand from your tank now, and just replace the sandbed. Your pod population and bacterial counts will take a hit, but nothing the rocks won't be able to make up for in short order. You'll be removing a massive source of junk by doing this. The catch is that your tank is on the ground, and it's very very difficult to remove alot of sand without a shop vac or at least a wide vinyl hose to siphon it out. Scooping it out wont do much for you. The idea is to suck it all out before the detritus trapped in it has a chance to become free floating again.

You'll now start getting dozens of recommendations on better tests, lights, skimmers, ect.

You're just doing FOWLR correct? I would still recommend an RODI filter. It seems like a big expense up front, but it'll pay for itself in a few months, if you're buying bottled water anyway. Some people successfully use tap water on their tanks, but tap water is largely a mystery and subject to change due to municipal water plants changing their disinfectants without notice and fertilizer runoff. I wouldn't chance it. Your fish may be able to tolerate it, but the more sensitive invertebrates even present in an FOWLR may not be so lucky.

So...to recap, my recommendation, get yourself and RODI filter (search the forums, most people like the bulkreefsupply units, aroud $125 or so), a refractometer to measure salinity (anywhere between $20-100 depending on brand), and alot of salt (200 gallon capacity mix of Instant Ocean is only about $50 most places online). Replace the sandbed. That'll at least get you started to where you wont have to fret over water quality. From there you can decide if you want to just run it as is and enjoy the fish for years to come, or if you want to start looking into corals and further upgrades.