What to do with a 55gal?

[jenjen]

Hi all. Just looking for some ideas here.

My 180gal reef is downstairs in the family room, and I love it there. I also have a 55gal FW upstairs in the dining room. I am considering converting the 55gal to SW but don't want to maintain 2 reefs, so would like to do something 'different' with this one.

A few restrictions:

* The 55gal sits on top of my china cabinet, so no room underneath for a sump.

* I really do not want a skimmer on this tank, mainly because I like the clean look and don't want equipment hanging off it. I also have terrible luck with skimmers overflowing, and don't trust one that isn't inside a sump.

* I have a coralife PC lighting fixture which I'd like to use, so nothing with high light requirements.

If anyone has any creative ideas of what I could do with this tank, I'm open to suggestions and would love some feedback.

Thanks!

 

[Gyyro]

Just a thought.

Just a thought.

Mabey do something like a fuge with plants, invert's, LR, and sand. not sure if that would work though as I'm relatively new to SW.

Matt

 

[jenjen]

Ya I was thinking along that line, but would like to make sure it's interesting. Since the tank won't be covered and is fairly shallow I'll have to be really careful of what fish (if any) can go in as well.

 

[iceman79]

buy a pair of clownfish and some soft coral to host or buy one big clown and a little one to make a mated pair works most of the time did for me twice

 

[jason2459]

Predator Tank. Eel, lion fish, and a puffers come to mind.

Edit: just saw the "wont be covered" bit. Forget the eel most likely.

 

[sltloser]

Try doing eric bornemans 40g simplicity, although yours would be 55 instead, here's a link for ya http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic97234-9-1.aspx

 

[jenjen]

I love the idea of a pair of clowns, except that I have one clown in the big tank already and she hosts in a powerhead. Since I can't force them to host in an actual coral or anemone, I'm undecided on this. I do however love black clowns, so may break down regardless.

Originally I was really wanting to do eels (I love those garden eels) but I don't think the tank is big enough, let alone uncovered. I have considered a lion fish but thought that without a skimmer it might be too high a bioload?

I LOVE that 'simplicity' tank, thanks for the link! I'm definitely going to think in this direction - I really like the open aquascaping and 'one coral per rock' look. I could likely add some grasses to a tank like that as well. I'm going to read that whole thread later today.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone... keep them coming!

 

[username in use]

A show refugium can be quite stunning with a variety of macros, some live rock and some fish hand critters. You can also include some soft corals and some lps that wont need a lot of care or light. No skimmer would actually be a plus in this setup and would allow you to house corals and inverts that usually dont do well in the super clean environments that we usually keep. Xenia, brains, even gonioporas would do well in this setup as they are from lagoon type areas. In fact, you could do a straight up lagoon biotope that could work very well with less light and no skimmer.

 

[jenjen]

Do you happen to have a link to a thread where someone has done this?

 

[thegrun]

The Tunze DOC skimmers can be placed directly in the display tank, externally they look just like a black factory overflow. I'm not saying it is a great look, but they do not look bad either and there is no overflow issue since it is in the tank. It would be easy to hide one behind rockwork.

 

[ERICinFL]

Seahorse tank.

 

[jenjen]

Ok, I think I've decided. :spin1:

I'm going to go with a 'simplistic' tank, more lagoon than traditional reef, but without any grasses at least to start. I'm going to call it a 'soft coral patch reef', and try to stick true to a 'back reef' concept.

I'm going to try a deeper and finer sandbed (not sure the depth, more research required here) and only a bare minimum of rock. The rock will be individual pieces, nothing stacked. I may include a patch of shells and small 'rubble' as well.

I'm only going to include soft coral, and try to stick to fewer large colonies as opposed to the many small colonies in my reef tank. I'm also going to add a Squamosa clam - if it doesn't do well with the lighting I'll either upgrade to T5 or move it to the other tank where I have MH's.

The inhabitants will be mostly inverts, and I want to try as many as I can. The centerpiece will be a goby/shrimp pair. I think I'll either move my clown from the other tank or (more likely) get a pair of black ones for this tank. That will be it for fish.

I'm really excited about this project, and looking forward to the challenge of keeping this tank very 'minimalist' compared to the other tank. I'm also looking forward to trying a skimmer-free setup, but I will add the tunze as mentioned above if I run into trouble. I'm hoping by keeping the bioload low and only including inhabitants which are ok with a little nitrate I might be ok.

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Really helped get the creative juices flowing. I've already found a home for my FW friends, so it's just a matter of relocating them and picking up some sand & rock and we're ready to give this a go.

 

[t kish]

Please keep us up to date on your project , I am also trying to figure out what to do with a 55g and was trying to come up with something simple yet interesting.

Good luck

Tim K

 

[username in use]

good thoughts, however if you think lighting may be an issue, you could go with a derrasa instead of a squamosa, both do well in lower than max lighting, but the derasa is a little more forgiving.

 

[jenjen]

good thoughts, however if you think lighting may be an issue, you could go with a derrasa instead of a squamosa, both do well in lower than max lighting, but the derasa is a little more forgiving.

Hopefully since the tank isn't that deep the lighting will be ok, but I figure once I have the tank up and looking amazing I will be in a much better position to convince my husband we need to spend MORE money on the tanks.

Do you know how big derasa clams get? I'll look into that. I had chosen squamosa because I thought it was the best bet for lower light, but good to have some options - thanks!

 

[username in use]

the derasa's will get pretty big, but so will squamosa's.

 

[jenjen]

I checked peteducation.com and it claims a derasa can get up to 20 inches, where the squamosa gets to around 12 inches. Their info says squamosa is less light-demanding than the derasa. That said, derasa definitely has more colour options and could provide beautiful colour for the tank if it will work.

Thanks for the idea!

 

[username in use]

both have really nice color options once you really start to look at them, and even at 12" thats bigger than a 55 can hold comfortably. I have a derasa in my 40breeder, and I like the idea that once its huge I can sell it or trade it for something else.

 

[jenjen]

Ugh, I get so attached to things I don't know that I could let it go once it got huge. But then, I'm not sure I want a gigantic clam in a 55gal, and I don't really have room for it in my big tank without some re-arranging.

Any idea how long a teeny clam would take to turn into a 12-20 inch-er?

I've had my crocea for around a year and it's probably doubled in size but is nearing it's maximum. Not sure this is a good gauge, since they're smaller.

 

[Mouse]

Aptisia, Mojo's, GSP, Shrooms, Hairy Red Eyed crabs, Damsels....
Hey dont knock it, I bet it would be a killer low maint tank =)