My 55 Gallon Tank

[Hpimichael02]

i want this to be a fowlr tank, but how ever i want SPS and LPS and this tank would be great to have those in . so i will be keeping my nano for my star polyps and zoas and i might be getting this into a reef but we will see.

im gettng another 30lbs of dry rock in the next week.

[Hpimichael02]

so after adding est 5lbs of live rock, i dose with ammonia, bringing my dose pretty high(oops) as of this morning my ammonia reading is .50-1ppm my nitrite is around 1ppm and my nitrate is between 80-120ppm(above 80ppm but below 160ppm)

so im thinking in another 10 days it should be fine and cycled- getting more rock on Thursday.

im starting to narrow down thoughts for stocking
i want some sort of dwarf angle
copper band butterfly fish
kaurdens cardnial
Declivis Butterflyfish (
Pakistan Butterflyfish

not all of thema t the same time but some of these is a starting point that peaked my interest

[hockeyhead019]

Very cool... i'd suggest adding the angel last since they're known to be territorial. Also you probably know already but with that stocking you won't be able to add corals down the line since Butterflys are usually coral eaters

And just a suggestion towards the dwarf angel (not angle ) I'd either go with a flame or a coral beauty, they seem to have the best survival rates in captivity along with some flashy color and liveliness

[Hpimichael02]

would you happen to have any good ideas on reef safe nice looking fish ?

[hockeyhead019]

most of the wrasses are cool just make sure you get one that's reef compatible since there's a bunch that aren't, also there are some blennys that are very cool looking imo... it all depends on what you're looking for lol

Personally I have a coral beauty angelfish and she's stunning and I'll probably end up getting a royal gramma and two bangaii cardinalfish and i think I'll be pretty stocked after that lol

It's all up to your personal taste though, there's some very cool fairy wrasses out there and the leopard wrasse is super cool looking (however they are picky eaters much like a mandarin) so just do the research before you get any fish

If you wanna do some research of your own google is always great haha I just started by searching "55 gallon stocking list" and came up with a bunch of forum hits and stuff like that, so that could give you some ideas along with a site such as liveaquaria there's a filter in their fish section that gives you what minimum tank size recommended is, (however take that with a grain of salt since they distort the truth sometimes lol)

[Cliff]

+1 to the above. Research a potential list of fish that you like then look into them in a little more detail to see if they would work in your tank.


To help with that, the below three threads have some info on some fish to try to avoid when starting out. Keep in mind, this info is based on the long term health of fish and help ensure any fishkeeper's success in the hobby.


http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=85685

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=85684

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=28508

[Hpimichael02]

im going to start off with some clowns or some damsels most likely and then add on to there, after reading about the few i liked i realized that they are not hardy, so starting a new tank i want hardy fish to start. thanks again for your help. ill keep posting when the tank progresses more.

[Hpimichael02]

so i spent most of the day researching LED and LED brands. i did find a brand that i think suits my tank, i most likely gonna get the 2 of the Evo100 Dimmable LED Fixturethe specs from the site:
Features:
•8" wide 18" long 3.25" from light face to top of dimmer knobs.
•2 watt Epistar with 90 degree lens angle LED's
•8' Dual Power Cords, 1 for White, 1 for Blue
•On/off Switches to turn on/off Blue/White Separately
•Matte black powder coated housing.
•2 Ultra Quiet Cooling Fans.
•4- 12" Stainless Steel hanging Cables.
•15-460nm blue 10-450nm blue, 25-14000K White.
1 unit covers a tank up to 24"x18"x24" tall

im getting two to light both sides of my tank each side measure about that what they are rated for. 2 for $618 is cheaper than other brands, although aqua illumations is awsome with their controller, they are just way expensive.

wont have these till about march or so, but the coral bug will most likely have bitten me hard by then lol.

[hockeyhead019]

yea it prolly will have hit ya hard at that point lol cool to see those lights I haven't seen anything on them before haha good to see you're looking into stuff, especially the LEDs since that's definitely the direction the lighting is headed

As far as your stocking I'd recommend the clowns over the damsels, only because damsels have a reputation of being punks haha by that I mean they can be very territorial towards other fish and bully them, you won't have that problem with the clowns. Either way try and get tank bred fish b/c it'll help with the survival rate since they always seem to do better.

[Hpimichael02]

yea actually that company looks legit and i like how they are dimmable, for the price cant bet them.

im talking to the guy i get my coral from and he can order the ORA clowns, so i might be getting two of those and placing them into quarantine until the tank is ready