1st reef tank - 55gal Caribbean Fore Reef

[Meloco14]

55 gal glass tank

Substrate
60lbs Caribbean Live Rock
25lbs crushed coral
30lbs oolitic sugar grain sand
20lbs fiji pink live sand

Hardware
Prizm Deluxe Skimmer
Penguin Bio Wheel 170 (not always on)
Ebo Jager 150watt heater
Power Sweep 226 powerhead

Lighting
4 40 watt fluorescents
1 Aqua Rays Fresh/Saltwater - 9325K
1 Aqua Rays Saltwater Blue - 10,000K
1 Coralife Colormax
1 Coralife Actinic

Livestock
1-Royal Gramma
1-Pygmy Angel
2-Neon Gobies
1-Brittle Star
2-Peppermint Shrimp
1-Emrald Mithrax Crab
1-Queen Conch
1-Horseshoe Crab
25-Astrea Snails
25-Scarlet Reef Hermits
25-Blue Leg Hermits
Assorted Caulerpa

Future Purchases
6-Blue Chromis
2-Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
1 or 2-Blue Tang
Assorted Beginner Corals
Additional Powerhead
200watt VisiTherm Deluxe Heater (to replace Jager)

 

[Reef Guy11]

Were is the Pictures. We at Reefs.org love to see picture. It Sound nice and keep up the good work. One Question though you are doing this filtration with just live rock and sand? If So the Crushed Coral is not the best for a reef tank. All your sand will end up on the bottom and the crush coral will be on top. With will interfer with the dinitratification process. and you need at least another 40lbs of live rock in there. Also you use a 170 biowheel from Marineland, once in a while I suppose to run Carbon right. take that bio wheel off it can collect Ditrites and cause your Nitrates to sky rocket. That is all I have to say.

WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG Hope you find lots of good info. and get better knowledge, because the more you read and ask Question the more you will learn.

 

[Meloco14]

I'm working on the pics. The only digital camera I have right now is the one with my phone and the quality is terrible. Plus my tank isn't very impressive yet... But yeah I definitely need more live rock. I have been running the power filter regularly for the past couple weeks but recently stopped it. I have read that the carbon will take out beneficial nutrients and algae and such. I figured I would run it every once in a while just to clear up the water. I have a skimmer running 24/7. Your comment on the bio wheel is interesting...I have heard about other people taking it out and I know a lot of reef systems don't use biological media and I always wondered why. Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate any help.

 

[Reef Guy11]

Your welcome,

If you need to know anything just ask. If I don't know the answer then someone will. Also I have had a 55 gal setup the same way. I know what hell that tank was to deal with for me. I was new to the Hobby then to.

 

[Meloco14]

Hmm, your 55 was hell to deal with? So far I've been ok, aside from the amount of money and patience I need to put into this thing. But if you can think of anything major that happened to you that you think might happen to me I'd appreciate the heads up. I seem to have everything under control though. I bought and read a great book (all 320 pages of it) and I have been reading articles and forums online. So I seem to have a decent grasp of most of the potential problems. However I'm sure there are plenty that could easily take me by surprise. I also had a question about my sand. You mentioned that the crushed coral, ending up on top, would inhibit the denitrification process. I was unaware of this...I thought any sand would contain the right bacteria for denitrification. Should I try to take some of the crushed coral off? Or would a sand sifting star help? Or should I manually stir up the sand every once in a while to mix it up more? Thanks...

 

[Reef Guy11]

Try to take it out if you can, as much as you can. Then replace it with argonite sand any kind but live would be much better. Also the problems i had was Cyno Bacteria from not removing the Bio wheel from my Emperier filter. The crushed coral didn't help either, There where many time I wanted to throw my tank out the window. As I got more into it I gotten better. I also service Aquarium now have been for 6 months, A lot different from cleaning your own tank. Anyways I am talking to much now, time to shut up.

Darrell

 

[reefann]

Crushed coral just needs a deeper bed to have anaerobic zones, it will still get them though.
I actually commend anyone with a mix of grain sizes!!!!!!!! This IMO will help biodiversity.
Your amount of live rock is ok for that amount of fish,but you have a ton of clean up critters that need a food source from that rock which I think will probably be delpleted, IME. I personally would loose the BIO wheel, if you do a search you will see a ton of disscussion about this.
Just a FYI that queen conch should get big, about 12".
Tank sounds good hope to see it
JJ
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history of recession
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Loratab Rehab Forum

 

[Meloco14]

reefann, thanks for the comments...I know the conch can get huge. I used to see them snorkeling in the caribbean, and the rest of my family actually would eat them :? But I think they would be very slow growers, and hes (she?) only about .75 inches long right now. So by the time he's too big for a 55 I'll hopefully have a bigger tank. As far as the clean up guys, I got one of those packages, it seemed a little overkill to me, but I'm new so I had no idea. But for some reason a lot of the crabs, especially the scarlets, have died off. Maybe it's because youre right and there isnt enough food. But I have a bunch of caulerpa which I assume they feed on. I don't think its water quality, I test everything and it all checks out. And my fish and snails are all fine. Oh well. I've decided more live rock is probably my next purchase, maybe that will help feed the survivors...

 

[Meloco14]

Oh and yeah, I removed the bio wheel

 

[Algae Blenny]

2 Blue tangs, in a 55G is wrong, the fist won't be very happy.

 

[Meloco14]

Yeah, I changed my mind on the tangs, originally I wanted to get a tiny one, like the 3/4" size, and get a larger tank as it grew, but I actually changed a lot of stuff around. My 55 got a small chip in it so I replaced it with a 40 tall, and built up a nice tall reef structure. Right now I only have the gramma and 2 gobies, but plan on adding a couple occellaris and maybe a firefish. I am no longer restricting it to a carribbean reef. So I should probably start a new post with my updated specs...

 

[Anonymous]

1-Horseshoe Crab

How long you plan on starving that puppy?