55 gallon potential stocking

[Horsegirlmaddy]

Hello all! I'm setting up a 55 gallon as my first marine tank, and wanting to go the whole 9 yards. I'm going to seed the filter with existing fw established media, then slowly raise the salinity so as not to kill off the BB. Then I am going to add live sand (how many pounds do I need?) and 25lbs of fully cured live rock. I will be getting 4 T5 strip lights, and I'm seriously considering laying down the cash for a Fluval G6 filter (any opinions on the best non-sump filters?) and I will be getting a protein skimmer (again, suggestions?). I figure with established filter media, my cycle should take maybe 3 months? I'm aiming for: dkh of 12, salinity of 1.022, temp of 24 degrees Celsius (76 Fahrenheit), and a pH of 8.1 (I'm guessing I'll need to add a reef alkalinity supplement).
So: what are everyone's opinions on all of the reef supplements (alkalinity, trace minerals, calcium, etc)- are they necessary? What do you use? Do you have to add them every time you do a water change?
How often do you do PWCs and how much?

After the cycle is complete, I want to add mushroom corals. I hear they're the easiest for beginners, and I also adore the look of them. My coral selection (please comment and make suggestions!!) is:
Bullseye mushroom
Fluorescent green mushroom
Lavender or hair mushroom
Button polyp
Green striped mushroom

Is this too many corals (1 of each) if they're spaced out? How far apart should they be? And how do I go about harvesting frags when they start to grow large?

This is the clean up crew I'm thinking of (again, please comment and make suggestions):
1 lettuce sea slug
4 dwarf blue leg hermit crabs
6 Astraea turbo snails
2 nassarius snails
4 dwarf red tip HCs
8 cerith snails
4 peppermint shrimp
2 emerald crabs
2 banded coral shrimp
1 brittle sea star
1 pincushion sea urchin
1 sea cucumber

Is this too much? I just want a) a pristine tank, and b) a variety of everything

And then the fish I would like:
1 yellow banded possum wrasse
1 firefish
1 scissor tail dart fish (optional)
2 ocellaris clownfish (mated pair)
3 blue/ green reef chromis
1 yellow prawn goby
1 court jester goby
1 diagonal bar prawn goby
1 citrine or green clown goby
1 black banded convict goby
1 hi fin red banded goby

Can you tell im obsessed with gobies? Lol. I tried to pick only hardy, small, reef safe, peaceful fish, but obviously experience is the best form of knowledge when it comes to living things!

Sorry for the long post. I just want as many opinions and suggestions as I can get!!

 

[bavass]

wow def way to many fish, maybe like 5 or 6 fish in a 55g would. Most gobies don't get a long with other gobies. You biological filter will not handle that many fish. Rule of thumb is 1" of fish per 5g. I think you could probably get a smaller CUC too. Would not buy a Fluval will become a nitrate factory. Put that money towards a great skimmer. FW is different from SW not the same bacteria. I start fresh no telling what could be in frewswater system that you don't want in saltwater Here is a calculator for sand bed. ALk, calcium, and mag additvies will be needed.

 

[TheTodd]

+1 on the "way too many fish" comment.

Your cycle should take 4-6 weeks, but as was stated, the BB are different, so do not go with the idea of using established FW media. Start from scratch and let it do its thing.

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

Thanks for the responses and sand bed calculator! I will cut out half the fish then so different from freshwater, my goodness! Of course I know it would be, but it seems nothing is the same, so it's like learning everything from scratch!! I am aware that gobies dont like each other, but when I researched each individual type, all sources said they didn't tolerate conspecifics and similar looking gobies, but are peaceful to any other gobies, provided there are an abundance of hiding spots. Not trying to be rude, just would like some clarification

So in your opinions, what would you stock a 55 with, fish-wise? Would you do a larger centerpiece fish, or a community of smaller fish? What do you reccommend for either?

 

[TheTodd]

I think that stocking is subjective, so you've gotta go with what you like. I think that having a variety of sizes, like a couple of larger fish (dwarf angel size), maybe some chromis with stuff like gobies, shrimp and fire fish is nice.

 

[bavass]

In my 55 i have tried to add another gobie and my diamond gobie will mot have it, lol! One piece of advice go to bulkreefsupply and pick up a screen lid kit or the gobies will jump out. My stock list is 1 maroon clown, royal gramma, six line wrasse, 2 green chromis, diamond gobie

 

[Jaketit]

Yea my 55 has one foxface rabbit, a coral beauty, a sixline wrasse and a maroon clown. IMO I would just keep fish that do certain (jobs). If you're gonna start doing corals the fish become more of a PIA as far as bio load and picking on corals. I'm not telling you what to do but this has been my experience so far. And look into the HOB Reef octopus skimmers they are good for the money.

 

[erichm20]

1 inch per 5 gallons is pretty conservative, the rule of thumb I've always heard is 1 inch per gallon. I wouldn't suggest having that many with corals so somewhere in between should be fine.

Next you want to think about compatibility both with fish and with your setup. +1 on the lid if your thinking gobies or wrasses because they definitely jump.

For the skimmer I've heard great things about the reef octopus so for you without a sump could go with the bh 1000.

Just out of curiosity why you are shooting for SG of 1.022, Ph of 8.1 and temp of 76? You should be fine with these parameters but the only reason I ask is bc ideal reef conditions are 1.025, 8.3 and 78-80. fish can get away with a wide range of parameters (as long as they remain stable) but corals are not very tolerant to conditions that are less than ideal.

you could do all those mushrooms but I wouldn't add anything but fish for at least 6 months. You could probably get away with doing it sooner but stability is everything in this hobby and it just doesn't happen over night.

oh and quarantine every new arrival.

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

I was definitely planning on a tight fitting lid. That's good to know, I planned those parameters around a) my tap water, and b) the middle range of the parameters I found for each fish and invert I was planning on getting. The range I found for all of them was 1.020-1.025 salinity, ph 8.1-8.4 (my tap water when conditioned is at 7.5 so I wanted it as close to that as possible on a regular basis so I dont have to do much playing with t and potentially causing fluctuations), temp of 72-78 (22-26), and dkh of 8-12

 

[Holygral]

If you don't start off with RODI water, you are starting off running uphill. A rodi unit is the first and most important piece of equipment you need. Using tap water and chemicals is the biggest mistake you can make starting off. You will never have pristine water conditions.

 

[bavass]

Buy a RO/DI unit and start with good water. If you start by using tap water you will pay for the RO/DI twice trying to kill the algae and remove the nutrients that is in tap water. I learned the hard way

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

Geez, so much equipment!! Okay, so I have no idea about RODI water...does anyone care to enlighten me? I know what it stands for, but not a clue why you use it for saltwater tanks. *blush*

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

Geez, so much equipment!! Okay, so RODI machine.. Does anyone care to enlighten me as to why it is needed? I understand that it deionizes water, but what does this do for the reef? Im such a saltwater noob :/

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

Gah. Stupid iPod app told me the first one didn't post...made another post then noticed I had posted twice. Sorry!

 

[erichm20]

It is totally purified and free from any type of dissolved solids and heavy metals.

 

[TigerBarbs]

A RODI unit first takes out particulate matter through the sediment filter which removes dirt and rust from the water pipes. This is stage 1. Then the water gets passed through a carbon block which removes chlorine and other dissolved organics. Some units have 2. Then next stage is the RO membrane which does the majority of the purification. Lastly, the water gets passed through deionization resin to further purify the water to 0 tds(total dissolved solids). Its important to use RODI water because the chlorine will kill off corals and fish. (Which u probably know from fw). But phosphates must be removed because the fuel algae growth. With such strong lighting for corals, algae will thrive under minuscule amounts of phosphate. Does that help?

 

[Mr. Crabs]

+1 on Tigerbarbs

For the longest time I tried to keep corals with tapwater and had very little success and LOTS of nuisance algae. I broke down and bought an RO/DI unit and it became easy to keep LPS and Soft corals. They just thrived. That was the missing piece of the puzzle I put off for a long time. If I had to pick one piece of equipment that is a necessity for a reef tank, it would be an RO/DI unit. You can get away with tap water for fish, but not corals IMHO. These guys have decent units for a good price.

RO/DI Systems

You don't need a large capacity unit. Whatever you can afford. Just make sure to get a TDS meter with it to test what is coming out. This will make sure the water is pure and you will know when the resins start to fail and need to be replaced.

 

[TigerBarbs]

I was lucky enough to get one from bulk reef supply and im thrilled with it! Its the 4 stage plus unit. 75gpd. I may get the 150gpd upgrade kit though to cut back on waster water

 

[Horsegirlmaddy]

A RODI unit first takes out particulate matter through the sediment filter which removes dirt and rust from the water pipes. This is stage 1. Then the water gets passed through a carbon block which removes chlorine and other dissolved organics. Some units have 2. Then next stage is the RO membrane which does the majority of the purification. Lastly, the water gets passed through deionization resin to further purify the water to 0 tds(total dissolved solids). Its important to use RODI water because the chlorine will kill off corals and fish. (Which u probably know from fw). But phosphates must be removed because the fuel algae growth. With such strong lighting for corals, algae will thrive under minuscule amounts of phosphate. Does that help?

Thank you!!! That helped a lot, and has now convinced me that an RO/DI is necessary. With nine freshwater tanks, the volume of dechlorinator I go through is shocking-I have no doubt that this machine will be worth it's weight in gold if that's what it does to the water! Okay, add that to the list of equipment I need. Next question- I saw "marine-glo" lights that said "T8" on them. I've heard T5 are the best...but what's the difference? I've never had a planted tank for fw (all my fish eat plants) so I don't have any experience with special lighting.

 

[TigerBarbs]

Im not sure but i have t5. It works great. I have soft, lps, and a couple sps corals that are thriving