55-65gal Stocking suggestions

[dr_girlfriend]

I am on the verge of the getting my doctors office to let me redo their tank. It looks like crap right now, and the genious whos been "taking care" of it, has just been stocking it with damsels which have been dying regularly. He added another light bulb which made the algae sky rocket, so he added snails; which also died. I got a small water sample, I' didn;t have enough for all tests so I used my strip testers (which I totally trust BTW) And the nitrite 0, nitrate 80, KH 1dgh, PH 7.8

I'm not sure what kind of equipment hes running. The tank has an overflow, I'm guessing a wet/dry. As far as lighting his canopy has 2 flourescent and 2 halide bulbs (which are off)

So, my idea to present to him is to replace the CC substrate, remove all the lava rock and fake freshwater plants and put in some nice fake corals and a 2-3 inch sandbed. As for fish, perhaps a pair of percs, a few gobies; get a decent clean up crew in there and some sand sifting stars. Just something that would be easy to maintain and not really expensive.

So, any suggestions otherwise? I'm relativley new to SW so any help would be great!

 

[lando]

Lots of options. Clowns, gobies, wrasses, dwarf angels, royal gramma...
If you do a sand sifter star, only add one. They can deplete the fauna in a sand bed very quickly and more then one may cause starvation.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

Ok, how about 6 black bar chromis, 1 yellow tang, 2 cinnamon clowns, 1 maroon clown. I'm not too sure about the maroon clowns aggressiveness though. Would they all get along?

 

[dr_girlfriend]

or maybe a royal gramma basslet instead of the maroon? Also, what is the best additive to raise the KH in a SW tank. In FW I use baking soda, but I have no idea for sw.
TIA

 

[quarryshark]

maybe a royal gramma basslet instead of the maroon?

I like that idea better.
Would also skip the yellow tang, the tank is kind of a small tank for a tang.

what is the best additive to raise the KH in a SW tank

try not to use an additive if you don't have to. Water changes with well aged and airated good salt mix should help. Also how much water circulation and surface movement do you have? Is there a glass cover?
Better to find and treat the cause of the low PH then add buffer.

 

[StripesTheEel]

Would also skip the yellow tang, the tank is kind of a small tank for a tang.

agreed.. need a minimum of 75gal for the smaller tangs like yellow, purple etc..

look at the dwarf angels if u r looking for some colour..flame etc..

 

[seaham358]

What about live rock or base rock??
I agree with the others about the maroon clown... Mixing 2 species IMO is not a good idea.
Your going to get the tank stable and running for a while before adding any fish right??
Nitrates of 80 8O !! I can see why the snails are dying.
It sounds like you got some work ahead of you.
SS stars are nice but like lando says they will clean out the sand bed over time in a small tank. look into a serpent star they are very cool and you can feed them shrimp and silver sides.. Good clean up star.. And it will freak out some people when they see it with the octopus type arms.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

Alright, well maybe I'll leave the tang out. How about in place of tang and maroon, 2 firefish and and the royal gramma? Would they all play nice?
I'm not sure if hes going to want live rock, I'm pretty sure its going to be a FO tank like it is now. I am really hoping he agrees to replace his substrate for sand, I think that will help getting the nitrates down quite a bit. Ill probably leave the damsels that are in there now in the tank until things stabilize, then remove them and slowly add the new fish.
As far as inverts go, I was thinking 7 hermits and 10 nassarius snails and 1 or 2 cleaner shrimps.
I was wondering about the KH buffers because our water out here has almost nill KH, and I'm wondering if his PH is low because of it. I'll see if doing regular water changes keep it up. If not and I do have to add something, is Kent's super buffer any good?

 

[StripesTheEel]

How about in place of tang and maroon, 2 firefish and and the royal gramma? Would they all play nice?

If your going to add them along with the 2 percs and gobies.. the maroon wouldnt be a good idea.. housing two different clowns isnt a good idea unless theyre in a tank 100gal++ IMO. the other fish would be ok.

I'd go with 2 percs/cinnamon clowns, royal gramma, 2 firefish, 2/3 gobies, the chromis and you could probably leave that damsel in there..

That sounds good to me..

I'm not sure if hes going to want live rock, I'm pretty sure its going to be a FO tank like it is now

I'd definately try to push the LR, its the most efficient filter a tank can have.

Cleaner crew sounds find.. I'd bump it up to 10 hermits 15 snails..

I was wondering about the KH buffers because our water out here has almost nill KH, and I'm wondering if his PH is low because of it. I'll see if doing regular water changes keep it up. If not and I do have to add something, is Kent's super buffer any good?

Buffers are generally not used unless u have a serious problem, I'd seriously recommend partial water changes regularly until it stabilises.. 15-20% weekly

HTH!

Matt

 

[dr_girlfriend]

cool thanks!!

I know LR is the best, but trying to persuade someone to spend 400 bucks on rocks isnt easy