55g first saltwater reef build

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Terrance thanks for the impute.

I am beginning to think about stocking my 55g and figured 5-6 fish is a good number with 4-5 small to medium fish and 1 larger fish.

2x True Percula Clownfish (wifes pick)
1x
Bangaii Cardinals
1xDiamond Watchman Goby
1x green mandarin(will be last fish added, depending on a lot of factors and final decision will be may a few months from now. Is the fish that might be omitted)

These are the fish that I am considering add one of, but I'm not sure one which one yet.
1.Schooling Bannerfish I love this fish; however, I have read it is hard to distinguish from coral eating cousin.(input from someone that has one would be great)
2. yellow pyramid butterfly
3.Orange Butterflyfish said to be reef safe with caution (anyone have any experience with
4.Longnose Atlantic Butterflyfish( said to be hardy and reef safe with caution)
5. copper band-low on the list because of the difficulty to get this fish to eat.
6.marine betta-I love this fish and know personally 2 people who keep this fish in reefs with similar fish without a problem for 2+years. I have this one low on the list because it is extremely shy and would not be a good show fish.(plus they can get huge. one of my friends has had his for 4 years and it is 8+ inches. He did tell me they grow very slow and if I had plans to upgrade like 2 years out. I would be fine.

Any impute would be great.
 
I'm not too sure about the bannerfish but I have not had great luck with butterfly fish. I had an orange one because it was supposed to be super easy to take care of. Well, he ate corals first off like a fiend, and secondly even after eating like a pig for months O wpke up one morning to find him on the sand dead. No signs of anything wrong, was fine the night before and a few hours later dead.

I currently have a copperband in my established 125g reef tank. The only reason I got this one was that the LFS had him trained to eat by hand and had been in the store for months so it was larger and more established in his eating habits. Very meek though and not an aggressive food eater unless you feed by hand. LOL he lets all the food go to the tangs and doesn't seem to know how to compete for the free floating food.

Have ypu thought of a small school of fish like chromis? they are very active fish and you can get a bunch so you would have alot of swimming activity. :)
 
I believe the marine betta is slowly moving up the list.


See below for my tank 1 week after set up. any suggestions please on the scape or anything else would be great
also the water line is a little low I plan on adding water tonight.
perimeters
salinity 1.025
PH 8.2
Ammonia 1
Nitrites .0
Nitrates 0

edit: suggestions for power head placement would be great also.
img_1903885_0_20cec7d653192ffd6c404f5ce0f71418.jpg
 
Keep in mind if you want a marine betta like I do, they get to be as large, if not larger than your hand. They need large caves and overhangs to hide in during the day.
 
yeah, I plan on upgrading eventually probably 24 months out. believe there are a few nice caves in my current rock work, but I could add more. I have about 63lbs of live rock, I could add about 10 lbs to make some more shady cave areas. It seems their max size rages from any were from 6-12 inches. so will see. 12 inches being rare.
 
quick question. I'm not sure if i'm over thinking my rock wall, but does it look ok?
I have a lot of smaller rocks. Should I try to glow them together to create more caves and such or is it good?

still waiting on the cycle not much else to do really. won't get light for 2-3weeks so waiting on that also.

Thanks, all
 
Today was an exiting day today I had .0ppm of ammonia and .5 ppm of nitrites and 10 ppm of nitrates. it appears my cycle is moving along and maybe in a week or to ill be able to get some fish. did some slight changes to my rock wall as well should have my light the first week of may and soon after I should be getting my skimmer.
 
Today was an exiting day today I had .0ppm of ammonia and .5 ppm of nitrites and 10 ppm of nitrates. it appears my cycle is moving along and maybe in a week or to ill be able to get some fish. did some slight changes to my rock wall as well should have my light the first week of may and soon after I should be getting my skimmer.

Cool. Did you get your ammonia back up?
 
how would I do that? and why? if you don't mind that I ask.

I did the tests again this morning and the tests read 0ppm for ammonia 0ppm for nitrite, and it looks like either 5ppm or 10ppm nitrate.
 
sim1killa said:
how would I do that? and why? if you don't mind that I ask.

I did the tests again this morning and the tests read 0ppm for ammonia 0ppm for nitrite, and it looks like either 5ppm or 10ppm nitrate.

Feed some fish food or something and make for certain the cycle is completed.
 
Ok, so I fed the tank for the past 5 days with no change to the parameters. So last night I went to the lfs and picked up 10 hermit crabs and a true percula clownfish.
I put the hermits into the display tank and the clown into my 10g quarantine tank.
I figured I will feed the hermits every other day and watch my levels and if everything is good in about a week-10days ill add the clown. I should get my new light around then also.

Can anyone else suggest an order to add the fish I have below. I figured I would add one every 2-3 weeks until I get 4 in the tank and then add 1 ever month or so as the tank matures.

1. trupercula clownfish
-mandarine
marine Betta
yellow diamond gobie
Banggai Cardinal
fairy wrasse
flame angel

any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Joe

 
Thats a pretty specific list. Good to see you have a pod population going already. Itll set you up well for the future mandarin. Im not sure about the wrasse or angel. The angel will eventually nip corals.
 
the angel and wrasse are the two wildcards honestly.
anyone else with experience with either?
what order should I add the fish?
 
The mandarin, if you decide to get one should be the very last one introduced so that you have a chance at keeping it alive. :)
 
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