FOWLR to Reef

[AZfishman]

I started a 55g fowlr about six months ago and everything has gone well so far thanks to a lot of reading on this site. Coraline is coming in, fish are still alive and healthy. I would like to upgrade and take on the next challenge to a reef tank. I know I need to upgrade my lighting and wanted to run my setup and live stock by you for any other problems you see or suggestions.

Lighting - I am looking at getting the 48" Coralife Aqualight Pro which has:
2x150w 10k MH
2x96w actinic blue cf
3x1w lunar blue led
good, bad, suggestions!

Current Setup:
55g long
protein skimmer
trickle filter
2 power heads
lots of live rock

Live Stock
1 cleaner shrimp
2 emerald crabs
8 turbo snails
1 nassarius snail
1 diamond goby
2 tank raised clowns
1 yellow tang

I also could use a recommendation for an anemone for the clowns. Thank you for all the help everyone has provided on this site.

 

[sooju]

I think the tang might be a bit big for the tank. Otherwise I would just say that you're probably better off with an LPS coral - torch, frogspawn or hammer - for the clowns. No guarantee they'll host anything, and I believe anemones are difficult to keep. I'm also in the process of converting my 55G from FOWLR to reef tank, good luck!

 

[Ziggy953]

I don't think you need to upgrade your lighting at all. You have enough lighting to handle most any coral.

The tang will be ok in the 55 though would be happier in a larger tank.

The biggest thing I would do is work on your filtration. Since you are going to go with a reef you really need to consider adding a sump and refugium to your system. Click on my thread and read through some of the things I did to my system. The wet/dry trickle filter just doesn't cut it for a reef tank.

How much LR do you actually have? What are your water parameters? A reef is more demanding in that you have to keep your CA, Mag and Alk in check. You will need these test kits along with a refractometer if you don't have one already.

 

[Ziggy953]

Oh...Anemone

Your clowns may or may not take to an anemone, but I would suggest a Bubble tip for them though I would wait until you get things set up for your reef. Anemones require excellent water conditions and some of the changes I mentioned above will improve your chances of keeping one successfully.

 

[AZfishman]

Thank you very much, I will look into it the sump. You mentioned being fine with lighting, is that if I go with the 48" Corallife Aqualight Pro? Right now I only have 2 48" flourescents, one of which is the blue. Thanks again.

 

[Ziggy953]

Sorry I miss read that. I thought you already had that light. Yes what you listed in your first post is excellent for a 55g tank, though I would look for a MH with T5HO combo rather then the PC bulbs. T5HO bulbs penetrate deeper and last about twice as long as CF/PC bulbs.

 

[melosu58]

I agree that the lighting you are going to get should be good enough. I had a yellow tang in a 55 for yrs. They will make it in that but as Allen said they would be happier in a 6 ft tank because they need plenty of swimming room. The only two tangs I would recommend in a 55 are a yellow and a yellow eyed kole tang. Everything else looks good.