Ideal Set Up?
- 55g tank, appropriate heater and filter.
- about 50lbs of live rock. (How much is live rock, just curious?)
- Substrate, b/c I am using live rock I would prefer not to use live sand or crushed coral, anything out there I could use?
- Pair of false percula clownfish
- Pair of yellow tangs
- Pygmy Angelfish (Can these be kept as a pair?) (If not keeping clams)
- 4 Yellow Belly Damsel
- Cleaner Shrimp and snails.
Any other fish I should add? Please comment, suggestions and critisizum wanted.
LR varies honestly, you can order it or you can get it at your LFS if they carry it as far as price goes.. it depends on where you are honestly if seen it for 3.50LB and ive seen it for 10.00lb...my LFs store sells it for 6.50 already cured and it is a good cure job, he actually has reef tanks set up with corals and fish that are all for sale so you buy literally the same stuff in his display tanks. I hope I dont offend anyone but the whole poundage ratio to me is off. Lr comes in alot of different forms and same are much denser than others. I fount out the hard way that I can get 20 lbs of LR that is ewual is volume to 10lbs of another LR...so I decided to go with I want 1/3-1/2 of my tank to be LR. I have 4 pieces that are about the size of a softball but that are about 4 lbs a pice but in the tank.. they take up no room which is more important than actual weight of the rock, as far as substrate goes live sand is a help, it already has the beneficial bacteria in it but if you get regular sand it will develop, id say at least 3 inches deep from what i have read and heard.. from 3-6inches deep with the sand bed. the sand and LR work very well together with your natural filtration. your 55 might be a little small for 2 tangs, they need alot of swimming room, buy your fish according to adult size so you dont buy something that you have to get rid of later on b/c your tank is too small, he 2 clowns should be fine, they arent aggressive and dont get very large, pygmy angels can be a bit territorial and usually fight with other of the same species and Ive heard that they like polyps so if you plan to go reef, you might want to keep that into consideration, as far as damsels goes. im not a fan of them lol. they are really pretty but they are territorial and if you add them first, everything you add after them will get tortured, i lost a few fish to my yellow tail and I cant catch him...not unless i literally tear down the tank and net him..the cleaner crew and all that is pretty standard of norm..i am a fan of goby's because they keep the sand bed rotated. and I have a mandarin who is doing exceptionally well but they are not the easiest fish to keep. mine just has little comp for food. just do your homework on what you want in your tank.
As far as making a list of setting the tank up... the first thing I would do would be to figure out what you want your tank to "look" like, not everything is compatible. If you have an idea of the end result of your tank(which never comes lol) it is alot easier to get the correct equipment, animals and corals to do so. trial and error is an expensive way to learn....the last thing you want to do is get like a parrot fish or angel or an eel and then add "reef" animals, goby's and things like that and corals have one thing in your tank destroy it all..
1 write out or draw out, make a colage or whatever of what you want, get the proper equipment first even if it means waiting on corals and fish...
2. figure out what type of set up you want to have, biological filtration, mechanical, canister etc.there alot of things you can add to your tank to improve it from skimmers to uv-sterilizers and so on but, not everything is needed.. maybe recomended but not needed.
3. start it all up, and TAKE YOUR TIME...you cant... speed up the process of starting a new tank unless you buy an already set up tank and your maintaining it.. but if you are starting from scratch, just give it time...
i personally do not have a sump, id like one but it really doesnt fit with my tank set up. i have mechanical filtration plus biological with the LR and sand/CC and I do weekly H2O changes and my tank is growing very nicely..
like stated earlier, there is no single "right" way...whatever you decide to do just stick with your routine maintenance and you will be fine...
just bare basics, lighting, LR and a good deep sand bed, skimmer and power heads to provide good movement around the rocks, that is where your oxygen comes from in the tank so water flow is very important for oxygenating and aiding in with keeping your nitrates/ites, amonia down(most of that comes from the sand bed and LR)
PLEASE PROFESSIONALS CORRECT ANYTHING IVE STATED AND FEEL FREE TO ADD ON..LOL THERE IS SOO MUCH INFO IM SURE WE COULD ALL WRITE A BOOK ON WHAT TO DO TO GET STARTED LOL. HAPPY REEFING!