Plan for my 60 Gal (newbie)

[macleod]

Hello my name is Mac and I'm an alcho... oh wrong AA meeting.

Introductions aside, here's my current setup.

I have a 60 gallon (48lx24hx12w) against the wall on a shelf that's built on top of our foundation, so it can support the weight. 80 pounds of Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade sand and 10 measly pounds of LR from the LFS. I'm a poor poor man with too much time on his hands and not enough money to spend on it, so I'm trying to go slow and do it all right so I don't waste any poor little fishies or file bankruptcy

Gear: I have a Fluval 404 cannister and a Seachem 100 HOB skimmer, had to modify (i.e. cut) my canopy to fit it, and a pair of 150 watt visitherm heaters, and the piddly pair of 24" flourcents that came with the tank/hood.

Naturally, before I add fish I need more LR from somewhere more economical than my LFS, I figure right now on 60 lbs of hirock.com dryrock and 45 of fiji select from liveaquaria. And probably more sand too, haven't got what I have all in yet.

Post setup plans involve switching to a 4x65watt PC light system.

I plan so far to have a jawfish, maybe a pair if it's safe (I hear they are a little territorial but also have interesting behavior such as stealing eachother's rocks).

1x Royal gramma, I like em but doesn't seem like they'll go well in more than one to a tank.

(stocking list is incomplete, I'll add more later)

I hope for maximum coraline growth and would like to go from FOWLR to Reef in the future.

I like the hawkfish and eels but I don't think any of them would get along with shrimp or crabs so I'll have to slate them out for maybe a future system.

Should the lighting system I'm hoping for be able to handle high intensity critter or just medium? It'll come to just about 4.6 WPG of PC light.

Please critique me on anything you like, I'm all about picking the brains of vet aquarists

Thank you in advance,
MacLeod

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

Research is key to successful SW fish keeping and I’d highly recommend reading all the saltwater articles on this site, the articles on liveaquaria.com, & picking up a good book so you have a better understanding of the basics before progressing too much further.

The tank height of 24” is going to be somewhat limiting with coral selection by only using 4x65w pc lights. IMO tanks of that depth would be better suited to a mh/pc combo of around 500+ total watts. If you do stick with the pc lights then you would still be able to house low to medium light corals which there is quite a large selection of. High light corals/inverts would not be recommended at all until wpg is closer to 8-10.

The skimmer you selected is fairly basic and if possible I would return for a better one like the AquaC Remora Pro or Coralife super skimmer for example. Others will probably have more recommendations.

Sand and lr combo sounds just fine. Are you considering a sump or HOB Refugium?

Lastly you didn’t mention anything about getting a ro\di filter which is also recommended over using tap, buying distilled, or ro water from your lfs. Using tap will introduce significant quantities of po4 along with other impurities which will lead to algae breakouts and other fish/coral/invert issues.

Buying distilled, ro, or ro/di from your lfs will be more expensive in the long run then getting your own ro/di unit and you have little control over the quality of that water which could also not be pure due to them not changing filters or storing improperly.

A lot of people get them from ebay for around $100. Below are the 3 most popular sites:
Filter-Direct-store (seems to be most popular on this site)
The-Aqua-Safe-Pure-Water-Shop
ROfilterDepot

Also airwaterice.com is a good place if you don’t want to deal with ebay.

I would get a unit that comes with a storage container personally so you have di water for top offs on hand at all times.