New to reef setup

[titoav15]

Hi all,
I am deciding to make my 55g aquarium into a reef tank. I have a wave point t5 ho lighting system, reef actopus bh 100f protien skimmer and a fluval 404 filter system. I have about 25-30 lbs of live rock and reef bone in it. Fish wise I have: 2 purcula clows, 1 blue tang, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 blue manderin, 1 pennant butterfly, 1 yellow tail damsel, and bunch of snails. I started to add stuff called "purple up" about 3 days ago. Do I have everything I need equipment wise? What should I do to get my tank reef ready? Im sure I need some suppliments, can you suggest what I need? What are the first corals that I should get?
Thanks!
Alex

 

[thominil]

More rock. You will need a lot more water movement than what you have. Aim for 20x-30x turnover per hour. I would recommend the Hydor Koralia powerheads. Nothing should need to be dosed to the tank as your salt buffers everything you will need. Calcium may need to be supplemented as the tank matures since coral and coraline will be using the majority of it. How many bulbs are in the T5 HO system, how many watts? I would watch that mandarin as the are notorious for starving in aquaria. Not sure on the stock but it seems OK to me, butterfly is questionable to me though. Tang is agressive by the way, son't recommend adding any fish with similar body shape. Hope this helps!

 

[titoav15]

I have heard of Hydor Koralia powerheads, which one would you recommend for a 55g? I have a seachem calcium supplement will that do? The lighting system has a 4 bulb, totaling 216 watt output. Two day light and two atinic. What do you mean by salt buffers? I only have a ph buffer, what else do I need? Thanks!

 

[thominil]

Your salt buffers your water up to the levels you need. After your tank is mature (6 months to a year), coraline algae will take off and coral will start to use up calcium, thus you may need to supplement it (I supplement if my calcium drops below 440). I would suggest 2 koralia 2's which should give you about 23x turnover per hour. You will need a refractometer to test sg and salinity if you don't have one, a liquid test kit, and a ro/di unit as well. Remeber, since salt buffers your water to levels you need, a simple pwc can correct them easily.

 

[match55]

blue tang need more than 55gal, isn't it? I heard they like to swim fast in one direction, so a bigger tank will be better.
and for manderins, they only eat pods, so if u don't have enough cultured in your tank, it won't get enough food, will be lucky if it flakes and other prepared food.

 

[thominil]

Match.....You can't always believe what you read online. Mandarins eat brine and other prepared foods too, if trained. Mine eats frozen enriched brine. As time goes on, more methods to train mandarins to prepared foods are used making it easier and easier. Spotted mandarins are reported to be the easiest to train to prepared foods.

 

[roka64]

Hmmm, I heard that about scooter blennies, before mine starved. Some you can "train" to eat prepared foods, but with each fish, mileage varies. Sometimes you get lucky, not so in my tank....lol.

 

[thominil]

The net breeder method works wonders .

 

[roka64]

Hmmm, I may have to try that one next time!

 

[thincat]

By the way, did you cycle your 55g tank?

 

[titoav15]

I change water, what do you mean by cycle? I am new to all this terminology, bare with me

 

[melosu58]

I change water, what do you mean by cycle? I am new to all this terminology, bare with me

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/3/1/Cycle-your-salt-tank/Page1.html

 

[titoav15]

Thanks for the info melosu58 and everyone that replied to this thread! read the article, yeah I have been through all that, my tank is over 2 years old All the test are good

 

[thincat]

That's good. It sounded like your tank was very young and had not cycled yet. Just making sure...

 

[Bige]

There is calcium in coralup. You should test your calcium before adding it.