Hey everyone .... Glad i found this sight!!!

[ma00435]

So I'm definitely a novice when it comes to the aquaria hobby. I have been dabbling with the amazing help of my local store " elegant reef" ( side note : amazing guys and great store) luckily with there advice everything has been going well but worried about my newest addition my hippo. The regal blue tang is hiding a lot unless its feeding time or the lights just turned on. I have 2 of ocellarius clowns a naso tang two cleaner shrimp 3 peppermint shrimp 4 nassarius snails four turbo snails and several hermits ... They interact just fine. None of which being aggressive.

My set up is a 55 gallon tank with a emperor filter , protein skimmer power head power compact lights and a heater

Any advice???

 

[Rutrag]

How long have you had the hippo? Tangs are pretty skittish fish and take a while to grow accustomed to new surroundings. If he is eating, I wouldn't be too worried just yet.

As a side note, a 55 is a bit on the small side for tangs, especially the naso in my opinion. Do you have plans to upgrade in the near future?

 

[ma00435]

Yea for sure I'm upgrading ASAP to a 105. But he is eating really well just always hiding. Thanks for the reassurance.

What are your thoughts on t5 vs MH vs led lighting???

 

[Rutrag]

T5HO gets you good lighting for the cost and is good for shallower tanks. Metal halides punch into the deeper tanks at the cost of heat and high electric usage. LEDs can get you the best all the way around, but tend to be pricey. If you do a search for "Doug's In Wall Build," he's got a line on some inexpensive (relatively speaking) Chinese built LED panels that don't have all the fancy controls, but seem to work pretty well. LEDs are extremely energy efficient and the panels last a really long time. The high end ones are dimmable and you can program all kinds of neat effects and spectrums into them. Do not be duped into the Marineland Reef Capable units because the general consensus is that they are NOT reef capable.

I'm running a 6 bulb T5HO system on my 75 and a 150W metal halide supplemented by a 24" T5 blue on my 37.