First saltwater tank 60g

[breiwa1]

Hey guy's I am new to saltwater and started up a 60 gallon tank. Here is my set up, feel free to point out flaws, or improvement I could make. I read through the forums for a few weeks and the 101 tips. Some good stuff.
I started with a new tank and built a stand and canopy. I am using 6x65 watt pc lamps with 4 50/50 and 2 10ks. I have a wet/dry filter rated for 75g and a red sea skimmer. There are also two power heads in the tank.
I mixed the saltwater right in the tank and let it run through the filters for two weeks, making sure everything worked correctly and brought the water up to temp. I bought 75 lbs of live sand and 125lbs of live rock from a guy locally. I packed everything into a large cooler since I am in MN and it is cold. It was worth it because I have had very little die off. There were already some snails and hermits and even 30 mushrooms on the rock that somehow are still alive after transport and tank cycling.
I am now 1 month into this and I picked up a test kit and checked the parameters (sorry I can't remember all the tests) and after having the lfs recheck my water I bought 12 snails and 12 hermit crabs, 2 pepermint shrimp.
Now, I would like to have a few soft corals and mushrooms so when it comes to fish I will have to be selective. Does any one have any suggestions for my set up; will I be able to support any corals with my lighting? Thanks for any help. Sorry if the pic is a little blurry I will take a new one.

 

[lecithin]

You can def do low and probably most medium light corals with that lighting (at least I would assume with that many PCs)
Get some Ricordea, Actinodiscus, and Rhodactis. Those are some nice shrooms... Probably Zoas higher up and I'm sure you could do much more.
I'm sure you can put a lot in there but I'm not a PC expert so I'll let those guys sound off... the coral recommendations were just my suggestions on good starter corals.
Tank looks good so far, post us your parameters if you can.

 

[dennis210]

Tank looks good. Check your turnover rate (gph) in the 60 you want around
1500 gph of water movement. Also you have 390 watts of light over tank, even though it's florescent at 6+ watts per gal you should be able to keep alot. I run metal halides and compact florescent and can't get a anemone to survive. My freind has had them for 4+ years and he has only florescent.
Make sure with a rock wall structure like yours you point a powerhead or two agaist the back wall. It will push water through the wall back to front.

 

[bjoe23]

Tank looks good, for fish, your LFS may say to get damsels but DONT! They are aggressive and will bully a lot of fish. Then you will want to take them out and you wont be able to catch them. Also I would get the LR off the sides of the tank because then it will be hard to clean the sides. Lookin good thought!

 

[breiwa1]

Thanks for the input. I think I will move the rocks off the sides of the tank, that make perfect sense. I will be retesting the water this week and I will post the results. When it comes to fish I want a maroon clown and a tang, possible a scooter blennie. I am still reading up on all of thses so I am going to wait a week or two.
How do I figure out my water turn over rate?

 

[mcbdz]

Welcome to SWF
To figure your gph add up the gph/turnover of all your filters, powerheads.
The maroon clown is one of the most aggressive clowns so keep that in mind when you pick other fish. A tang will not go in that size tank, they need min. 6ft swimming space. Try looking through gobies, blennies, small wrasses, and grammas. These are large goups of fish with many choices. The scooter blenny will be later down the road when your tank is more mature.

 

[teresaq]

I agree with getting a small power head behind your rock. you have a lot in there. over 2 lbs per gal. most recomend 1 to 1.5 lbs per gal. Your tank is looking nice.
Research your tang. most need a 6 ft tank for swimming. They are ver active.
with 6x65 wtts of pc lighting you should be able to keep mushrooms, zoos, leathers, xenia, gps, and some lps.
good Luck
T

 

[breiwa1]

That is a bummer about the tang. I was looking at a Blue Hippo Tang and the info on this site does not say anything about 6 ft of swimming area. It says this fish could live in a 40 gallon so I assumed it would be ok to keep. Could someone please enlighten me or point me to a good site?
I checked my flow rate on my equipment. Two power heads rated at 240 gph each and the pump down in my wet dry says 2349 gph (this seems a little high to me) and it is pumping about 4 feet up, there is also the skimmer but I didn't look at that pump.
It looks to me that I am over 1600, but I am not sure about the large pump rating.

 

[breiwa1]

ok here are my parameters
1.023
PH=8.4 this seems kinda high how do I correct it?
phoshate=0
ammonia=0
nitrate=0
nitrite=0
alk=normal (according to my test strip)
These seem ok to me what do you guys think? How do I adjust my ph? I did a 20%water change 1 week ago if that helps.

 

[lecithin]

PH at 8.4 isn't bad. 8.3 is pretty ideal for a reef tank so 8.4 is good as well.
Just watch your PH it'll vary during the day as the lights go on and off.

 

[breiwa1]

Shoudl I be testing when the lights are on or off?

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by breiwa1
Shoudl I be testing when the lights are on or off?
Both just so you know. pH will be at its highest just before the lights go off and at it's lowest before they come on.

 

[breiwa1]

ok, last night I tested just before the light went off, so I will try a ph test on saturday morning before the lights come on. Thanks for the tip.
Now does anyone else have any input on the blue hippo tang? If not I think I will look into someother fish to be safe.