New 55 gallon, recommended setup?

mattatkinson

mattatkinson

Member
Hello everyone, I'm new to this board and recently purchased a 55 gallon tank which I am going to make my very first saltwater setup. I was just wondering what equipment you guys and gals would recommend that I start out with. I want to go with Fish only, thinking crushed coral but I'm open to suggestion on that one. I would also like to know what you would recommend for filration and I know this is going to sound stupid, but what purpose do the powerheads serve?
 
jwalters77

jwalters77

Member
Hey,first of all welcome to the board...I would recommend losing the crushed coral..I started out with it and then got to reading posts here which said it causes more problems in the long run with high nitrates...I would suggest going with a deep sand bed...my sand bed is about 5-6in..To me it looks more natural and is easier to keep..You don't have to vaccum the sand...what size tank do you have? in mine I used about 75lbs of southdown sand from home depot and then 45-50lbs of live sand to seed it..it has only been up for about a month but the life in the sand is incredible!! Now for the powerheads...if you go with crushed coral and an undergravel filter they can be used to pull water through the CC helping with the biological filter...If you decide to go with a DSB they are used strictly for water movement..I have 3 in my 55gal of which i keep 2 going at all times...the third is timered to come on about every 5-6 hours for a little bit more water movement..
Which ever way you decide to go do a lot of research and don't rush it...I know from experience that you will get frustrated and spend a lot more money than you should, plus maybe even kill a few fish in the process :( but anyway welcome to the hobby and ask as many questions as you can
good luck
Jake
 
mattatkinson

mattatkinson

Member
Thanks for all the great advice guys, I really appreciate all the help I can get. As far as what I want to keep in the tank, I really like the looks of the yellow tangs and I also like the looks of blue damsels. Basically I want to have fish that stand out quite a bit. I'm not really sure about the feasability(sp) of keeping more than one tang in a 55gal, I read a compatibility chart somewhere that didn't say they were compatible but they have like 3 of them in a 20 gallon tank at the fish store, I'm not real sure how feasible this is for the long term though. As far as filration goes though, is the emperor 400 adequate for the job I need it to do? Thanks for all the info everyone :cool:
 
mattatkinson

mattatkinson

Member
I'm looking pretty hard at a couple of skimmers, any suggestions? Also what will the emperor 400 cost on average in the lfs? I looked around on the net and found one for 64.99, would you consider this a good deal?
edit: just looked and there are a few I can get on auction for 46.95 buy price.
edit2: Anyone know any good places to look at pictures as for hooking everything together or maybe pictures of your own setups?
[ August 08, 2001: Message edited by: MattAtkinson ]
[ August 08, 2001: Message edited by: MattAtkinson ]
 
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