New 55 gallon tank setup

kenpojohn

Member
I have Carribean, Fiji, Bali, Deco and Marshali live rock ( 110 lbs total ) and Florida live sand. I am looking for suggestions on what fish, invertabrates and coral to put in the tank.
I would live any and all suggestions that you may have and I look forward to being a part of this forum for a long time to come.
Thanks all
 

fish3

Member
coral beauty turbo snails and percula clowns no yellow tang what are you going to feed and what filter and light
 

kenpojohn

Member
I am still working on all that. I can truly use all the help I can get. Right now I have a Millenium 3000 filter setup, a Whisper 60 gallon air pump as an airator and a Maxi-jet 400 powerhead to circulate the water.
Any and all suggestions for tank setup and inhabitants and feeding are greatly appreciated.
 

renogaw

Active Member
you'll want a LOT more water circulation than a maxijet 400. a maxjet 1200 does a 295 gph. for a 55 fowler you want 550 minimum, for a coral you want 1100 minimum. get rid of the aerator and air stone.
go through the archived threads and you'll see a TON of info there. also get a couple books on setting up tanks and such.
 
You got the liverock covered.
I would add another powerhead. I have two 1200s, one has a wavemaker attachment, the other is pointed at the surface. I don't have airstone, you can use powerhead tube piece to pump some bubbles around. I aerate for a brief 20 min. every now and again to mix things up, but the fish prefer it off.
I would recommend friendly to start unless you are experienced or you have money to burn. I wanted to go with aggressive and soon discovered that I would have more stress with fish eating or attacking each other, plus most of them cost more, eat more, and poop more.
A pair of clowns are a good start, then research what you want and talk to LFS. I haven't gotten any fish online, heard horror stories, but for an extra five bucks you can inspect them at the LFS and return them easier if they croak. If you see something you want ask them to put it on hold, see if it lives for a week, see how it's eating and swimming, then bag it up!
I just added a butterfly after going with hardier fish first. My LFS quarantines fish for two weeks to prevent disease. Saves me a big hassle and is worth the extra five or ten bucks per fish. Ask LFS if they do that, maybe it will catch on...
 

renogaw

Active Member
how does your LFS quarantine for 2 weeks? most lfs around here get in hundreds of fish at a time--that would have to be a TON of seperate tanks to quarantine everything...
 
He has quarantine tanks and display tanks, small side business, he sets up tanks and cleans tanks M-F and is only open T, Th, Sat. Sun. He doesn't carry a large supply, but will order what you want, I asked him about a LMBlenny and he said he doesn't sell them cause they die in three weeks and is really honest about everything. hard to find in this world. best store I've ever seen or heard of and those around MB, SC agree, Bruce is the man. Sea Critters is the store.
He won't sell a fish to someone unless they have the right set up. I go there with a list of questions and get great answers.
 

kenpojohn

Member
What would be the best route for me to get the most circulation in my tank and do I just need to get rid of my airarors all together and keep the millenium 3000 filter setup?
 

renogaw

Active Member
get rid of the aerators and get a couple more pumps. put one in each corner crisscrossing the flow, pointing uptowards the surface of the water.
 
Look under fish discussion, there is a thread on 55g that has lots of info. I wrote some stuff there today. It's about half way down the page.
 

kenpojohn

Member
Would 2 Hydor Koralia 2 Centrifugal Pumps be good for my tank as far as water movement or should I go with 2 #3s. I know I want to place on opposite ends of tank and lose my maxijet 400 and my whisper air pump.
 
J

jesses89

Guest
i have a 55 gallon.... and NO you dont need a 1200.....
i speak from experience... that was way too much water movement for my corals... almost killed them....
go with a 600.
 
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