Next move???

[bbrook]

Facts: 55 f/0. no live rock. decrative corals only with crushed coral bottom. Tests are all 0.0 (amon., ites and ates) except my PH is at the high end of normal. Doing 15% water changes every 3 weeks with premixed salt R/O water purchased from my lfs. I have gotten throught the cycle with 4 damsels and several weeks after the cycle ended I added a yellow tang (3 weeks ago)
First, should I be concerned about the PH balance?
Second, I was considering adding some crabs to keep the bottom clean. Should I go with red leg hermits, blue leg hermits, Scarlet hermits, or others? Is there something better like shrimp or snails? or a combination?
OR should I add more fish b/4 going with cleaning types? Thinking about a coral beauty, sailfin tang, or maybe a clown. I would like to end up with 4-5 fish and maybe get rid of the damsels. (however they behaving right now for some reason)

 

[bobsingh1]

Some suggestions on the setup
You should always be watching your PH. Use a PH balance of some sort. Kent Marine is the best. Stabilize it to 8.2.
Get some live rock and let it cycle. Not only it will add beauty to your tank but also will help in the bio process and provide hiding and resting place for your fish.
If you want to get 5 more fish, get rid of your damsels. Other stuff I would recommend if you do not already have them
A good (venturi style) protein skimmer.
A UV steralizer (15 Watts is good for your tank size)
Live sand.

 

[beth]

you didn't say what type of filtration system you have going...knowing this would help in giving you suggestions as to what you should put in your tank. [Some fish need other levels of filtration than others.] Also, what is your PH? As to the cleaning crew, you can get this anytime, but keep in mind that the "crew" are additions to your tank, thus having "crew" will cut down some on the # of fish you can put in there.

 

[bbrook]

Current filtration is a wet/dry and a canister. The canister has carbon for chemical purposes due to earlier problems. I was thinking about removing it and just running the w/d.
As far as live rock I don't think my current lighting system would support it. I have a single 40W tube light. I have looked into a double tube canopy and decided I don't want to spend the money right now. Is my assumption correct on not enought light to support live rock?

 

[broomer5]

In my opinion, I would not let your lighting or lack of lighting prevent you from adding some live rock. You will gain all of the benefits of biological filtration and hiding places as mentioned above, plus it just adds so much to the tank balance. You may not get the corraline algae to grow at the level you would like, but when and if you upgrade your lighting, you'd be fine. I have same lighting as yours, single 40 watt came with crappy hood with tank. I did replace it with a 50/50 daylight / actinic which is helping a little. By adding Coral Vital you should see the corraline take off too. I would be most concerned with stabalizing your pH at the moment.
Have fun !