Progress on my 55

[compjtc]

After keeping freshwater fish for years I decided it was time to try saltwater. If I knew how addicting it would be I don't know if I would have made the jump.
here's some pics...
Shortly after I got the tank, purchased it used from a guy, then added some ***** special live rock. Oh yeah, and bought that quality skimmer....what a waste of money.

After having the tank for a month or so....

Anyways, After spending probably hundreds of hours reading up on sw fish I can say I think I'm making progress. My first order from saltwaterfish.com came in (thanks guys, very awesome!!!!) I've had some cured lr in a tub for a while, so I figured I could add it while the acclimation was going on. Here's some pics from today. (Please forgive the hair algea and crappy pictures. until this order came in my cleanup crew was near nothing. I have yet to figure out how to take decent aquarium shots without glare with my camera)

and the refugium....

Please post any comments or constructive criticism you might have!

 

[compjtc]

Oh yeah, some info might be nice:
The tank is a 55 gallon, with a 30 gallon refugium and a 10 gallon sump.
2 percula clowns
1 foxface rabbitfish
1 lawnmower blenny
1 flame angel
1 firefish goby
1 cleaner shrimp
1 brittle star
3 emerald crabs
1 cleaner clam (in refugium)
and a bunch of blue leg hermits and snails.
Right now I'm considering the tank fully stocked. Today I added the flame angel, firefish, emerald crabs, brittle star, cleaner shrimp, and another 10 snails and another 10 hermits.
What would some of your thaughts be about adding a mandarin goby sometime? I'm tempted but I'm afraid that will overstock the tank.

 

[joncat24]

i would say it is starting to look nice , but I would also say to slow down a bit.
How is your refugium connected to main tank?

 

[compjtc]

ha, I can try to slow down, but for me this is all taking so much time! I started with the used tank in the beginning of august, so I'm going on 6 months. It helped a little bit that it was an already established tank before I took it over. It only cycled for about a week.
I'll try to explain the plumbing. The overflow in the display tank has two bulkheads in it. I have two risers or slightly different lenghs. The shorter one then hooks into 1 inch pvc and goes into the refugium (notice the loc line). The refugium tank was reef ready. The taller riser drops directly down into the sump. I did this different height riser setup so approx 60-70% of the water goes into the refugium, and then the taller riser dumpts the rest into the sump. The refugium then dumps into the sump as well. I have a valve on the line to the refugium for further adjustments and to allow me to do water changes without turning off any of the filtration.
In the stand is a 10 gallon (biggest I could fit, and it still took modifications) that has my heater, skimmer, and the original hob carbon filter. A mag7 pushes the water from the sump back into the dt.

 

[chrisarc]

Try putting a black background on. It'll make a huge difference. Imo while the tank is still young I would take out all the live rock and replace the substrate with good live sand. Otherwise looks like a good start! A Couple pics of my 55.