reef tanks

cjb

cjb

New Member
I have not had a tank in 6 years. The last time I had a tank I was in college, thus I had very little money. I had a 55 fish only tank. I got fish from a pet shop that I worked in. Being in college without much funding I never started the take right.
Now 6 years later I have the time and the money to invest on starting a tank right.
I will get to the point. I have the following equipment and wanted to get some suggestions on other equipment or supplies I should get before trying to set up a reef tank.
55g tank
(1) 48" 110w highput compact florecent strip lite.
Red Sea "prizim" skimmer
3" crushed coral
50g of ro water
I intended to get live sand and rock.
Any direction would gretly be appreciated.
 
swtanks

swtanks

Member
The lighting sounds good enough to be able to keep some low light corals like mushrooms, polyps, and leathers placed higher up.
Definitely get the LS and LR. I would toss the CC. Over time it tends to be a real pain as far as collecting waste and causing high nitrates. Try to make a sandbed about 4 inches deep. this will help with denitrification.
The prism skimmer is a good choice for that size tank.
Good idea to start off with RO water. It should help you avoid a lot of the algea problems in the beginning associated with nutrients, cycling, and the use of tap water.
Go slowly. You can cycle the tank with the LR. Don't need to add fish to do it. I would wait for the tank to stabilize for about 6 months before adding any types of corals. Don't overstock.
 
flydan

flydan

Active Member
Hey,
I agree that a 4" dsb is the way to go for either a FO or a reef. If you are going to make a reef you'll need about 1 1/2lbs of lr per gal. (I used 50lbs of base rock, mostly lace rock and some tufa, then added 70lbs of cured lr on top of that in my 55gal.) I would recommend adding an actinic light to your lighting and of course you'll need a good heater and a couple of power heads. If you have the time an $ you may want to add a refugium. That way you can keep your heater and skimmer out of your display tank. Do a search at the top of this screen if you don't know what a refugium is. Hope that gets you started. You are doing the right thing by doing the research first! You wouldn't believe how many people have to make changes to their tank after it's been set up! Also, about once every three weeks or so you'll see somebody asking how to catch damsels hiding in 100lbs of lr! hehehe
Take care,
Dan'l
 
y2says

y2says

Member
Believe me, it's not fun trying to catch damsels. I would cycle the tank using frozen shrimp. Just throw in some pieces and let it sit. It's a lot easier than trying to catch damsels. :D
 
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