Just got a 55 Gal.

G

Grouper954

Reefer Addict
Hello all, I'm new to this site & also new to the hobby of saltwater tanks.

Just today I decided to buy myself a 55 gallon aquarium, a cascade pump, a powerhead, and a light/moonlight. I got everything as a package deal used (about 2 months old.) I am going to pick it up tomorrow and I am excited to say the least.

However, I am already feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm not sure exactly what I need to maintain a live reef in my new tank. I understand that I will need a grow light for the coral and several pumps, but this is about the extent of the useful information I was able to find. If any would be willing to help a noob out, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
Hi and welcome! Exciting stuff for sure, new tank, yay! Don't feel overwhelmed, lots of people here will happily help you :)
Now, the light you got...do you know exactly what it is? Many lights cannot maintain a reef. Some can only maintain "easy" corals, (mushrooms, zoas) some can support easy lps and sps and not nems. Some can support anything. So, you'll want to figure out exactly what you got and what it's possibilities are. That way you will know exactly what you can keep or what may need upgrading eventually.
Do you have a heater? thermometer? liquid saltwater test kit (verrrry important) r/o water unit or the ability to lug 55 jugs of r/o water from the store? (you don't want to use tap water) Let's see...what else, what else? Oh, and a protein skimmer. There's where you are going to drop some cash. Look at Octopus skimmers. Are you doing a sump? I do not have one so I have a hang on the back skimmer (HOB).
You will probably want to get another powerhead, check out koralias on ebay.
So, that's all the equipment, I believe. Then you'll want sand and live/dry rock. Check out marcos rocks or, I got my dry rock off of bulk reef supply and loved it. I bought live sand from petsmart but other people will give you cheaper alternatives. Hope this helped a bit. Can't wait to see your tank progress along!
 
SarahSmile said:
Hi and welcome! Exciting stuff for sure, new tank, yay! Don't feel overwhelmed, lots of people here will happily help you :)
Now, the light you got...do you know exactly what it is? Many lights cannot maintain a reef. Some can only maintain "easy" corals, (mushrooms, zoas) some can support easy lps and sps and not nems. Some can support anything. So, you'll want to figure out exactly what you got and what it's possibilities are. That way you will know exactly what you can keep or what may need upgrading eventually.
Do you have a heater? thermometer? liquid saltwater test kit (verrrry important) r/o water unit or the ability to lug 55 jugs of r/o water from the store? (you don't want to use tap water) Let's see...what else, what else? Oh, and a protein skimmer. There's where you are going to drop some cash. Look at Octopus skimmers. Are you doing a sump? I do not have one so I have a hang on the back skimmer (HOB).
You will probably want to get another powerhead, check out koralias on ebay.
So, that's all the equipment, I believe. Then you'll want sand and live/dry rock. Check out marcos rocks or, I got my dry rock off of bulk reef supply and loved it. I bought live sand from petsmart but other people will give you cheaper alternatives. Hope this helped a bit. Can't wait to see your tank progress along!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what kind of light it is, but I will know for sure tomorrow afternoon!

I was looking into Fluval E Series 300w Heater.....any input?
Thermometer, liquid saltwater test kit will be purchased tomorrow.

Also, what do you mean by "r/o water unit"?

And I have a work truck with an 8 foot bed, so lugging around large amounts of water is no problem.

I will look into those skimmers and powerheads, thanks so much!
 
By r/o water unit I meant: A lot of people have their own units at their house for making reverse osmosis water which is what we have to use. I do not have one. I go to walmart and buy lots o' jugs for top offs due to evaporation. And I buy my saltwater premixed from the store. If you do not have an r/o unit and don't want to buy premixed saltwater you'll just have to grab jugs at the store and have a container for mixing and heating salt water for water changes.
For your tank a 200 watt heater would be fine. Having a back up one standing by is nice too as heaters are a common thing to fail.
 
I have a T5!!! What a relief, lol.

Thank you for all the help. I have a few more questions, though. When you talk about buying jugs of water at WalMart.....are you just buying gallons of distilled water? This seems like too much of a hassle, I'd rather just buy pre-mixed saltwater from the LFS. A little more insight on this would be appreciated.

Again, thank you sooooooo much for all of your help!
 
Glad you picked up your stuff,
T-5? Cool. How many bulbs? There are 2, 4, and 6 bulb units. The 6 bulb (54 watts each) will let you keep anything.
You'll probably want to buy new bulbs, bulbs are only good for about 6-10 months, any older than that and, while they will still work, they will cause algae. Since yours are used, I'd grab some new ones.
I buy the purple lidded water at Wal-mart, it's marked Reverse osmosis. I use that for top offs and premixed salt water for filling my tank and water changes. You will need jugs of r/o water for evaporation top offs since the salt doesn't evaporate, so you dump freshwater in every few days. Hope I'm explaining that right :)
 
On the water she means she adds it to the tank in between water changes due to evaporation. You can buy the pwe-made saltwater for your LFS for your water changes. But you can not add tap water to top off in between. You either need R/O water or water from Wal-Mart like Sarah was saying.
And welcome aboard
 
I have a 2 bulb unit with a combo moonlight. Will I still be able to house a few pieces of live coral? Or some anenomes?

And ohhhhhhh ok, I see what you're saying now. I wasn't aware that R/O water was sold by the jug like that. Thank you again for all this useful info!
 
For a reef tank you need 3-5 watts per gallon. So, for a 55 gallon tank you'd want around 220 total watts in your light unit. The unit you have, with 2 bulbs at 54 watts each you're at 108 watts, so you're at 2 watts per gallon, a bit low. So, I'd say no to keeping anenomes with that light, or SPS corals.
Most people go with a 4 or 6 bulb set up.
You may be able to keep mushrooms and zoas.
 
SarahSmile said:
For a reef tank you need 3-5 watts per gallon. So, for a 55 gallon tank you'd want around 220 total watts in your light unit. The unit you have, with 2 bulbs at 54 watts each you're at 108 watts, so you're at 2 watts per gallon, a bit low. So, I'd say no to keeping anenomes with that light, or SPS corals.
Most people go with a 4 or 6 bulb set up.
You may be able to keep mushrooms and zoas.
Click to expand...

Ok well seeing as how I'm preparing to drop ~$300 on a quality protein skimmer, maybe mushrooms & zoas are fine for now. Now without SPS or anenomes, my tank would no longer be considered a "reef" tank? And I could stock it with non-reef-safe fish? So long as the species of fish are compatible?
 
An anenomes needs a well established tank so you wouldn't even be thinking about adding 1 for 8-12 months.
If you are planning on keeping any corals; i.e. mushrooms, zoas, then, yes, you would have a reef tank and would not want to put any non reef safe fish in there.
You can always start with some mushrooms and see how it goes, lights can be upgraded whenever.
I'd check out some pics of different types of tanks. You can do FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and skip the corals and expensive lights if you do not care about corals and nems, some pretty cool fish are not reef safe and you could keep them in this tank.
Or, see if you really really want corals, then you can make sure to get safe fish and start with some mushrooms and if you want to upgrade your light down the road you can.
But, for just starting out, you wouldn't be getting nems or difficult corals anyhow.
 
I got an awesome skimmer, a hang on the back octopus one, for 180 so hopefully you can find something quality for less than 300. This hobby gets expensive quick doesn't it??
Corals aren't a huge deal to me, I like having a few pieces, especially my Duncan coral, but, it doesn't bother me that I don't have some of the demanding (perfect water and great lighting) corals. That'll end up being your own personal preference and you might not know until you are further along.
Hope you can post some pics of your tank soon, we'd love to see!
 
Wow, when I joined this site I wasn't aware of how helpful the members are! Thanks for all that info on the corals. I think I will give it a shot with the mushrooms and see how it goes.

I have yet another bit of confusion, though :(

These protein skimmers......I understand what they do.....I don't understand exactly how they do it......And I am a bit overwhelmed browsing through all these contraptions. Is there a webpage that outlines the basics of a sump setup AND a hang-on-back setup, comparitively?
 
I got overwhelmed too.
That's why I just got a hang on the back skimmer, it sucks in water and gurgles it around and makes a ton of bubbles and the bad smelly stuff sticks to it and stays in a collection cup that you dump out. Can you believe this sort of technical information is free?
If you search on the forum you can find all sorts of helpful sump information. Hopefully someone will chime in too. Plumbing scares me so I avoided it.
Hope someone else can be of help to you here! I know Old Moe just built his own sump and his build thread should have some great information for you.
 
The blue thing is a Penn-Plax Cascade 700 Canister Filter. The guy said it was similar to a wet/dry system. Anyone have input?

I actually have a lot more live rock that came with the deal, but I prefer coral to be honest. I need to get my water cycled so I can start experimenting with mushrooms & zoas!

Also a little more info on my light.....It's a Deep Blue SolarMax HE2 Double Strip T5....Two 28w bulbs.....One being a T-5 10,000k and the other being a T-5 Actinic-03.....Is this setup suitable for mushrooms & zoas?
 
That's what I was afraid it was, you'll want to get rid of that canister filter. They are meant for freshwater, not saltwater. In a saltwater setup it will cause you nitrate problems, nitrate problems will lead to poor coral, invert, and fish health. A few people use it but it would have to be cleaned every other day and just isn't worth it. Ideally, you will run a protein skimmer and get rid of the canister filter.
Now, for a successful tank you want a lot more live rock, that has nothing to do with coral. The corals are small and will sit on your rocks, but the rocks house beneficial bacteria and you want at least 50 pounds in your tank. Cram those rocks in there honey.
You only have 56 watts total huh? I don't know if that will support mushrooms, to be honest. You can try one or two and see how it goes. It doesn't sound like a suitable reef light to me.
Hope this helps you, I'm not trying to be a downer, I just want you to have a great tank!
 
SarahSmile said:
That's what I was afraid it was, you'll want to get rid of that canister filter. They are meant for freshwater, not saltwater. In a saltwater setup it will cause you nitrate problems, nitrate problems will lead to poor coral, invert, and fish health. A few people use it but it would have to be cleaned every other day and just isn't worth it. Ideally, you will run a protein skimmer and get rid of the canister filter.
Now, for a successful tank you want a lot more live rock, that has nothing to do with coral. The corals are small and will sit on your rocks, but the rocks house beneficial bacteria and you want at least 50 pounds in your tank. Cram those rocks in there honey.
You only have 56 watts total huh? I don't know if that will support mushrooms, to be honest. You can try one or two and see how it goes. It doesn't sound like a suitable reef light to me.
Hope this helps you, I'm not trying to be a downer, I just want you to have a great tank!
Click to expand...

Ok, I figured something was a little off once you asked "what that blue thing was" lol. I guess I can put it up on Craigslist and see if I get any hits...


And that makes sense about the live rock, I just wasn't aware. Thank you.

One more question about the lighting, do you know if it's possible to up the wattage in my housing? Like next time I buy bulbs, double the wattage? Or do these T-5's run on a ballast system that is power-sensitive?
 
ha ha, I know, I'm so techinical, "the blue thing"
It is very doubtful that you can put higher wattage bulbs in there, I wanted to do that myself with my crappy hood and was quickly warned not to! T-5s are ballast specific.
 

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