This is my first saltwater venture and thus far I enjoy the hobby and do not expect that to change. I have benefited from the information dispensed on this forum, only wish that I joined up sooner. But anyhow, this is my tank, a 55 gallon, just over 50 pounds live rock, one treasure chest (its for the kids), coralife 65 gal skimmer, t5 lighting and two koralia 1050 powerheads. For livestock I have two percula misbar clowns, lawnmower blenny and cuc (4 turbo snails, 3 nassarius snails, 12 cerrith snails, 2 bumble bee snails, 3 blue legged hermit and 1 ruby red legged hermit) I plan on adding reef beginning this Fall.
Levittown 55
- Thread starter newbie 18
- Start date
little_fish
Moderator
Looks like you are off to a great start!
Thanks to both of you!
Seeing that you list state college as your location, must have been an interesting last couple of months.
I could not imagine anything good coming out of it. We have a pretty good LFS less than ten minutes from me. Being new to the hobby, they did a good job steering me towards things I would need, i.e. protein skimmer, (though reading about it further, I would have purchased a different one, it is what they sell there, not many options) I wish they had steered me away from the canister filter I bought. The LFS does seem to have very clean tanks in which I rarely see something that is not of the living still. They also have good prices on some dry goods. Not enough room for a sump as I purchased the tank second hand and the stand would not fit one underneath, however I have some ideas on a future sump/refugium looking at the diy section.
KelliZackMOM
Amy
Looks good. Yay for PA!
moncapitane
Reefing newb
That looks very nice.
Went to the LFS last night and saw a coral beauty and asked about it but didn't purchase as the guy strongly discouraged me from buying any angel if I plan on adding reef to my tank. He then started telling me about some tangs that he would recommend for my 55 gallon tank. I remember reading that my tank was too small for tangs and I referenced the live aquaria website and not one of the ones he mentioned were had a minimum tank size below 70 gallons. Each time I talk to this same guy, I lose more faith in what he is telling me. Anyhow, purchased a panama cardinalfish instead, Cookie. It was quite amusing watching the fish today as he and the clowns seem to rotate places during the day. The treasure chest is where the clowns spend the night but as soon as the lights came on, they came out and the cardinalfish went in and then the opposition happened when the lights went out. The cardinalfish did explore quite a bit today so I was encouraged that he was checking out his home and not staying hidden away all day.
kevdogg
Reefing newb
Sounds like you got a good fish! Sucks though about your LFS, unfortunately thats very common with fish stores. As far as the coral beauty I believe they are one of the more reef safe angels, however each one has a different personality and tastes. Its up to you but there are quite a few out there that are safe and don't have any problems with them.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Yeah, I read several threads on here beforehand that said the coral beauty could be fine, and many don't bother anything. However, I wanted to think about it some more and now I probably have at least a month to think about adding another fish and all the possibilities of which one to pick! I want to get a colorful fish that has bright colors, but with a 55, tangs and triggers are out.
kevdogg
Reefing newb
I thank you for that. There are fat to many people that try to keep a tang or trigger in tanks that are way to small. :mrgreen:
You could always look at reef safe wrasses, they are pretty colorful!
As far as the angel goes they can be a little more difficult to feed correctly. They require a sponge supplement in their diet and will suffer from malnutrition if not fed properly. Its not hard to feed properly, but the advice is not always given.
-K
SarahSmile
:)
I'd wait to add the angel last, personally. They can be a bit of a bully so put your others in first...
Yeah, I read that they should be added last in a couple of older threads. I can add only one or two fish to keep with the one fish per ten gallon rule. Guess I'll need to think about if I want 5 or 6.
kevdogg
Reefing newb
I don't see why they wouldn't eat the pineapple sponge. Chances are that it will not last as long as you might think.
Myrtle, a percula clown, must have ingested something and it seems as though it got stuck in his gill, unfortunately he didn't make it. Living on the East coast, I thought after Sandy that I was probably really close to losing the other inhabitants in my tank as we were without electric for just over 4 full days. Pre-Sandy, I did do a water change in anticipation of the storm. Fortunately, I had access to a generator and did what every other fish keeper would do, hook up the tank and the refrigerator of course. The water temp had already dipped to 65 by the time that I got the generator hooked up and everyone made it through. Yesterday, after the power was back on for a bit, I noticed that many of the eggs that the snails had laid a while back have acctually made it to be snails, I estimate there are well above 50 baby snails in my tank about the size of a sesame seed with visible shells. We went to the lfs today to purchase frozen food to replace that which was lost while the power was out and they too lost all their frozen foods along with much of their livestock as they were without power for several days too. They did have domino damsels there and my kids wanted one so we purchased one. Immediately after leaving the store, I noticed that I was charged for two and not just one, so I went back in and asked if I could have the second one I paid for, so now I have two. So the tank now has one percula clown, one pajama cardinal, one lawnmower blenny and two domino damsels.
Amba
Ol' Salty
Good job on doing the research. An angel will be hit or miss for coral safety. Varies from fish to fish.
