What should I do next?

[lurningboutreefs]

I have been looking to get back into keeping a saltwater aquarium and found a guy needing to get rid of his 55 gallon setup. I bought all of his sand, about 10 medium-sized rocks, and all of its inhabitants (a pair of clowns, a panther grouper, a peppermint shrimp, a lawnmower blenny, and an emerald crab), and brought about 40 gallons of his water home too.

For now, the aquarium isn't full. I am planning on getting another 15 gallons into the aquarium tomorrow. I have some pretty weak lights, 3 powerheads, and almost no filtration.

What should I do next? I probably jumped into this a little quickly and don't want to make any real changes quickly, but I would like to get the setup stable and let it run for a month or two.

Thank you for helping a newbie (I used to have a saltwater aquarium - it has been a while, though.

 

[Northstar24]

For starters, re-home the grouper, a 55 is way too small for it

As fracas filtration goes l, your live rock should do the trick if you kept it wet, you'll want 1-2 pounds per gallon

 

[lurningboutreefs]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I will talk to the LFS tomorrow about taking the grouper. It is such a pretty fish, but it tried to eat the peppermint shrimp as we were taking rocks out of the aquarium for transportation.

Should a protein skimmer be the next purchase? How much of a protein skimmer do I need for a 55 gallon? Should I try to buy lights next? One of the rocks has polyps on it and another has a mushroom on it. I don't have anywhere near 100 lbs of rock. Should I focus on getting more live rock?

How should I guarantee the water is oxygenated enough for the fish?

Anyway, sorry for bombarding with questions.

Thank you so much for the help.

 

[lurningboutreefs]

I transported 40 gallons of water, rock, and sand in 5 gallon buckets. Nothing was ever left dry. Should I expect a cycle?

 

[FishyReef]

You can leave the rocks and fish in a bucket or plastic bin with a heater and powerhead while you get the aquarium set up and they should be just fine. The powerhead will oxygenate the water. As long as you keep them in water, heated, and oxygenated you likely won't have a cycle. Just make sure to acclimate your fish to the new tank once you get it set up as the water they are in now will likely be slightly different from the new water in the tank!

As far as next pieces of equipment, I would look into an RO/DI unit and protein skimmer. Bulk Reef Supply is a good place to get an RO/DI unit (the 5 stage one is what I would recommend), and many of us here have Reef Octopus Skimmers - they are a great unit for your money. Don't bother with skimmers that they sell at your local petco/petsmart. As far as lights go, what lights came with the set up? If there are already some polyps and mushrooms on the rocks, then you might be okay with the lights you have to start with, but if you want to do LPS or SPS, then you will need to upgrade at some point.

A few other things to consider getting are a sump (if you don't have one), a refractometer to measure your salinity (much better and more accurate than a hydrometer), and a good test kit (don't use the test strips, check out API or SeaChem instead for a decent kit). And as far as powerheads go, do you know how much flow the ones you have are rated for? You want around 20-40x your tank size for flow from powerheads.

Welcome and good luck!

 

[lurningboutreefs]

I am going to talk to the LFS today too! I will update after the trip. Thank you so much for the help. Everything seems to be alive this morning!

 

[lurningboutreefs]

How big of a protein skimmer do I need with a 55 gallon? (I plan to get the recommended amount of live rock, but do not have it now and will probably add a piece at a time.)

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!


If you dont have enough rock, that needs to be your first purchase. The other very important thing is getting enough flow. All those other things just make life easier, but you must have enough rocks (for filtration) and flow (to oxygenate the water).

You dont have to buy all live rock, you can buy dry rock which is much cheaper. My favorite place to buy dry rocks is marcorocks.com.

I would also check out the articles section, there is lots of important information in there. Also you want a skimmer rated for twice your system volume.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with Hannah -- getting some powerheads for more flow is a necessity. Having a skimmer is nice, but not essential.