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Innovative Marine Aquariums

The 55g About To Have No Anemones FTS PG:2


PieMan2k

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My dad had an aggressive tank for years and he is in the process of switching over to a reef tank. We used to have 1 lion fish, 1 moray eel, 1 nidra trigger,one humahuma trigger, and a spotted panther grouper. We sold them all off and this past weekend put have changed out our substrate to sand and bought 6 snails and 10 hermits. next weekend we are going to get 75lbs of live rock. Pics will be next week because I don't go over to his house until next weekend.

We also have a full spectrum LED light over the hood, protein skimmer, and a sump which we might buy a new one and set up a refugium unit in it. Any suggestions would be much appreciated

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Wow that was a lot of big fish in a 55g...

 

I will say that you might need to be a bit more sensitive to the number of fish you keep in a reef tank. Most reef fish are purchased small, however, they grow much larger. Also invertebrates and corals are significantly more sensitive to high nitrates. Having too many fish also encourages predation of desirable inverts, etc... Lots of reasons not to go crazy with stocking.

 

As for the equipment - what kind of light is it? Assuming it's a standard 55g it will need a powerful light with good penetration If you want to keep many corals.

 

A refugium is nice, but not necessary. A sump is good because it will add volume and filtration to the tank but unless the refugium is a large % of the water volume (like 30-50%) then it might not be as effective as it could be.

 

Finally have you thought about getting an RO/DI filter? If you don't have one already that's a good thing to have for a reef tank.

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Wow that was a lot of big fish in a 55g...

 

I will say that you might need to be a bit more sensitive to the number of fish you keep in a reef tank. Most reef fish are purchased small, however, they grow much larger. Also invertebrates and corals are significantly more sensitive to high nitrates. Having too many fish also encourages predation of desirable inverts, etc... Lots of reasons not to go crazy with stocking.

 

As for the equipment - what kind of light is it? Assuming it's a standard 55g it will need a powerful light with good penetration If you want to keep many corals.

 

A refugium is nice, but not necessary. A sump is good because it will add volume and filtration to the tank but unless the refugium is a large % of the water volume (like 30-50%) then it might not be as effective as it could be.

 

Finally have you thought about getting an RO/DI filter? If you don't have one already that's a good thing to have for a reef tank

 

I agree we did have a little too many fish in out tank before but they werent all that big. the biggest thing in there was the lionfish which was about 4-5 inches long.

The light that we have right now does full penetration to the bottom with little shadows. its the

Fluval Sea Marine & Reef LED 2.0 Aquarium Light 48-60 inch

I will have to ask him about the RO/DI filter. Is one necessary right away? we have a LFS where we get all our fish from and i believe they sell RO/DI water.

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Agreed TDS meter is king if you plan on buying water from a fish store. Some of them have double the tds of tap water....thats terrible

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You can use RODI water, as long as you trust the LFS. A TDS meter ($13) can tell you how clean their water is, and your own water.

When we go get out live rock next weekend I will see if they have a TDS meter there.

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You can use RODI water, as long as you trust the LFS. A TDS meter ($13) can tell you how clean their water is, and your own water.

Is my light good enough to keep a pipe organ alive and helthy Harry?

its the Fluval Sea Marine & Reef LED 2.0 Aquarium Light 48-60 inch

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Is my light good enough to keep a pipe organ alive and helthy Harry?

its the Fluval Sea Marine & Reef LED 2.0 Aquarium Light 48-60 inch

 

I am not familiar with that light. Do you have the PAR readings or details on the LEDs/Wattage?

 

Did you already buy the light?

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I am not familiar with that light. Do you have the PAR readings or details on the LEDs/Wattage?

 

Did you already buy the light?

We have had the light for a while almost 2 years. I do not know the PAR but I know it accelerated the algae growth by at least 5x the normal speed and since we didn't have anything to clean the algea,triggers ate all snails crabs shrimp etc, we had to do constant tank changes and clean the display which caused a cycle most of the time
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We have had the light for a while almost 2 years. I do not know the PAR but I know it accelerated the algae growth by at least 5x the normal speed and since we didn't have anything to clean the algea,triggers ate all snails crabs shrimp etc, we had to do constant tank changes and clean the display which caused a cycle most of the time

 

Sounds like its not a great light haha.

 

Algae doesn't grow from "Just" light, it needs excess nutrients as well. Figure out your "constant cycle" before adding coral!

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Sounds like its not a great light haha.

 

Algae doesn't grow from "Just" light, it needs excess nutrients as well. Figure out your "constant cycle" before adding coral!

Last weekend we removed all the water substrate and completely redid the tank. since then we have had no algae plus now we have critters that can clean the tank.

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Actually algae can even grow in no light if there's nutrients in the water...

 

So I looked up the light you're using and here are my thoughts:

- IMO it's not ideal for a standard 55g reef. Would probably do much better in a shallow tank.

- There are a lot of smaller SMD LEDs so you'll get very good coverage but these smaller LEDs don't necessarily pack the punch needed to get good penetration to the bottom of the tank.

- As a result the light will appear visibly bright but I would call it adequate at best for a reef tank. PAR numbers may not be available.

 

To help the light be more effective, try to have tall rock structures so that you can place corals higher up in the tank. I would stick with soft corals that do best under low to moderate lighting, and even then probably try to position them in the upper 1/2 of the tank.

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Actually algae can even grow in no light if there's nutrients in the water...

 

So I looked up the light you're using and here are my thoughts:

- IMO it's not ideal for a standard 55g reef. Would probably do much better in a shallow tank.

- There are a lot of smaller SMD LEDs so you'll get very good coverage but these smaller LEDs don't necessarily pack the punch needed to get good penetration to the bottom of the tank.

- As a result the light will appear visibly bright but I would call it adequate at best for a reef tank. PAR numbers may not be available.

 

To help the light be more effective, try to have tall rock structures so that you can place corals higher up in the tank. I would stick with soft corals that do best under low to moderate lighting, and even then probably try to position them in the upper 1/2 of the tank.

Thanks for the info. All I know is my dad is NOT going to be happy with this news, his in-vision or this tank was to have a nice clam and ALOT of SPS/LPS corals all down the tank. I will have to tell him the news that we can use the light but eventually we would need to upgrade. What kind of light would you recommend for a 55g?

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Hehe I'll be the first to admit I'm not an expert on all the different lights available today - but if I were lighting a taller tank I would probably go with hanging pendant style lights. Since those are designed to hang above a tank they typically have optics built in that are good at delivering more powerful light deeper into the tank.

 

Do a search for the other 55g members tanks and see what kind of lighting they're using. I will say that 2 ecotech radion xr30w (or similar) would probably do the trick. If those lights are a bit pricey then DIY is still popular.

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Well yesterday we got all our live rock scaped and put it in the tank. I would post pics but I don't know how to on this fourm.

Upload picture to photobucket, and then copy the "IMG" link and paste it here :)

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As it turns out the rock we added was Life rock. a rock that is said to be cultured with dehydrated bacteria and once it gets wet it re-hydrates. Has anyone had any experience with this stuff and when the cycle is normally complete? the LFS said 3-4 weeks but ive heard with live rock or Life rock it can be as short as a week but no longer than 3, especially on a tank that has been running before the rock was added. Am I correct on this, if so we will be going to the LFS next week as i'm on break and I will be at my dads all week.

Here were the water parameters before we added the rock, I will get my dad to send me the updated water parameters soon.

(these readings are a little inaccurate and only estimations because of the test kit)

Alk between 1.7 and 2.8

Nitrite No2 is .10

Ammonia NH3/NH4 0

pH 8.6

Nitrate NO3 2.5 or 12.5 the test kit had one side with high numbers and one side with low numbers, but was on the same color.

Salinity is 1.018

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You need to either dose ammonia, or put in some food to get the cycle going. There might be some bacteria on the "Dehydrated rock" (:lol:), but you need something for them to eat

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Does anyone know a good reef test kit? Ours is really old and the readings aren't that accurate as you can tell. Also the guys at the LFS recommended the Current Orbit Marine pro for our tank and they said that's what they use on their personal tanks and they love all the features and for the price you cant beat it. any other lights you guys might recommend? we wont be upgrading lights till later down the road but just food for thought on what we need to look at pricing wise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well we need a new sump and stand. The stand we have now won't fit a new sump we can find on the market or a 20 long. We just got a new pump and skimmer. More and more adding up.

20150914_191900jpg_zps27f2d1a1.jpg

And just a little pic of 2 of our hermits. They always give eachother piggyback rides

20150905_183414_zps3615b512.jpg

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Well we are officially done cycling and we stocked the tank this weekend.

Critters and fish:

1 6 line wrasse

1 peppermint shrimp

2 turbos the size of a golf ball

2 mate skunk clowns

Corals:

2 bubble tip anemones(they went behind the rocks for some un-known reason)

1 Carpet anemone( we got it for 40 bucks. AMAZING. its the size of a volleyball)

1 frag of Dragon eye zoas

1 frag of radioactive zoas

1 frag of unknown blah zoas( maybe cup polyps?)

1 frag of some mushroom polyps

1 frag of Green hammer torch

2 frags of candycane

1 frag of blue chalice

1 mystery frag. ID?

Pictures will be coming soon!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Good and bad news.

Good news the tank was moved from the living room to the dining room and it won't fall through the floor. We also got a few upgrades.

Gfo and phosphate reactor

Current orbit marine pro 48-60 inch

New skimmer

New pump

New sump

 

Bad news is one of my clown fish just died for no reason, good water, eating, living in the anemone. And my 6 line decided to try to swim into the carpet so he was eaten.

 

New scape

20151018_142807-1_zpsatkk3nrq.jpg

 

New reactors

20151017_201052_zpstjpkyoyg.jpeg

 

New sump and stand

20151017_201036_zpsiprigp1g.jpeg

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