starting a new reef/semi reef tank

[bonny]

Well let me just start out by saying i am new here and i think you have a pretty good site here

Well i am going to set up a 55us gallon 48 uk gallon tank that measures 48"long, 16"wide and 18.5" tall. I already have a 40W bulb running on this tank. The filtration is a fluval 304 cannister filter.

What i plan on doing is because money is a limiting factor i will not be able to upgrade my lighting till christmas. I am then planning on getting dual 96w compact flourescent bulbs and either getting 1 10000k bulb and one atnic bulb or getting 2 50/50 bulbs (whichever works out cheapest ) This gives me with the 40W bulb just over 4WPG i believe this is enough for most corals? Oh and i am going to fan cool these.

So until i get the new lighting i plan on adding live rock slowly i am going to run a DSB with 4" of argonite based sand. I will buy 25lbs of dead rock ie reef bones or texas holey rock or something similair. I will then slowly over a period of several weeks (probably about 8) add 25lbs of live rock. Hopefully this will cycle the tank for me. I will then leave the tank to establish for a month (and for me to get more money ) then i will start adding fish. The fish i plan on having in this tank eventually are:

2 percula clown fish
3 blue-green chromis
1 Bi-colour angelfish
1 royal dottyback

Now the only fish i really really want out of this lot are the percs the rest i don't mind about. What are everyones experiences with bi-colour angelfish and reef systems? I will add the clown fish first and then probably after another month or 2 add the chromi. The dotty back and angelfish will probably be added after christmas and after i have added some corals.

Now i can't afford a protien skimmer or an R/O filter although R/O water is pretty cheap round here so i will just buy it for water changes and topping off the tank.

Can anyone see any giant gaping flaws in my plan?

with any angel it is 50-50 if they are tollerable...bi colours are very picky eaters...if it were me id take it off my list

[bonny]

Oh yeah forgot to mention i will be adding several more inverts such as hermit crabs and turbo snails as well as shrimps such as peppermint and skunk cleaner shrimp.

[bonny]

thanx reef man i will scrap that then. Any other suggestions for fish in it's place or should i just get 2 more chromi?

[9fishers]

offer anything except a great big TRT
WELCOME!!!!

All I can suggest is, read,read,read and ask a LOT of questions. Starting a tank can be a real bugger!

i have a 55 gal and i wish i woulda gotten 5 chromis....

[bonny]

thanx for the welcome everyone. Looks like i have a good plan then can't wait to get this tank setup but i have to wait 5-6 weeks for the room it's in to be redecorated and i may have to reseal it cos it might have been dosed with copper but i am going to test it with FW ghost shrimp first.

[MammaDuck]

Uh-Oh. . . copper is bad, VERY bad. It's also extemely had to get rid of. I'm not sure if resealing it will work or not. If you keep having "mystery" deaths, you will know it's copper poisoning. If you aren't sure if the tank was treated with copper or not you may want to hold off and get a new tank. In the long run, your pocketbook will thank you. . .

Of course, if it's just the clown fish you are interested in you could successfully set up a fish only with live rock, but I would be hesitant setting up a full-blown reef if I was uncertain about the copper issue. HTH

Best Wishes and Good Luck!

[bonny]

well i'm pretty certain it was treated with copper but i might aswell try resealing it for a few pounds and testing it with ghost shrimp that i have heard are sensitive to copper aswell that buying a new tank for £50+ I would think that if i turned the glass around so that the outside faces in and the seals are completely destroyed and redone i should think that should do it

[MammaDuck]

hehe. . . I guess I misunderstood the whole "resealing" thing

Logically that SHOULD work. . . of course, how much logic plays a part we'll see. . . I would suggest getting a copper test kit and test the water after a few days. . . I don't know much (OK anything ) about ghost shrimp, but using a kit will keep from having to "test" on poor unsuspecting shrimpies

Keep us posted. . . it's and interesting proposal. . .

[bonny]

well the shrimp are doomed anyway cos if they survive the copper test then they have my angel fish and goldies and koi to deal with but yeah i am going to look out for a copper test kit and test it before i add any SW inverts.

[bonny]

oh and cane somebody please give me a list of all the additives i will need to add and how often?

[bonny]

/\

Anyone?

if you do religous water changes the only think id be adding is ca and an alk buffer..daily (unless you go with ca or kalk reactor) then dy once a week for any filterfeeding corals

[bonny]

thanx very much. How about if i only do water changes once a month (once the DSB has kicked in of course ) will i still have to dose as often. oh and what are some good brands?

well i didnt do waterchanges either but i learned to do smallerone once a week....and i drip kalk....but inorder to get your calc and alk where they need to be get c balance by little fishies....thats what i used anyway.....but kents makes decent products... for my filterfeeders i use marine snow

[RWD]

bonny,
I have found the even bi-weekly water changes will not keep the calcium level up so I have to add more to the system. I like Sea Chem Reef Calcium. I use that and a buffer to keep the alkalinity in check. I have a calcium reactor also but unless you have a lot of corals with a high calcium demand, you should not need one.

IMO, The two part additives like C-ballance and Warner Marines work great but can be expensive IF you have a larger tank with lot's of sps's.
Other then the calcium and buffer, I don't add anything else.
Bob

[bonny]

thanx

[wanareef]

Have you seen this site? garf Lots of good reading and a reef "put together using another approach.

The green chromis look nice - school and everything- but they do get big and are hard to catch (any fish is) with rock in the way.

Will your tank be a fish onyl with live rock (FOWLR) or a reef? I see you are using a fluval for a filter. Most are using sumps and regugiums w/macro algae in it on a RPP (reverse photoperiod) when the main lights go off, the refugium light comes on. The macro acts as a "filter" and helps to asborb whatever is in the water - nitrates and such

opps just added two more pieces of equipment ( sorry )

just my .02

[Ray1214]

Bonny,

Okay, I can't quite follow some of the threads. Here are my suggestions and again take me with a grain of salt.

I don't recommend a bicolor angel but I think you scratched off your list. The only angel that I have had that wouldn't eat any corals was a Koran Angel and a Coral Beauty. My Flame Angel picked at sps corals.and I think was the culprit nibbling my clams.

I currently have a scopas tang, a jawfish, a blue damsel and a green chromis and a rainsford goby in my tank. The damsel and chromis came from another fish only tank and was used to cycle the tank and are harder than heck to catch. The scopas tang is used to keep the macro algaes in check and mine will eat hair algae. My rainsford goby decimated a hair algae infestation and probably the most peaceful inhabitant. My jawfish is just full of personality and probably my fave fish. I also have a mandarin and a royal gramma in quarenteen which will add color. (The mandarin is over two years old and I use a refugium to supplement his diet along with rotifers, mysis shrimp, zooplankton, enriched brine shrimp).

Additives.

With the exception of feeding your corals ie; phytoplankton, baby brine shrimp, rotifers, brine shrimp, coral-vite, marine snow, etc
I only recommend using a Kalk Drip to get your calcium, pH, and Alk set up. A great side effect is that it precipitates Phosphates from the water column. I used to add Strontium, Iodine, Moly, etc...but I found that frequent small water changes kept my levels in specs. Calcium being the only exception. (I keep sps and clams). I still add iodine for my xenia which seems to suck it up but I use about half the dosage as it recoomends and my crabs and shrimp seem to appreciate it as well.
I recommend the following: Figure out what corals you may want. Most corals are gonna get the nutrients they need from photosynthesis, (ie light) and from what you feed your fish. Look on the reef tank for "Fish Mush" or "Coral Mush". Those will get my highest recommendation for feeding an easy to make homemade fish food that is full of vitamins and stuff and your corals will benefit from the highly blended concentrations. When and if you add your new light and if you get some low light corals (some leathers, xenia, mushrooms, sun polyps, etc), introduce the new light in small doses. My fave way is to get a timer, set it with a 3 hour on/off set in the middle of the day, then every week add 30 min to an hour (use your judgement, if your corals look bad, back it off), Until you get the light cycle you want. Mushrooms and xenia have been known to melt and not come back but adding too much light at once. I like to keep a high light side and a low light side. I have 110 watts on my low light side, while on my high light has a 250 watt MH and 110 watts of PC. I keep clams and sps on one side and the other is a mushroom, xenia forest. Also that is where my bumblee gobies, bangaiis have spawned when I kept them.

Hope to help

Ray