55 gallon

[adamsdevil]

so far I have a 55g standard tank, emperor400, aquaclear 70 filters, I think it is called a maryland 550 powerhead, instant ocean salt mix and a bag of "tidal" corilit gravel, 300 watt rena submersable heater, besides the live rock, I need more info on lighting, protein skimmers etc, all the info or, constuctive critizm, i can get. Im new to salt water as you suspected.

[mdcorcoran]

I'm not sure what the aquaclear filters are, but you can probably ditch them, along with the emperor 400. All you really need is a good protein skimmer (for a hang on, check out the AquaC Remora Pro or Coralife Super Skimmer) and about 1 LB of live rock per gallon of water. Lighting really depends on what you want to do. If you want to have the potential to do everything, get some MH lights, 1 or 2 would do the trick (175-250 watts would probably be best for that size). For flow, which is what the powerhead is for, some say you want at least 10x turnover (550 gallons/hour) while others think 20x is ideal (1100 gallons/hour). And remember, only use RO/DI water. If you don't own a RO Unit, you can buy the water at a super wal-mart for 25 cents/gallon (like I do). Instant Ocean is really good salt, but Oceanic is basically the same with calcium added. Welcome to TRT!

**Edit: Yeah, I checked out aquaclear filters. You don't need them.

[adamsdevil]

thank you for the info, I had these filters sitting around from my frashwater tanks, I want to work my self up to a reef tank. but need to learn a lot more.

[adamsdevil]

Originally Posted by adamsdevil

so far I have a 55g standard tank, emperor400, aquaclear 70 filters, I think it is called a maryland 550 powerhead, instant ocean salt mix and a bag of "tidal" corilit gravel, 300 watt rena submersable heater, besides the live rock, I need more info on lighting, protein skimmers etc, all the info or, constuctive critizm, i can get. Im new to salt water as you suspected.

spent the money this week ditched the power filters, bought a corallife 125 super skimmer, tide pool 600 gph overflow, mag-drive 5 500gph, pump, and a 30 gallon custom made, rubber maid tank, and my own custom return and pluming, this setup is exspensive, but sweet.

[adamsdevil]

Originally Posted by adamsdevil

so far I have a 55g standard tank, emperor400, aquaclear 70 filters, I think it is called a maryland 550 powerhead, instant ocean salt mix and a bag of "tidal" corilit gravel, 300 watt rena submersable heater, besides the live rock, I need more info on lighting, protein skimmers etc, all the info or, constuctive critizm, i can get. Im new to salt water as you suspected.

I just bought a odyysea 260watt lighting with moonlights.

[Tony25]

Cool sounds like a awesome tank.

[Hondadude2k5]

Well I was gonna say that MDCORCORAN is technically right, you don't need power filters except when you want to polish up the clarity on your tank or use some other media. LR will do it all for you when it is good rock. However, now I read you did the overflow and sump thing. That is best all the way around because now you can hide all of your equipment in the sump and as long as you set up your returns correctly you don't even need the unsightly powerheads in the tank. Good Luck and lets see some pics.