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930 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Alice 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,
I just converted my 55 gal. freshwater into salt. I have a Amiracle wet/dry filter , no protein skimmer yet ( still trying to work around the cost issue with my wife )And I have about an inch of crushed coral for substrate. How would I go about adding just a few pieces of coral ( probably 2 ) with my fish. And What will I need to have the coral flourish? Lighting is a question because I know the standard lighting on the tank is insufficient.Keep in mind the tank is new with only my clown, 2 firefish, a royal gramma, and a few assorted pieces of liverock right now. I also have a 30 gal. quarantine tank in case I need it.Basically I'm as new as you can get, the 55 gal. is a big jump for me as I only had the 30 gal. fish only for about a year. Any info you can give will be great!
 
#2 ·
Welcome to The Reef Tank, David


For starters, you might say that you'll only have two or three corals in with your fish but corals get addicting. You'll want more


First thing would be to set up a tank that's a little more efficient and natural for corals and fish. I'd add another 2" or so of substrate to the tank using a fine grade sand, build up the total live rock and remove the filter media from the wet/dry when the rock and sand mature. The filter media in the wet/dry is going to be a nitrate factory which will require constant cleaning. You can let the critters in the sand and rock do that for you!

You may even want to convert that 30 gallon into a sump and buy a 10 gallon for a quarantine tank.

As for lighting, what kind of animals you want to keep is going to govern what type of lighting you will require. Most people who have clowns want to have an anenome when they are first starting out, the pictures of clowns nestled in their anemones is what drew a lot of us to the hobby in the first place. The truth is though, anemone's are difficult to keep, most often do not survive and are slow growing/reproducing in the wild so I don't recommend them. Anemone's also require high intensity lighting.

I just answered some lighting questions for another newcomer to the board, LsJores (I believe) you might want to check that thread to see if it can help answer some questions and then post back here to your thread so we can answer the three more that will pop up that that thread didn't answer (lighting is confusing, lol).

Glad to have you with us; keep asking questions. The only dumb question is the one not asked and it usually comes back to hit you right in the wallet!

~Alice

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Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!
 
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