Ok this is my 55 gal

[xclusive252]

Ok so after some advice from members and help This is where I am at and could use some advice not slander. I have (1 100 watt jager heater, 1 Maxi-Jet 1200, 1 Koralia, 1 cs90 Over flow, 1 fluval 404 (getting rid of soon after I get 20 gal sump running), 1 AquaC Urchin Pro Protein Skimmer with rio 1400 pump, 1 mag 7 return pump, and a 10 gal refugium ( I hope to make a 20 gallon when I get it).
ph - 7.9
ammonia - 0.5
nitrite - 1.0
nitrate - 20
temp is 77ish
gravity 1.022

any advice please I can use it. Tank has been up and running for 2-3 months I added 25lbs of live rock and my chemicals went up and after some advice and doing a few water changes I have this. ( did 1 water change of 1/3 water then did a 2nd water change 50% yesterday).

 

[greenstreet.1]

one problem i see is that blue velvet damsel is trouble had one he will eat your zoes if you plan to have any.

 

[xclusive252]

He is leaving the tank he was my test dummy to see if all was well in the tank. I have a friend who likes them and is gonna take him in when I start to get corals. I was hoping some one had a frag to donate but if not I will end up buying one to test the tank. But thank you for the info.

 

[jadakiss]

i wish u would have gotten a 75g , i have a 55 and the extra width of the 75 is perfect

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

looks good, did you have to still move the tank to get the overflows in?

 

[bartmalave]

U need to drop year amonia and nitrate also bring up phm r u over feeding how long has tank been running

 

[bartmalave]

U r runing a refuge u don't need
Fluval if running rEmove ceramic ball helps with nitrate that's how I ran my 55 worked great

 

[xclusive252]

I wish I did get a bigger tank but didnt think I was gonna go reef but decided after oh well for now it will do. Yeah I moved the tank and it was kinda easy when I was doing the 50 % water change. I am trying to drop the ammonia and nitrate with the water changes had it running for 3 months almost now but it was the new rocks i put in wish I didnt do it right away but tolate now and the sump is kinda new so removing the fluval compartments one at a time slowly until its just sucking water before I remove to not shock the fish if thats what I should be doing ? or should I just remove asap?

 

[aznt1217]

Tank looks good. Adding the new rock would cause a mini cycle but fish should usually be okay given that there's little to nothing in the tank right now.

I would hold off on a major water change right now only thing I am concerned about is that nitrite reading shouldn't even be there. I would change after the water is fully cycled. To remove the fluval removing the bioball tray is the only thing you have to be concerned about but from my understanding there aren't many and it's relatively small but to err on the side of caution remove the bioballs every few days till its down to nothing and just take off the entire filter.

Not sure what refugium setup you are doing but Miracle Mud and Chaeto are a fantastic combination just make sure you have a good flow through the refugium so the Chaeto moves and grows.

Equipment would really depend on what you want to keep. I would advise getting 2x Koralia 3 powerheads or 2x Koralia 4 powerheads if budget is an issue. If it isn't get 2 MP10's for optimum flow. With the Koralia's just aim one towards the front and the other towards the back and you should be covered for flow for SPS or anything else. When you got more cash I would also get a bigger skimmer. The Urchin is great but I always stock heavily on fish so I recommend getting a SWC Cone Skimmer or something in that class.

Also get rid of the damsels (both of them).

 

[xclusive252]

Ok this is an update on my 55 gallon. I took both the damsels out of the tank and I just have the clowns in the tank with a few crabs (2 sallys , 1 emerald , 1 porcelain and few red and blue hermets) oh and some snails "I need more snails) well I removed the fluval I was running from the tank and have a 10 gal refugium "making a 20 gal long this week" I will need to get some Chaeto (if anyone is going to the meet on sunday and have some they dont want I will surely take some off there hands. This is the part I am still waiting on my water.

salinity 1.023
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 1.0
Ph 8.0

I will wait and see what happens next week with out changing the water hopefully it goes down some with out the fluval 404 I had running. Please if you have any advice I would love to hear it.

 

[motortrendz]

well heres my 2 cents... ive done a tank or 2 with a canister filter running... nitrates with come from the bio tray.. so remove the ceramic disks.. try to get that ph up a little bit more... get a calcium and alkaline test kit as well...it helps when you know what everything is... also can you show some pics of your refugium and how its plumbed, what do you keep in it as far as sand/macro algae.

what type of lighting do you have? what type of CUC do you have? and what types or coral do you plan on raising? i dont think i saw that you mentioned that you were running a skimmer? do you dose anything and last but most importantly what do you feed? and how much/how often?

lets start there...

 

[LaurieC]

I have a 55g and have 60lbs LR plus live sand. 25lbs of LR in a 55 is light. I would keep adding LR until you reach 55-60 lbs. LR or more, but just add about 5-10lb fully curred live rock at a time and slowly to avoid a huge cycle until you build it up. The chaeto (macroalgea) should help with your nitrates. I have canister filters and it's really hard to keep the nitrates low with the canisters--the only thing I can suggest is 10-20% water changes once a week and clean your filter and replace pads frequently (wash in RODI water to preserve your good bacteria). And if you have any sponges over your intake pipes, I would remove them. You might want to run two heaters as a safty precaution in case one stops working--can put both in your sump. What lights are you running? Depending on what kind, you might need a chiller or at least a fan. SG is ok, but you might want to edge it closer to 1.025 over time. HOw much and how frequently are you feeding? If you are feeding too much and too often, then you will have ammonia and nitrates--I did this at first and problems with this. Feed just a little at time and until the parameters are better, I would reduce to feeding once every other day. I feed about an hour before lights out because that way the left-over food won't sit around until the evening when hermits, snails (your cuc) are most active. Do this and the ammonia should improve with time and water changes, but I keep a bottle of BioSpira on hand just in case and for worse case scenario some AmQuel (but don't use the AmQuel unless absolute emergency because it will make it impossible to test parameters for awhile). If you are doing corals you will need to start testing Alk, CA and Mag too. Great work so far!

 

[Imbarrie]

I noticed you have a lot of crabs yet they are not always reef safe. They are all known to be opportunistic feeders and none of them are completely trusted. Snails make a more efficient and trustworthy crew.

How stable is your live rock? If it is not against the glass at the bottom of the tank something could undermine it and the rock could fall against the glass and crack it. Also, there is not set amount of rock to have. Add rock slowly until you like how the tank looks.

 

[xclusive252]

Ok i guess no one really read my post I said I REMOVED the fluval and I added 25 lbs of live rock i think i have a total of like 60 - 70 lbs of rock total and most sites say the crabs are reef safe but if you all say no there not i will remove them maybe put them in my refugium this week end or something like that. I have t5 lights 4 bulbs 2 aquatic blue and 2 14k with 8 led night lights has 4 fans and i have a skimmer aquac urchin pro with a rio 1400 pump and a mag 7 return pump thought i posted what i have in my post to start this thread sry if i didnt. more info plz

 

[xclusive252]

sry forgot I feed 1 time every other day and in the morning I will try at night get back to you all in a wekk or so

 

[Jzhou]

You can help lower nitrate by making a qruick refuge out of an aqua clear filter. Just empty the media, place some crushed coral, attach a cheap lamp, and add calerpa.

 

[Jzhou]

nevermind I just noticed your post on the 10 gallon refuge. But keep an eye on that ph.

 

[Imbarrie]

Didn't say they were not reef safe. Just that they are opportunistic feeders. If they don't get enough to eat they will find it.
I ditched all mine for snails just to be sure. I think the porcelain crabs are fine. You should have some sand burrowing snails at the minimum.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[xclusive252]

kool will do i might pick some snails up tis month what about hermet crabs?

 

[Jzhou]

Crabs and snails are good for different cleaning purposes though. I tend to prefer snails for glass cleaning and hermits for cleaning detritus off the rock. You should be fine with 15-20 of them. They had some for cheep the other week at bluestar aqua. I picked up like 60 of them to add to my reef. But be warned to have alot of extra shells.