55g Reef Beginning

bstodds15 · May 5, 2022

Hi All,

looking for some tips on my starting 55g reef. It’s a pretty well established tank that was originally a 30g and was upgraded to a 55g - at this point it’s been running about 5+ years, I just haven’t made the jump into Corals as I wanted to make sure I set myself up for success.

Fish stocking is
1 cherub angel (3-4yrs old ~3”)
1 tomini tang
2 clowns (1 Wyoming white, 1 black snowflake)
1 yellow candy hog
1 Royal gramma

Inverts include
1 coral banded shrimp
2 skunk shrimp
1-2 peppermint shrimp
3 emerald crabs
And a bunch of hermits/snails

initially I was nervous about adding coral with the cherub angel, BUT I added a geeen star polyp colony the other week and he hasn’t even looked at it.

I was thinking about going to my LFS to get either a Hammer, Duncan or Balsto frag, but wanted some other suggestions on some hardier “beginner” corals I should consider.

Attached are some pics of the tank from a few days ago - a little hard to see what’s going on with the blue lights (I don’t have a lens filter yet but want to grab one at my LFS next time I go).

Any tips/suggestions would be much appreciated!

blaxsun · May 5, 2022

With the angel, purchase corals you can afford to replace (or not lose sleep over). I have a dwarf angel that likes acans - and only acans. YMMV as angels can also be particular about which corals they nip. Hammers and duncans are probably a good initial choice for LPS.

bstodds15 · May 5, 2022

blaxsun said:
With the angel, purchase corals you can afford to replace (or not lose sleep over). I have a dwarf angel that likes acans - and only acans. YMMV as angels can also be particular about which corals they nip. Hammers and duncans are probably a good initial choice for LPS.

That’s why I did the GSP first - if this ends up being a complete GSP/Xenia tank I won’t be too mad!

I think I’ll try the hammer first if they have any single/double head frags. Where would you recommend I place this?

blaxsun · May 6, 2022

bstodds15 said:
That’s why I did the GSP first - if this ends up being a complete GSP/Xenia tank I won’t be too mad!
I think I’ll try the hammer first if they have any single/double head frags. Where would you recommend I place this?

I place my hammers a bit lower on rocks maybe 2-3" above the sand bed.

bstodds15 · May 8, 2022

blaxsun said:
I place my hammers a bit lower on rocks maybe 2-3" above the sand bed.

so I grabbed a little single head hammer frag, and the angel hasn’t bothered it at all.

It isn’t fully extending though as I think it might be getting too much flow. I’ve dialed back my power heads, but still seems a little much for the hammer.

bstodds15 · May 9, 2022

Cleaning stations are open for business! Lol

Hammer is still not fully extending, but looks generally healthy. Going to move it to a spot with less flow later to see if it prefers the new location

bstodds15 · May 28, 2022

So the tank sprung a small leak…. Had to make a hospital tank for everything and get a new one - fun Memorial Day weekend things

bstodds15 · May 28, 2022

New tank in place…

bstodds15 · May 30, 2022

Thankfully no issues or losses during the whole process of breaking down setting up. Hopefully nobody dies off in the next few weeks from stress

bstodds15 · May 31, 2022

Everything is still fine - all the fish are out and eating without issues, so hopefully nothing comes up down the road. Plus side is I was able to slide this tank over to make room for the 30g bow front to its right.

bstodds15 · Jun 1, 2022

With having to redo the tank and everything, went ahead and upgraded one of the lights to an Ai Prime. Need to top off the tank tonight with salt water (as I lost a bunch during the transition)