Been in the hobby about 3 months now

[daltonr70]

55 gallon tank
Home made stand
Penn plax 1000 canister fliter
Protien skimmer bought of ebay does 500 gph
150 watt heater
15 lbs live rock
15 lbs dry live rock
60 lbs of live sand
Lighting is still work in progress rught now using 2 TH HO lights one white and one blue bought at petco i think the total wattage is 110 watts

So far for fish
1 coral beauty angle
1 mocha clown
1 3 striped damsel
1 scotter blenny
1 peppermint shrimp
Several hermat crabs and snails

And i did put in a dragon breath alge of some sort

My levels that i check for right now are
AMMONIA 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 5.0 ppm
PH is stabke abiut 8.1 8.2
Salt 1.023
Those are the readings as of today

Please let me now what eles i should add or invest in i also do water changes weekly and i do about 10 gallons

 

[daltonr70]

Pics of the tank hope this works

 

[melypr1985]

What are your plans with this tank? Are you wanting to keep a reef? If so, are you interested in softies? LPS? SPS? Everything? This info will determine what kind of advice you get on equipment you might want.

 

[Afishionado]

What @melypr1985 said. Where do you want to take your tank? What do you want to keep?

You are definitely taking the steps to the right direction with good maintenance plan.

 

[daltonr70]

I want a reef tank with all sorts of corals easy ones first lol and the onky other fish im thinking of adding will be a yellow tank

 

[Afishionado]

easy corals are

softies like leathers, xenias
lps like duncans
zoantids and palys.

may I ask what type of test kit that you are using?

 

[daltonr70]

One coral i have got to on have is a hammer heard coral my mom had one and i want one in her honnor

 

[daltonr70]

Right now im using an API saltwarer master test kit pivking up the API Reef master test kut on friday

 

[melypr1985]

If your upgrading test kits go with Red sea or Hanna. Api is good for testing the basics but once you get into corals and such you'll want something more accurate. No point in buying another kit just to replace it a few months from now.

 

[daltonr70]

Ok not sure if ive seen them at the lfs ill look at it on Amazon

 

[Ahruk]

Awesome start Super awesome fish (Just be sure to keep an eye on the angel once you've introduced coral because they sometimes goes rogue and eat coral)

What type of salt are you using?

 

[daltonr70]

Awesome start Super awesome fish (Just be sure to keep an eye on the angel once you've introduced coral because they sometimes goes rogue and eat coral)

What type of salt are you using?

Im using instant ocean salt mix is that a good ine a better one to use when i start corals

 

[Ahruk]

Pretty sure they have 2 varieties, one for basic saltwater systems (fish only) and one for reefs (called reef crystals). I used reef crystals in the past and didn't have any problems with it just wanted to make sure you're using the reef one. It has extra calcium and other good stuff which is vital for the health of your coral especially large polyp stony (LPS) coral which is what a hammer is. Also you may want to gradually bring your salinity up to 1.025 which is what most people keep it around for reef tanks.

 

[daltonr70]

Ok thanks im running out of salt mix anyways guess its a good time to get the reef crystals and are the lps corals easy to keep? Also thinking of addind 2 more T5 HO bulbs that will bring my tital wattage to 220 which is about 4 watts per gallon

 

[melypr1985]

Some LPS are fairly hardy. Hammers are one of them. Adding the extra bulbs will be a good idea in the long run. I've been using Reef Crystals for a long time with good results but recently switched to Fritz Pro after winning a free bucket of it. Still not sure if i like it or not. Time will tell.

 

[daltonr70]

When can i start adding a coral or maybe something for the clown fish to host

 

[Ahruk]

LPS really varies as far as easiness. There are a lot of different types of LPS. All corals are individuals and some are hardier and healthier then others. I'd definitely wait at least a month as you allow the reef crystal salt mix to increase all the good minerals and what not in the system. This will also give your tank more time to mature and increase the overall stability of the system.

One other thing that you should "invest" in before buying any coral is a coral dip like "Revive" (~$10). These dips help remove some unwanted pest species and help protect your tank from potential tank crashers. You should also always inspect coral and try to manually remove anything that does not seem to belong.

 

[daltonr70]

A coral dip never heard of that what is ut and where do i buy that at

 

[Ahruk]

You should be able to buy it at most local fish stores or on amazon. It basically kills any inverts like flatworms, red bugs, ect that might be living on the coral. Ex: Revive, Coral RX, ect.
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Little-Fi...8&qid=1443476493&sr=8-1&keywords=revive+coral
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Corals-Aquarium-Treatment/dp/B003JD1QNK/ref=pd_sim_199_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=0WE18Y9G9J114GVBT1HP&dpID=41hbnVOofeL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160,160_

 

[melypr1985]

I agree. Definitely dip all corals before adding them to your tank. A coral dip is basically "bug killer" for corals. Some people literally use Spectracide as a coral dip. Dont do this yourself! Just go to your LFS and look for Coral Rx or Revive as mentioned above. If they dont have it, look for it on amazon. Follow the directions and always use it when adding a new coral. Making this a habit will give you less heartache in the future.

And yeah, wait a bit before buying coral. Get your lights in order and start using whatever salt you decide to switch to. Keep an eye on your parameters and make sure they are stable, then start buying corals. Nothing happens fast in this hobby