what next?

[meinkfr]

55 gal. Emperor 400, seaclone protein skimmer, 50 lbs. live rock,5 hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs, 1 arrow crab, 1 banded shrimp, 4 turbo snails. small colony of star polyps. open brain coral and 5 small to med green chromis.
When we first set the tank up we expirienced a lot of problems with keeping fish longer than 5 days. At the time we did not have a protein skimmer. All that survived was the inverts.

After adding the skimmer we waited a couple weeks and added another emerald crab, the banded shrimp and snails. We left the tank sit for three weeks. Throughout this whole process water chanes were done every 7 to 10 days (10% changes) and water quality was constantly monitored. After that period we added a cluster of star pops and open brain coral, both seem to be doing well. Polyps are spreading out and apear to be multiplying. Brain coral is eating whenever some food is caught.

2 weeks later we added the arrow crab, a pencil urchin and and a couple days later the chromis.

So far so good, quality is good and all the fish seem to be happy. What should we add next? My wife would like to add an anenome and a clownfish. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

What is your lighting like?

In that size tank live rock makes the Emp 400 unnecessary.

You may want to get a better skimmer. Not too many people like the Sea Clone in the long run. An Aqua-C Remora Pro would be your best bet followed by a Cpr Bak Pak or Red Sea Prizm. (Especially if you plan on adding a signifigant amount of fish to your system.

 

[Jolieve]

I highly recommend the Remora. Great skimmer for the price. I run a 75 gallon tank without a power filter and a remora for skimming, this works very well for me, but you definitely want to get the pro. The regular remora just isn't big enough.

Good call on the green chromis by the way, I have three of them and they are just a great fish. As time goes on, you will love them even more.

J.

 

[meinkfr]

Since the lighting fixture is set up as two 24 inch bulbs. ON ehalf is the regulsr bulb that came with it and the other half (were I keep the coral) is a coralife blb with 10,000K.

As far as the protein skimmer, you had mensioned if I were to get a better skimmer I could eliminate he the filter. I never heard of that. Than again I have only been involved for maybe 4 months. There is just so much information out there. It is hard to read it and take it all in at once.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

[meinkfr]

I guess I read that wrong. I wouldn't mind shutting of the filter. It is rather noisy. Would you recommend more live rock before I take this step?

 

[PeeJ]

mmmmm. You are using a standard 24 inch 10k bulb? you might want to reconsider keeping corals just yet.

 

[meinkfr]

PeeJ, could you elaborate on that. The LFS said that this would be ideal.

 

[PeeJ]

are you only using 2 24 inch bulbs in your setup? what are the wattages of them


i have 520 watts of PC lights and i am only keeping coraline algae HAHHA :lol: :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Could you elaborate on that. The LFS said that this would be ideal.

Regular florescent bulbs don't provide the proper intensity for most corals, anemones or polyps for the long term. They will do okay for a little while sometimes, but once their energy reserves run out, they just fall apart. For your size tank you may want to consider a Power Compact fixture or a T5 Florescent fixture for starters. Metal Halide would be optimum but for a beginner set up the PC or T5 would be fine.

I guess I read that wrong. I wouldn't mind shutting of the filter. It is rather noisy. Would you recommend more live rock before I take this step?

Your Emp400 filter consists of three components. mechanical filtration, (the blue flossy parts), chemical filtration, (the carbon inside the cartridge), and biological filtration (the bacteria lioving on the wheels).

Mechanical filtration isn't necessary in a reef tank since their is always something in your tank that can eat whatever your filtering out, so it reduces the amount of live critters on the rock.

Chemical filtration isn't necessary either, unless you have clarity or colored water issues. Some people chooses to run carbon for a few days a month just to polish up.

Biological filtration is one of the main benefits to live rock so it doesn't make any sense not to utilize it as much as possible. There is a finite amount of "food" for the nitrifying bacteria in the tank, the biowheel and the live rock have to fight over it if you use them together, sometimes resulting in neither one really working all that well.

 

[meinkfr]

Thanks for the advice. I have been dooing research as far as lighting is concerned. A whole setup is more expensive than buying a ballast and bulbs. What do I need to do to make that work? Is it hard? I 'm not much of an electrician. Water and Electricity don't mix and I only like one!!!

 

[ChrisRD]

You can get a rhetro kit that includes all ballast, lamps, reflectors, etc. that you need. Then you build a box to fit-on (canopy) or hang over your tank. Stain/paint/varnish the box to suite your taste and mount the rhetro stuff in it.