SMALL 55gal. saltwater inhabitants
- Thread starter amandab
- Start date
Hi and welcome to Myfishtank!
Let's see, you can choose small peaceful fish like; firefish, dartfish, percula clowns, ocellaris clowns, cardinals, hawkfish, chromis, fairy wrasses, (there are tons more too) or maybe you want small fiesty fish like some of the damsels, maroon clowns, dwarf lionfish, dottybacks, royal grammas, dwarf angels (more small aggressive fish also).....it really depends on which way you want to go. As far as inverts, snails are a must, shrimp depend on if you go with hawkfish or lionfish, hermit crabs are good too. For snail choice, a mixture of turbos and astreas work good, and throw in a couple of fighting or queen conchs for the sandbed. I keep a brown atlantic cucumber in my 55g too, but be warned, if the cuke gets stressed or dies, they can expell their guts and quickly poison the tank, I can't wholeheartedly recommend one because of that fact. Corals that stay small is well, not completely accurate because given enough time, just about any coral can get large, or spread over a large area. Like mushrooms, most species don't get big, but they can spread quickly. Some mushrooms like the elephant ear get huge though, and are known fish eaters. Button polyps are usually quite small, but again, they can spread. Some corals are very slow growers like candy cane, but if kept for years can also get big. Porities have very small polyps but they can spread too, only usually it takes time to do so. It comes down to what kind of corals you prefer, and what kind of lighting you have or intend to get......
Let's see, you can choose small peaceful fish like; firefish, dartfish, percula clowns, ocellaris clowns, cardinals, hawkfish, chromis, fairy wrasses, (there are tons more too) or maybe you want small fiesty fish like some of the damsels, maroon clowns, dwarf lionfish, dottybacks, royal grammas, dwarf angels (more small aggressive fish also).....it really depends on which way you want to go. As far as inverts, snails are a must, shrimp depend on if you go with hawkfish or lionfish, hermit crabs are good too. For snail choice, a mixture of turbos and astreas work good, and throw in a couple of fighting or queen conchs for the sandbed. I keep a brown atlantic cucumber in my 55g too, but be warned, if the cuke gets stressed or dies, they can expell their guts and quickly poison the tank, I can't wholeheartedly recommend one because of that fact. Corals that stay small is well, not completely accurate because given enough time, just about any coral can get large, or spread over a large area. Like mushrooms, most species don't get big, but they can spread quickly. Some mushrooms like the elephant ear get huge though, and are known fish eaters. Button polyps are usually quite small, but again, they can spread. Some corals are very slow growers like candy cane, but if kept for years can also get big. Porities have very small polyps but they can spread too, only usually it takes time to do so. It comes down to what kind of corals you prefer, and what kind of lighting you have or intend to get......
dont worry about it.. personally, I'm very fond of gobies, sometihng that I see toodles forgot to add to the list.. Theres a huge variety, each a little different then the first. With enough reserach, you can pick a goby, and a shrimp, that will in the end, team up together, to creat little holes in your live sand, under the rock. A real intersting team and worth looking into. Otherwise, just your average neon goby is good for kick and giggles to.. cute lil buggers.
Will corals do well under fluorescent lighting or do I need big metal halides?-> because they're kind of expensive... I was thinking maybe of the Aqua-Rays full spectrum tubes... Also, regarding clownfish, which species do not require an anenome because I know they need alot of light to do well...thanks all.
I'll second the vote for gobies, they are very cute to watch, and also jawfish can be a riot, especially if you have 2 of them as they will steal each other's decorations! I saw this in one of the LFS' and it was very, very funny......first one would dodge out and grab a shell or a piece of rubble from the other one's entrance, place it around his own, then the other one would dart out and grab it back.....I would love to have some, but that would mean starting up another tank.....
As far as the clownfish, none of the species actually NEEDS an anemone. They will host with a variety of other things and be completely happy. My own clown has hosted with a powerhead, large mushrooms, a featherduster too......right now she is having fun with some ricordia mushrooms. Even if you did get an anemone, there is no guarantee that the fish will host with it anyway.
About the lighting.....well, yes, you could do that, (I've done something like that myself) but the main problem with it is the depth of the tank. Regular fluorescent lighting just can't penetrate to the bottom of a deep tank. Not only that, but you will have a hard time getting enough lights over the tank to equal the amount of PC's or VHO's, and there is no way you can match the amount of a couple of MH's. A standard regular 4' tube is 40 watts. In order to have around 4 watts per gallon (and that's considered low lighting levels!!), you would need 6 tubes. Now imagine trying to fit that over your tank! What you would need with regular lighting, you could do with 2 PC's of 110 watts each. Or 3 VHO's of 75 watts each.......and again, regular bulbs aren't going to penetrate the water very well. Not to say that there aren't any ways around this though.....but you will be extremely limited. What you can do, is to pile your rockwork up high, and place corals with low lighting needs close to the surface of the water. Things like mushroom corals, button polyps and such should be okay. What you can do for the bottom of the tank is to get corals and inverts that don't require any special lighting at all, like the various sun corals (they come in several color varieties) or inverts like featherdusters. Be warned that sun corals need regular feedings though......
Over my own 55g I have a light fixture that I bought at Home Depot. It's a double fluorescent strip 4' long that cost around $16. I put a couple of Coralife 10,000K lights in it, and it does fine for my needs. BUT, my tank is mostly fish only....the only corals are some mushrooms that were attached to a large rock. They are positioned up on the rockwork, maybe about 6" from the waters surface. Even though they are doing okay, I sure wouldn't try and put anything that needs alot of light in this tank without upgrading the lighting first.
If you are wanting to have some really cool corals, what I would do at this point is make sure you pick out fish that will be fine with all the various corals, get yourself used to keeping saltwater, and instead of trying to put more regular lights over the tank, I would save my money and get some good lighting. Once you have the lights, then I would go out and start buying some corals. You will save yourself alot of time and frustration in the long run by getting good lighting before you buy any corals. I know what it's like to be on a budget, and sometimes it can be hard to wait, but patience has it's virtue, especially in this hobby!
HTH
As far as the clownfish, none of the species actually NEEDS an anemone. They will host with a variety of other things and be completely happy. My own clown has hosted with a powerhead, large mushrooms, a featherduster too......right now she is having fun with some ricordia mushrooms. Even if you did get an anemone, there is no guarantee that the fish will host with it anyway.
About the lighting.....well, yes, you could do that, (I've done something like that myself) but the main problem with it is the depth of the tank. Regular fluorescent lighting just can't penetrate to the bottom of a deep tank. Not only that, but you will have a hard time getting enough lights over the tank to equal the amount of PC's or VHO's, and there is no way you can match the amount of a couple of MH's. A standard regular 4' tube is 40 watts. In order to have around 4 watts per gallon (and that's considered low lighting levels!!), you would need 6 tubes. Now imagine trying to fit that over your tank! What you would need with regular lighting, you could do with 2 PC's of 110 watts each. Or 3 VHO's of 75 watts each.......and again, regular bulbs aren't going to penetrate the water very well. Not to say that there aren't any ways around this though.....but you will be extremely limited. What you can do, is to pile your rockwork up high, and place corals with low lighting needs close to the surface of the water. Things like mushroom corals, button polyps and such should be okay. What you can do for the bottom of the tank is to get corals and inverts that don't require any special lighting at all, like the various sun corals (they come in several color varieties) or inverts like featherdusters. Be warned that sun corals need regular feedings though......
Over my own 55g I have a light fixture that I bought at Home Depot. It's a double fluorescent strip 4' long that cost around $16. I put a couple of Coralife 10,000K lights in it, and it does fine for my needs. BUT, my tank is mostly fish only....the only corals are some mushrooms that were attached to a large rock. They are positioned up on the rockwork, maybe about 6" from the waters surface. Even though they are doing okay, I sure wouldn't try and put anything that needs alot of light in this tank without upgrading the lighting first.
If you are wanting to have some really cool corals, what I would do at this point is make sure you pick out fish that will be fine with all the various corals, get yourself used to keeping saltwater, and instead of trying to put more regular lights over the tank, I would save my money and get some good lighting. Once you have the lights, then I would go out and start buying some corals. You will save yourself alot of time and frustration in the long run by getting good lighting before you buy any corals. I know what it's like to be on a budget, and sometimes it can be hard to wait, but patience has it's virtue, especially in this hobby!
HTH
If you are on a budget than DONT build a reef. If you cant afford the proper equipment than your corals and invertebretes will die. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. Having enough light to visibly light up the tank does not mean you have adequite lighting to support the photosynthetic algae that supports the living corals. So bottom line if your going to do saltwater on a freshwater budget than do a fish only set up.
I'm on a buget and I have a reef. Just take it slow, I didnt add my first coral till about 6 months after I setup the tank, i added all my LR a couple pounds at a time, also if your good at building things check some of the DIY sites, theres tons of them. As toodles said patience is very important in this hobby!
I was looking around on the internet and I've found some fabulous DIY sites (including the one on this web-site), so I've decided to build most of the equipment I'll need for my set-up, including the tank itself. I've got enough plexiglass at my house to build a 70 gallon tank, and I was at Home Depot earlier pricing lighting fixtures and such. This project should be lots of fun, and I do thank you all for your most generous input.