Game Plan

I would increase your sand bed to 4-5 inches for better bacteria growth and oxygen exchange. The more you can move the water the better for health in fish as well as corals. You can basically eliminate your Penguin Bio-wheel filter. With enough live rock and the deep sand bed combined with a powerful skimmer-you will have enough filtration and bacteria to curb the detritus prroblem and poor water parameters if you perform other essential tasks religiously. For example: weekly small water changes, Don't overfeed, test water parameters weekly or bi-weekly especially if supplementing. Don't add too many fish etc. too quickly and remember not to overpopulate your tank. Less is better when it comes to salt water fish. Wait a few weeks at the least between adding fish. When performing water changes, try to replicate the new water as close to the water in your tank(salinity/temp).
Hope this helps -always go bigger with the skimmer(next size up than the one they say is suitable for your tank as they usually underestimate the tank size and gph that is comporable for that size skimmer).

 

Hey sssnake. Thanks for the advice on the RO/DI filter system...I didn't even notice the response yesterday so sorry for not thanking you for the advice. I am currently looking at some of the units on EBay and other places online but just kind of having a hard time figuring out which unit would be nice to go with. I don't really know if I want to pop for the 6 stage filter at this time...I will probably just go with a 3 stage unit for the here and now and see how that works out.

CoralReefer, thanks for all the great suggestions and love the name With 4-5 inches of the sand, how many pounds do you think that would be for a 55 gallon tank? I'm just trying to get a ball park idea of how much I will need and whether I want to pay for shipping or just get it from my LFS. So regarding the Emperor 350, you think that I can live without it as long as I have the step up Coralife skimmer, deeper sand bed, and live rock? I am definitely going to be more than religious about water changes and checking water parameters so I just wanted to make sure I took your suggestions correctly.

Another newbie question: Once i obviously get the salt water mixed, raised to the right temperature, pH, salinity, etc and put it in the tank with the sand and LR, do I cycle the tank with the protein skimmer and 2 maxi-jets running? I would think so since they will be running once the tank has completed the initial cycle but wasn't sure. Thanks in advance.

Adam