55 gallon stocking

Discussion in 'Tropical Fish' started by fishzilla, Apr 17, 2010.

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  1. fishzilla

    fishzilla Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2010
    Messages:
    27
    Location:
    VA
    Hello, Ive had my 55G reef setup since late December. I have finally started to stock coral and fish. I bought 4 zoanthid frags online about a month ago, they are doing well so I went to a SW shop and bought 2 large colony size rocks; 1 star polyp and one palythoa. I also picked up a pair of black ocellaris. Now Im debating on further stocking. I do intend to buy more coral from this shop as the coral seems very healthy it opened in less than an hour of being in the tank. I browsed their section and found quite a few fish I am interested in keeping.

    I am interested in adding the following to the tank with the pair of clowns:
    2 Firefish
    1 Watchman Goby
    1 Sixline Wrasse
    1 Bicolor Psuedochromis

    That will give me 7 fish that will max out at around 3", now I dont feel that is a heavy load. But do want further opinions on that. I only have aggression concerns with the Psuedo and Wrasse....the wrasse was being housed with the Firefish at the shop so Im not as worried about it as the Psuedo.

    I have 2 BakPak protein skimmers, 60lbs of live rock, 2 koralia2 powerheads, 1 koralia1 powerhead, and 1 AquaClear 50 loaded with Polyfilter and Purigen. I also keep Chemipure and biobale in my Skimmers. I change 4 gallons of water weekly on the tank, and have a decent size CUC. I also have some macro algae growing on some of my LR, as well as sponges and tons of feather dusters. Parms are:
    0 ammonia
    0 nitrite
    less than 5ppm nitrate
    unmeasurable phosphate
    9 dKH
    520ppm calcium
    8.0 pH
    1.025 SG
     
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  3. marlinman

    marlinman Zoanthid

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2008
    Messages:
    1,106
    Location:
    Pompano Beach, Florida
    Your parameters are good although the ph is a little low and the calcium is a little high but mine is not perfect. I'm working on getting my alkalinity up its at 7 dkh.
    It's a smart group of fish you've picked out. I've never had the bicolor pseudochromis or any pseudochromis. I'd heard that the purple one can be aggressive.
    My recommendations would be to add a Diamond Goby to clean the sand and a dwarf angel for added beauty. I have a lemonpeel but I originally wanted a Flame Angel. Good luck!:cheesy:
     
  4. fishzilla

    fishzilla Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2010
    Messages:
    27
    Location:
    VA
    Ive been using seachem reef salt, it has quite a high calcium level I am planning on switching to regular seachem marine salt as it has a lower calcium level. My lighting 260watt PC is only good enough for polyps and softies so they probably wont use the calcium of the reef salt. I already dose marine buffer, reef plus and reef alkalinity. Thanks for your comments, and I agree few tanks every have perfect water parms...I think stability is most important. I had considered a dwarf angel but I keep reading they are iffy in the reef situation....LFS has a couple of beautiful Potters angelfish was very tempted on buying one I do admit.

    Best of luck on uping your alk, thanks again :)