Getting Started! Please Help

Display filtration

5 inch deep sand bed
A good amount of base rock and 2 live rock to seed the dry rock.
A good clean up crew IMO I would get
4 peppermint shrimp
20 blue legged hermit crabs
10 red legged hermit crabs
10 turbo snails
2 emerald crabs
2 serpant stars


Fuge filtration

6 inch sand bed
As much macro algae as you can fit in your fuge
A serpant star
AND A WAY OVERSIZED PRTEIN SKIMMER


And try to pick fish that arent only preaty but serv a purpose. For example a six line wrasse eats flat worms, angels and tangs eat algae, and gobys that sift throu sand and clean it.

With the filtration I listed you can get about 10 fish give or take, here is a good stocking list

2 maroon clowns
3 green chromis
2 fire fish
1 manderine goby ( after a good supply of Copepods are present )
1 coral beuty angel fish
2 squareback anthias

 

I used to go with distilled water from walmart for my 210g. setup. Let me just say from experience, it is not fun. Going to walmart every other week and filling 2 shopping carts full of distilled water at about 84 cents a gallon got to be a pain. Then having to carry all of it and then get rid of the jugs. I got so sick of it I just bought a RO/DI unit and it was the best thing I did. Spectrapure has some good deals on units and I have not had any issues with mine. It's a 3 stage and the ratio isn't too bad. It's about 6 to 1 (6 gallons waste water to make 1 gallon good water). You can also find other uses for the waste water so it isn't "wasted". I've heard some people using it to fill their washing machine before doing a load of laundry, I personally use it to water all the plants/flowers around the house. With a 55 gallon setup you will probably find that you want a sump for all the equipment which means your volume will actually be like 80 gallons or so. That can be a lot money to buy water for water changes/top offs. Just my advice but bite the bullet and spend the money on a RO/DI unit if you're going to get into this hobby. It will pay for itself in the end.

 

In a 55 g. tank I would say a skimmer would be good. It will help remove the waste from your fish. I have been through a few skimmers in my day and let me say that here is another area you don't want to go cheap on. The HOB skimmers are a pain IMO. Get a sump and go with a skimmer that is designed to be in a sump. The best skimmer I used and never had an issue with was an ASM G1X skimmer. This model will be too big for your system but they have a Mini-G model that would work great. It is about 150 bucks but well worth it IMO. Some other reefers might have other brands they've tried and could possible find you something cheaper. If you research ASM skimmers you will see why they're so effective. The pumps are good and produce a cyclone of air in the skimmer body.

 

Another thought, have you looked at other tanks and determined what kind of tank you would like to have? FOWLR or a reef? If reef what kinds of coral, LPS/SPS? And also what kind of fish. These are all things you will want to plan now because it will help determine what equipment you get. Also, certain livestock are not reef safe, and some fish will not get along with others due to their aggressive behavior. What kind of tank are you aiming for?

 

The "filter" of your tank is your skimmer + water changes. The skimmer gets rid of poop and uneaten food in your tank, etc. Don't use tap water... Get an RO/DI unit instead of constantly buying water bottles. It's more efficient, you know exactly what's in your water, and you can make some whenever you want (though it takes a while).