Hey everyone Question about T5 lighting and my Tank.

I am new to this site but it seems interesting. I have a 55g tank and just got T5 lighting system. Two actinic blue and two 10000k bulbs for a total of 216W (4x54). I was just wondering if this is sufficient for sps corals or if i need more lighting. I am also going to list all my equipment so you can give me tips on anything else.

I have an Eheim canister filter, seaclone protein skimmer, 1 heater, 1 powerhead, >100 lbs of live rock and live sand.

Fish :

hippo tang
yellow tang
Yellow watchman
Diamond spotted goby
bicolor blenny
3 green chromis'
1 peculiar clown

then some snails, hermits, 2 emerald crabs, 2 cleaner clams, 5 peppermint shrimps, 1 coral banded shrimp

Corals:

green star polyp
red, green, and metallic green striped mushrooms
clove polyp
some mixed zooanthids (sand polyps)
green open brain
hammer coral

Can I put in some sps corals and which ones do you recommend?

Please get back to me with any advice any of you can share. Thanks!

Sal

 

Welcome to 3reef! I'll let the experts answer those questions, but I do have a question for you. How's the SeaClone working for ya? Are you getting gunk in the cup or just a bunch of water? IMO I'd get rid of that thing(I had one) and buy an AquaC Remora. Much better skimmer.

Also, you said a 55gal? I think you are WAY overloaded with fish... especially the two tangs, they need room to roam, and those Chromis' will grow too......


I'd have at least 2 Koralia 3's in there(powerheads) Do you have Nitrate or algae problems? How old is tank??? Let's see some pics!!!

 

the hippo tang will easily outgrow a fifty-five, heck Omard's outgrew a 125! and you may need much more flow. otherwise, as long as your param's are in check and you calcium is leveled, your ready to try a piece of hardy SPS like montipora or the such!

 

i thought it was overstocked haha... they are all small for now so it isn't too bad. I got the hippo as a gift but i knew it was going to be too big. my nitrates are at 0 ppm and so are my phosphates and so on. No algae problem either.

the skimmer is working great. It collects a lot of junk, most likely because i have a lot of live stock. but the sponge stays clean now, not so much when i first started the tank up. It is maybe 10 months up and running now.

Should i put a piece of montipora towards the top to make sure it gets a lot of light and does it need a lot of flow?

 

i posted up some pics! check them out and let me know what you think

 

where??? I can't see them ;D

 

Ive seen a hippo tang outgrow a 280g, but it mainly because it was eating zoanthids.

 

Tank of the Month - March 2005 - Reefkeeping.com

 

my tank pics

here is my tank with the live rock... dont have too many corals yet still working on it... slowly but steady!

 

Might wanna open it up some so the tangs can have more room to swim...