how much live sand?

Everything you knew learning how to fly a jet, doesn't apply in a helicopter.

Same with fresh to salt. Although there are similarities there are many differences . Mainly being the chemical make up of the water and all it's elements. Calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, being the big 3 used by corals to grow and thrive. The fish only care about the specific gravity (saltiness of the water) and temp and to a degree Ph. Your posts are leaning more towards you want an aggressive species tank, and no coral, right? What do YOU want to keep in the tank?

Test strips are highly inaccurate and difficult to read. Your going to want to buy liquid test kits, for nitrate, ammonia, ph, nitrite (during cycle only) as we'll as a refractimeter and or at least a plastic hydrometer to get your salt level close.

Having the live rock will be your main source of filtration in any sw tank, so the more the merrier! The more you have the more colonies of beneficial bacteria you'll have, which in turn make you cycle go faster and more importantly, keep the tank healthy every time you add more biodiversity to the tank.

It's a constant tug of war you play with this bacteria and the amount of waste being excreted in your tank. More bacteria, lower ammonia. No bacteria, sky high ammonia cuz nothings there to break it down to trite and trate.

 

I'm not 100% positive yet on what i want to keep, i'm just looking around at things, finding some i like, and asking questions. weighing the odds of having something vs. that meaning i won't be able to have something else.

i think i've pretty much ruled out getting a lion, simply because too many people are saying i can't have clowns with them. and with this being my first saltwater tank, of course i want clowns

rigt now i'm thinking i'll get a pair of clowns,
a foxface(i know it'll outgrow the tank eventually, but i figure i can keep it for a couple years) to take care of some algae.
some sort of a goby to sift through the sand(maybe a mandarin if i can get enough pods.
a couple of those fire red shrimp
some snails maybe(idk)

i'm just kinda flipping through books and finding what's available locally.

 

that's very smart to put a lot of thought into what you want to keep and in listening to advice although it may not be what you want to hear Can't wait to see what your final stock list ends up being!

 

Glad to hear your actually accepting advice and compromising some things for others. You'll have to do it quite often in this hobby.

Having a pair of clowns is a great start. Adding a goby would be no problem as well, just be prepared to have a lot of sand scaping being done, so try having your rocks on the glass if at all possible to avoid it burrowing and having the rocks shift and fall... Any goby would be fine in that 55.

As far as the foxface It would be okay if added last and if it was relatively young/small.

Snails/hermits should go in with you're clowns (or which ever fish you chose to begin with after the cycles over)

Reef cleaners (sponsor here) is a great place for you to start for a clean up crew (cuc). They have all the inverts you need for algae control. These will be your best friends(the snails not john) lol although he might he is a great guy helped me out couple of times. Some don't like them (snails/hermits)cuz they are a bit unsightly they are an important addition to the reefs bio diversity. They tend to knock over everything and anything they can. So be prepared to superglue frags to rocks! Lol or else...

I would wait on the mandarin just so you can gain more personal experience with your tank as well as the hobby in general. Waiting will allow your tank the time it really needs to mature and propagate a healthy enough pod population/ micro fauna. It'll benefit your entire tank if you do this in my personal opinion.

A school of chromis would be neat! As well as a pair of fire fish in place of the foxface. Just a suggestion. I personally don't like foxfaces, don't ask why I just don't, I like smaller fish and more of them... Personal preference... Anywho .they do battle algae but having one that doesn't is a coin flip. it's impossible to tell what you're fish will actually do once in the tank,any of them. It might also give some unwanted incentive to be overconfident and or lackadaisical in maintaining algae yourself thru water changes and routine cleaning of the tank and equip used to control algae (a reactor look into them if you havnt. They can be used in sumpless tanks.) just cuz you have someone for the "job" doesn't mean hell actually do his assigned job. Lol . By all means if your hearts set on it, it can be done!

Good luck billy!

 

I'm always willing to listen to advice from someone who knows more than i do!
when i got into cichlids about 7 or 8 years ago tis is the same thing i did then, found message boards, asked questions, and took people's advice(most of the time)

and as far as the goby and him moving the sand around, i'm also used to this behavior, cichlids are definitely diggers, i always made very sure everything is super stable.

can u put frag glue on live rock? how long does it take to dry? i just dont wanna glue some rock, wait for it to dry, then have everything on it die, and just end up polluting my water....

 

advice on a clean up crew would be helpful!

cucs arent really available in my area.....

as far as slacking on water changes, i won't be doing that, when i had my 80gal cichlid tank(along with a couple other breeding tanks) i would do 50% water changes weekly. i tended to overstock my tanks, so it was kinda necessary.

i know it's only "recommended" to do a 10% weekly change for saltwater, but if i have a slightly overstocked tank, do u think 20% weekly would be too much? i just never find the bare minimum to be enough.

also the reason why i got the biggest T5 i could find, a 100 gal and a 70 gal filter(converted to a minfuge) on a 55 gal tank, and a skimmer that's enough for 100-125gals.

 

i dont think snails are unsightly at all, i actually very much like them. i have another freshwater tank at the moment, and i have like 20 snails in them.

i used to go to petco and they would give me their "pest" snails (the little ones) for free everytime i went in. i'd throw am all in my tank, i thought it was awesome. plus, it was a little snack for my cichlids whenever they could get to em