My First 55 gallon Reef

Well I started up my very first SW reef tank about a month ago.
It seems to be going good.
I have 40 lbs live sand and around 60-70 lbs live rock.
No critters yet. I have a 4 bulb 54 wat T5 light. 1 Koralia 2 powerhead and a heater so far. Need to get 1 or 2 more powerheads, protein skimmer, and test kits.
Here are some pictures of the tank and some of the rock. Does the rock look decent? Are the red spots coralline or dead stuff?

 

You're off to a great start. What kind of livestock are you planning to have? Nice rockwork BTW.

 

Im not sure.
I would like to have maybe a pair of black and white clown fish and a mandarin goby eventually.
I hope to get a lot of corals as well.

 

test kits are one of the first things you want to invest in.. in terms of powerhead, you probably need another koralia 2 and maybe 1 or 2 koralia 1s.. you can place one in the back shooting from right to left or left to right closer to sandbed to get some flow on the lower part of the tank so the detrius don't end up piling up in the future..
you are off to a good start with your equipment though, maybe you can look into a HOB refugium if you aren't using overflow or drilling down towards a sump..
the red spots on the rocks are coraline.. dead algae usually looks more white

 

Dont plan on getting a sump or refugium. Can't stand the thought of flooding. I know tons of people will say I will need one but ill see how it goes like this first.

 

i, myself don't have a sump for my 75G tank as well, the HOB refugium is a very good idea as it will give you a big boost on your filteration.. it will give your critters a place to reproduce and add extra pod populuation to your tank..
not to mention, it will also consume a lot of phosphates and nitrates from your tank with your micro algae..

 

I'm actually switching from a 53 gal with a sump to a 55 without. I started off with a 29g sumpless and I much prefered it to my current tank. I know everyone says sumps are great, but I really don't like mine at all and am looking foward to not having it!

Nice tank by the way! I hope mine looks half as good when I switch it over!

 

i would deff recommend an ro/di unit..for sure.

 

Looks great...

 

why do you not prefer a sump?