new 55 setup

All, I just converted my Frontosa cichlid tank (beautiful and very hard to part with) over to a salt setup. I have a Cascade 1200 with all the correct media in place, Biowheel 200 with just a carbon media pad and biowheel, Marineland maxi-jet 1200 powerhead, crushed live rock and sand substrate with approx 10 lbs live fiji rock and one blue damsel. Nh3-1.0, No2/3 is .25 and 0, the Ph is 7.8 and a 1.023 SG. If anyone has any advice for for any of this please let me know, thanks a lot, if I can help anyone also let me know....

 

Welcome to 3reef! good luck with your new tank and post pics when you get a chance.. IMO take the wheels off the bio wheel and just use the filters the 200 might not be enough filtration for a 55, but I'll let others chime in with more knowledge..

 

Welcome aboard mate, your PH is a little low, but Im assuming that your still cycling. Im wondering if your going to acquire more LR in the near future.

 

I have about 85 lbs rock, not too full, not too empty IMO and a great natural filter. If your worried about cost use base rock, you already have live rock in there.

 

How much live sand are you using? I feel lots of live sand it always good, the more live sand means more biological filtration for your tank.

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>>>>

 

Well, if you're parameters are what you say they are, your damsel could be dead soon. You don't really want to put any fish in until your tank is cycled completely. Don't buy any more fish, and spend more on live rock, imo. Wait a few more weeks until the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are done spiking and the nitrates are under 20 ppm before you add your first fish.

 

I did add more live rock, just goin slow with this whole thing. The damsel is doing great and I have plans for lots more live rock. What do you all think would be a good amount of live rock would be? Also, I'm new to the SW scene but have already caught the bug, any help would be great, I just plan on having a trigger, clowns, my damsel, and a good clean up crew. My levels have spiked and I did use TLC, it'll just take time but is this a good combo of fish?

 

Any pics of this beautiful tank?

 

Different people like different amounts of rock. Just a couple posts below me here Bogie shows 65 pounds of rock in a 55 and it looks nice but personally I wouldn't want any less rock than that. In my case I started with a 55 gallon, probably lost a couple gallons of space for an internal overflow, and I'll be putting around 100 lbs of rock in. That will likely be more than plenty, but with a 55 they're so narrow you really don't have room for stuff out in the middle with open swim space behind so I'm looking at basically a wall with some tunnels and cubbyholes hidden back into the rock.

Once I get this up and going and get a little more experience I'll be switching to something like a 125 so I have room for a more unique aquascape rather than a wall.