New to saltwater

Hello,

My wife and I decided to get a tank for Christmas. We have been doing research and have started putting it together. Here is what we have so far:
55g tank
60lbs live sand
65lbs live rock
200w + 100w heaters
Coralife 4x65w PC + 4 LED moonlight
Emperor 400 filter
Generic 60g filter running with no filter media for extra flow
Two koralia evolution 750gph

We are still looking for a good HOB skimmer

We put the sand and rock in last Monday. And then we put a shrimp in last Friday. Here is what the testing is showing:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Alk: between 120 & 180
PH: 8.4

How does this look for a start?

 

Looks good to me on the rock work
the shrimp I assume was a dead one for cycling purposes?

is it going to be a reef tank with corals
or just fish of fish only with live rock FOWLR

might want to consider painting back of aquarium to hide all the equipment or buying a black or dark blue background that you can add on now the tank is all set up,

Steve

 

Hello and welcome, looks good

 

Welcome to 3reef!

 

Welcome to 3reef

If you want SPS coral you will need to get T5HO, metal halide or LED lights to support them and clams.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

Painting the back is something we forgot about so we will have to get one of the backgrounds to put on.

Yes, the shrimp is a dead one for cycling.

Right now we want to go slow and do a FOWLR. But, later we would like to add some low light corals.

I'm sure we will have lots of questions as we get going. Thanks so far.

 

I think it looks great. This is the besst place to research a saltwater tank. Because you have so many reefers giving advice. I learned much more from this forum than any other books,local reef stores or internet articles combined. If I could give one piece of advice as a 1 year old reefer. try to not invest to much in the hang on the back equipment. If your like me you'll eventually want a sump or refugium.

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef and good luck with your build!