My Planned 55-gallon Reef Stocking

[eschaton]

I thought it would be a good idea to write out my stocking for my 55-gallon, which in all likelihood will begin cycling within the next month now (just a few more gear changes left). Rather than just buy things willy-nilly, I thought I'd try and design the stocking ahead of time. Please let me know if there are any lighting, flow, or compatibility concerns.

Tank Specs:

55 gallon with 20-gallon sump
Lighting: Current Nova Extreme 48" with 8 54-watt bulbs (half 10K, half actinic – thinking of changing out two actinic – wish they didn’t set up the bulbs four and four on separate plugs).
Pump: Eheim 1260
Temp: To be set at 81 degrees:
Skimmer: none - I’m going to rely on chaeto in the sump instead for nutrient filtration

as a note, in order to fit the sump into the tank, I needed to move the rear brace nearly a foot from the center. As a result, I’m going to concentrate the live rock on one side of my tank, and have the other side a lower-flow sand flat.

SPS:
Haven’t thought it through, but open to anything besides Acro - read this is bad for a newer tank. Would like to try and get a few frags established before turning the tank totally into softie heaven.

LPS:
Fungia: The only LPS I’m fairly interested in at the moment. Will work on my open sand bed.

Soft Corals:
First, a list of softies I’m transferring
xenia- new tank may be too high flow - we’ll see what happens
sand polyps
clove polyps
yellow polyps - I’ll probably need to kill a few though, as they’ve spread to too many rocks
star polyps
mushrooms
ricordea

And then what I’d like to get:
zoanthids - haven’t decided upon particular species, but they are among my favorite corals.
gorgonians - both the encrusting sort and the sea rod sort.

CuC (whatever isn’t already on my LR):
snails: astraea, nerites, trochus, nassarius, ceriths (add until the algae battles are won)
1 money cowrie - had great luck with mine before a temperature spike killed it.
1-4 peppermint shrimp
1-4 cleaner shrimp

Other Critters:
1 yellow cucumber
1 blue tuxedo urchin
2-4 porcelain crabs
3-7 sexy shrimp
1 tridacna clam of some sort (I think by lighting is up to skiff for T. derasa, but I’m worried unless I place it shell facing out it will overgrow the depth of the tank)
maybe an anemone (condy or BTA) if I can find one captive-bred.

Fish:
3 green-banded gobies
1 yellow clown goby
1 orchid dottyback
1 yellow assessor

possibly a blenny of some sort, depending upon algae needs
possibly a carpenter/flasher wrasse, anathias or chalk bass (I’ve heard all these do better in trios or more though, and my tank doesn’t have room)
possibly a sixline, if the dottyback doesn’t get the flatworm problem under control
and possibly a watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair

 

[SkiFletch]

Well thought-out plan, I see good things in your future reefkeeping . I especially like the idea of moving the brace and the rockslide look, very clever

Some thoughts:

How are you going to deal with jumping fish? (gobies wrasses blennies are all jumpers). A hood, or something like egg crate?

Lighting: Those current nova extreme lights are good for sure but you're kind of in between lighting requirements. That light would work great for LPS. Its a bit overkill for most of the softies you listed, and since it lacks individual reflectors, its underkill for SPS. I believe only the "Pro" models have individual reflectors, and even those are not full reflectors since they try and jam-pack so many bulbs into the fixture. Furthermore, consider width. Your 55g tank is only 12" wide, make sure whatever lighting you chooose is not that wide . TBH, at that price point I'd look into a Tek 4x54watt setup. That'll give you enough light for SPS near the top of your rock stack and softies anywhere's you want.

Drain: You didn't mention how you plan to drain to your sump? An exceptionally important consideration.

Tank Turnover: You've got a good return pump there in the 1260, but you didn't mention powerheads in-tank for flowrate?

Temperature: 81 is great, but costly to maintain in both winter and summer . I run my tank at 76-77 in the winter, and around 83 in the summer. Cheaper and easier

Soft corals: Just remember, that nearly every species of softie you chose are/can be exceptionally fast growers. Might be a good idea to invest in some tweezers, an Xacto knife, and a lot of blades

 

[eschaton]

How are you going to deal with jumping fish? (gobies wrasses blennies are all jumpers). A hood, or something like egg crate?

I already have egg crate cut and put in place.

Lighting: Those current nova extreme lights are good for sure but you're kind of in between lighting requirements. That light would work great for LPS. Its a bit overkill for most of the softies you listed, and since it lacks individual reflectors, its underkill for SPS. I believe only the "Pro" models have individual reflectors, and even those are not full reflectors since they try and jam-pack so many bulbs into the fixture. Furthermore, consider width. Your 55g tank is only 12" wide, make sure whatever lighting you chooose is not that wide . TBH, at that price point I'd look into a Tek 4x54watt setup. That'll give you enough light for SPS near the top of your rock stack and softies anywhere's you want.

The light fixture is already bought sadly - there was a deal at big Al's with free shipping. It covers the entire top of the tank, meaning I need to get my girlfriend to help me take it off the top to do any work inside at all. I think we're going to try and suspend it from the ceiling a further 6 inches or so from the top of the water to make it slightly less of a pain.

Drain: You didn't mention how you plan to drain to your sump? An exceptionally important consideration.

You mean drain to my sump? I have two one-inch bulkheads, which currently go to 5/8 tubing. I have one inch tubing also cut I can put in place very easily, but it's much harder to get to stay in the sump.

Tank Turnover: You've got a good return pump there in the 1260, but you didn't mention powerheads in-tank for flowrate?

I figured with a pump of that power and two spray bars, I wouldn't need a powerhead. Isn't the whole purpose of a sump to keep as much gear out of your tank as possible?

Temperature: 81 is great, but costly to maintain in both winter and summer . I run my tank at 76-77 in the winter, and around 83 in the summer. Cheaper and easier

Room temperature doesn't vary too much in my house. Almost seems like more work to reset the heating every season. We'll see though - I've read people who claim with lights, room temp, and pump heat you really don't need a heater at all.

Soft corals: Just remember, that nearly every species of softie you chose are/can be exceptionally fast growers. Might be a good idea to invest in some tweezers, an Xacto knife, and a lot of blades

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to kill some of the yellow polyps. They've totally taken over one rock (which initially had only a few of them and was dominated by star polyps and sand polyps), and have sent off new colonies throughout the 20 gallon.

 

[SkiFletch]

Hanging the fixture from the cieling is a great idea. Anything that prevents you from asking your girlfriend's help everytime you need to monkey with something will help in the long run

Time for a little sump and pump education here . First off, your display tank needs around 1100 or maybe more like 1500gph worth of flow for successful coral keeping. In order to do that ALL through the sump, you'll need an overflow of a bare minimum of 1.6" diameter, and I'd go with 2" for safety. Now consider how much flow that is in a little 20 long aquarium... Thats a LOT of water movement. It'll be a whirlwind in there, probably not able to have a refugium. Furthermore, to get 1500gph worth of flow at 5' of head pressure you'd need a bigger external pump to do it.

Obviously, putting all the flow through the sump is not really possible. The general rule of thumb is somewheres around 5 times turnover per hour through the sump. You've hit the nail on the head with the 1260, its an appropriately sized pump for the application. The 5/8" drain is a little small for my liking, I'd move up to the 1" for safety. If you're having trouble weighting it down, get some kind of heavier plastic and just zip-tie it to the end of the tube to make it stay put . The pump in that application will prolly put out around 450gph worth of flow, leaving you needing an additional 1000gph from elsewhere. Might be a good idea to pickup something like a single hydor koralia 3 or maybe a tunze nanostream to help with this. Your only other option would be a closed loop and that's nearly impossible to install properly on a tank already full of water.

HTH

 

[eschaton]

Hopefully suspending it won't be too difficult. Unlike my Hegen GLO, I don't see anywhere to fish the wire through.

If you've seen the other thread, my drains are open on the top, and already have one inch hose barbs attached to the top. So all I really need to do is screw them in or out 180 degrees, replace the tubing, and buy two more clamps. maybe going up to the wider tubing again will deal with the drain gurgle as well.

I had a heart attack when you mentioned a new powerhead - then I realized it was on sale for $38 at Dr. Fosters and Smith, who I needed to purchase a check valve and some random small things from anyway.

Thanks a bunch...just one more gear question. My GF is working on securing the glass (she's an architect, so she might be able to get some deals), and I realized I might want an additional glass panel to separate the fuge from the pump area. Would a 6 inch-high plate suffice, or will I need something taller?

Oh, and what do I mark the inside of the tank with to know where to place the glass?

 

[SkiFletch]

Grease pens work great for marking glass. just rubs off with rubbing alcohol when done . As for separating the pump, I'm not sure what your tank plans are in the first place, so I'm not sure