Hello all! This is the 55 reef that I’ve been working on for the high school for the past year. I’m calling it the “ARC 55” because SO many of you have donated supplies and knowledge to get this tank off the ground! So here’s the basics for those of you who don’t know. This tank came from a teachers grant. They gave her all the supplies she needed, sent it to her all at once, but it was all out of date equipment that wasn’t really graded for SW, especially for a reef tank. We got it up and running, I hadn’t been in the aquarium hobby long, if at all. I remember this teacher had a small pic o tank with some inverts in class that I would take care of time to time, and this tank, along with the class and the teacher herself was what fit me into not only this hobby of fish keeping and reefing, but it made me realize that what I want to do IS in fact what I want to do. (I am currently in school to be a large marine veterinarian.) She has inspired me, and I’m sure countless other students to see and care for animals in a way we could not see before. She teaches honors zoology (this is her favorite) and forensics. She’s the head of the science department at the school, and my all time favorite educator! 
anyways, haha. As you can imagine, the tank slowly but surely crashed with the improper “reef” fish (there was a PORK fish and a RED SNAPPER, and a damsel as the final three)
all the fish and inverts arrived at once, there was an under gravel filter and a HOB that I would maybe use on a 30g freshwater planted tank (I know this now but didn’t then). There was no power head that came with it but we got one. No sump. Nada. After the final straw, the tank rested with the proper equipment over the summer. A lot was donated by our lovely members there’s a large canister filter, power heads, and still the under gravel filter running over the summer as well as an ATO. Frequent checks were made in the water during the summer, and in August we deemed it ready for fish and coral. We’re slowly adding! (Yay!!) theres a small group of fish now. I believe we have some pajama cardinals, fire fish, and a lawnmower Blenny. There was a small Kole tang and a coral beauty in there that were doing great, but the Ph dropped over break, and they died within a few days of each other? Everything else is doing great though. Oh is back to normal. Coral that we have is thriving. Let’s see, we have Kenya tree, GSP, Xenia, toad stool, zoas, mushrooms, some candy canes, and another leather of a sort. A light was donated to us, and it was working wonderfully, but it quit working 
I’m taking it home today to see if I can’t figure it out, but she did purchase another light from amazon. It’s an off brand light, however all the specs and reviews check out and it looks really sleek. It’s a hanging light, and we have it set up on a metal fixture right now till we can get some more cable to hang it up with, lol. It’s a Relassy LED coral reef light. It isn’t too big, so there will more than likely need to be another one put on the tank so there’s an even amount of light. There’s major shadowing on either side. Coral seems to be doing fantastic under it. It probably won’t work for more demanding corals (SPS, more demanding LPS) but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because she really likes the “flowyness” of the softies.That and they’re easier to maintain. An AMAZING sump was also donated, it is a water box sump, I want to say it’s about 40 gallons! I’ve sort of split it and am running a refugium out of one compartment and a sump out of the rest. A skimmer was also donated, along with many other crucial things like plumbing, filter socks, power heads, etc. I’m only not mentioning names because I have awful memory and don’t want to get anything wrong so, if you donated something, please give yourself some credit if you would like! You deserve it!!! All parameters well rounded! We’re still needing to stock the tank so there’s more than 4-5 fish, add a screen top, and do the plumbing from the sump to the display. (Were just transferring water via jug as often as possible) questions concerns comments GREATLY appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has been and is involved!!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
anyways, haha. As you can imagine, the tank slowly but surely crashed with the improper “reef” fish (there was a PORK fish and a RED SNAPPER, and a damsel as the final three)
all the fish and inverts arrived at once, there was an under gravel filter and a HOB that I would maybe use on a 30g freshwater planted tank (I know this now but didn’t then). There was no power head that came with it but we got one. No sump. Nada. After the final straw, the tank rested with the proper equipment over the summer. A lot was donated by our lovely members there’s a large canister filter, power heads, and still the under gravel filter running over the summer as well as an ATO. Frequent checks were made in the water during the summer, and in August we deemed it ready for fish and coral. We’re slowly adding! (Yay!!) theres a small group of fish now. I believe we have some pajama cardinals, fire fish, and a lawnmower Blenny. There was a small Kole tang and a coral beauty in there that were doing great, but the Ph dropped over break, and they died within a few days of each other? Everything else is doing great though. Oh is back to normal. Coral that we have is thriving. Let’s see, we have Kenya tree, GSP, Xenia, toad stool, zoas, mushrooms, some candy canes, and another leather of a sort. A light was donated to us, and it was working wonderfully, but it quit working 
I’m taking it home today to see if I can’t figure it out, but she did purchase another light from amazon. It’s an off brand light, however all the specs and reviews check out and it looks really sleek. It’s a hanging light, and we have it set up on a metal fixture right now till we can get some more cable to hang it up with, lol. It’s a Relassy LED coral reef light. It isn’t too big, so there will more than likely need to be another one put on the tank so there’s an even amount of light. There’s major shadowing on either side. Coral seems to be doing fantastic under it. It probably won’t work for more demanding corals (SPS, more demanding LPS) but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because she really likes the “flowyness” of the softies.That and they’re easier to maintain. An AMAZING sump was also donated, it is a water box sump, I want to say it’s about 40 gallons! I’ve sort of split it and am running a refugium out of one compartment and a sump out of the rest. A skimmer was also donated, along with many other crucial things like plumbing, filter socks, power heads, etc. I’m only not mentioning names because I have awful memory and don’t want to get anything wrong so, if you donated something, please give yourself some credit if you would like! You deserve it!!! All parameters well rounded! We’re still needing to stock the tank so there’s more than 4-5 fish, add a screen top, and do the plumbing from the sump to the display. (Were just transferring water via jug as often as possible) questions concerns comments GREATLY appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has been and is involved!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
