My 55 Gallon Reef Tank

[nolan71416]

So I’ll start this off from the very beginning of my reefing experience. I decided about 6 years that I wanted to do a saltwater tank after watching the tv show “Tanked”. If I only knew that it wasn’t just add water, fish, rocks and corals I might not have tried. I started with a used 36 bow front tank I bought from a member. I got my water, rocks and sand and was ready to go. Figured a few days and I’ll add some fish, but as everyone knows that’s not the case. I had a major algae bloom and read that bigger volumes of water is easier so I found a 75 gallon with 29 gallon sump and bought it. It needed to be resealed and that was an experience I’ll never forget. It wasn’t that bad but it was more work than I thought. Once that was sealed and tested the algae bloom had started to go away in the 36. I moved everything to the 75 gallon and added more dry rock to the scape. I then added 2 clowns and 2 three stripe damsels to the tank. Figured I was good to go but then I was slapped with another algae bloom. After 2-3 weeks I finally got the tank running smooth and started with corals. I got a decent amount from seand in the club as well as Jose in Athens. This tank ran for almost a year before we found out we were pregnant and going to be moving. I sold the tank and corals to someone in North Carolina and decided I’d just be done with saltwater aquariums.

So I went on until the beginning of this year still wanting to give it another go but never pulled the trigger on any tanks. I happened to find my current tank on Facebook marketplace and decided it was time go again. I knew this time that I needed to go slow and not make the same mistakes I made before. I had kept my extra rock I had and my biocube (this was my QT tank bc the light didn’t work right). The tank I bought had a led light that worked ok but I knew I wanted to go T5 as I like the results I had with them over leds. I found a cheap T5 light on Amazon for $100 and came with 4 bulbs Odyssea T5 Quad Timer Aquarium... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01715UKKG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
This light is working great so far but I’ll see after a couple months how the corals do but so far they seem to like it. I bought 2 clowns from a member that had breed them and added a coral banded serpent starfish (I think that’s what it is). I went on a spending spree 3-4 weeks ago and bought a ton of corals from 4 members and really like the route the tank is going. I just finished adding my last piece of rock to my tank tonight so I’ll start moving corals to their forever home shortly. Wasn’t 100% sure the rock scape so I didn’t add many to the rocks until I finished the scape. I am having a slight green hair algae bloom but I’m pretty sure it because I’m feeding a little heavy and my clean up crew is 8 total snails and 3 hermit crabs. I added 2 emerald crabs to help and a lawnmower Blenny which is pretty cool. I added a long nose hawkfish but he decided to jump into the over flow and got stuck in the valve on the drain pipe. I have a canopy for the tank but the new light doesn’t let it sit down properly but I had it on when I had the hawkfish and he wasn’t able to just out of the tank. I removed it once he died but will be getting another as soon as I find one. By the way @FutureInterest your anemone is crazy and won’t move away from this poly frag so the clowns can host it.

I also have a snowflake eel I bought and kept in the 55 with the clowns but decided to put him in a 32 gallon biocube in my 3 year olds room and he absolutely loves it. He is just so messy eating and probably started the issue with the hair algae before I moved him. He’s 14 inches or so and is pretty active and will chase your finger on the glass. Seems odd since they can’t see well but maybe he’s feeling the vibrations of my finger on the glass.

These are just a few pictures of my 55 and the corals I have right now. These pictures are taken with an iPhone and no filters because I spend my money on corals and fish lol.

 

[nolan71416]

More pictures.