ok...so my wife is jealous of my tanks and says she wants a tank bad...i have 3 freshwater tanks and love my monsters....but my wife wants a reef tank...now i know most of the basics and what not...i have a old 55 gallon im going to use...i have a protien skimmer rated to 130...so i should be ok...using a wisper 70 though i plan to be able to run this filterless when its fully cycled with all the live rock i plan on having...have been told that if u have 1.5-2 pounds of live rock per gallon it is more than enough for natural filtration....i dont plan on running a sump unless i make one later on...but right now not on the plans...also have a r/o unit so thats taken care of...now like i said i plan on having some coral...fish wise plan to keep it to maybe 5-6 fish and couple inverts...now my questions are the following...
1. my lfs sells live rock for 3.50 a pound if its over 50 pounds..3.99 if its under 50...what do u think??...should i look online for maybe something better????...just a lil scared of purchasing live rock...
2. lighting??...i know someone selling a used nova extreme t5...its the 48" with 216 watts...would this be ok??...i know some coral needs more light but would i be able to house a decent selection with this for now??...they are only askign 100 dollars and its only 5 months old...if not what other lighting do u guys recomend for a 55 gal???...
3. power heads??..how much flow do u guys think i need??...was going to go with 2 smaller ones to have one on each side over one bigger one...suggestions??....
well i think thats it...tell me if u guys suggest anything else before i take the plunge...about to buy everything i need tomorrow to set up during the week...thanks...alex
1. my lfs sells live rock for 3.50 a pound if its over 50 pounds..3.99 if its under 50...what do u think??...should i look online for maybe something better????...just a lil scared of purchasing live rock...
2. lighting??...i know someone selling a used nova extreme t5...its the 48" with 216 watts...would this be ok??...i know some coral needs more light but would i be able to house a decent selection with this for now??...they are only askign 100 dollars and its only 5 months old...if not what other lighting do u guys recomend for a 55 gal???...
3. power heads??..how much flow do u guys think i need??...was going to go with 2 smaller ones to have one on each side over one bigger one...suggestions??....
well i think thats it...tell me if u guys suggest anything else before i take the plunge...about to buy everything i need tomorrow to set up during the week...thanks...alex