55 Gallon Saltwater Aquarium Update

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I ended up not testing the water yesterday after I was shocked to find that one of the turbo snails had hanged itself on the hair algae... So now we're down to one turbo snail...

My dad and I ended up removing all of the fish, invertebrates, live rock, and water in order to scrape off the vast majority of the algae from the walls of the aquarium. We also removed as much of the bad algae from the live rock as possible and rearranged the rock to allow for better circulation. Hopefully these changes will help to prevent the bad algae from returning. I'm hoping that my dad decides to get at least one powerhead to add to the aquarium to help improve circulation, but only time will tell.

Just from looking at it, I think that the aquarium seems kind of empty now. Any ideas as to what else to add considering the current stock?

Current Stock:

  • 2x false percula clownfish
  • 1x blue damselfish
  • 1x yellowtail damselfish
  • 1x three stripe damselfish
  • 2x mosquitofish
  • 1x shrimp
  • 2x Florida fighting conch
  • 1x pencil urchin
  • 1x conylactis anemone
 
What exactly are you calling a mosquito fish?

You have a couple damsels, watch out when they get bigger.

You might get away with a dwarf angel in a setup like this though.
 
FLESHY;4939545; said:
What exactly are you calling a mosquito fish?

You have a couple damsels, watch out when they get bigger.

You might get away with a dwarf angel in a setup like this though.
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The mosquitofish are quite literally mosquitofish; they're just the standard Gambusia affinis. They were living in a saltwater canal in Florida when I caught them, and my dad decided to keep them.

Good point about the damsels; I forgot that some of them will get up to 4" long and can be a bit aggressive.

Dwarf angels are pretty cool. Any recommendations on a specific species?

I also thought that a dwarf lionfish might be a neat addition, but I also read some place that it may eat everything else...
 
We just got back from the LFS. They were out of dwarf angels, and my dad decided that he wanted to get three more damselfish...

Update stock list (new fish in red):

  • 2x false percula clownfish
  • 2x three spot domino damselfish
  • 1x blue damselfish
  • 1x yellowtail damselfish
  • 1x three stripe damselfish
  • 1x two stripe damselfish
  • 2x mosquitofish
  • 1x shrimp
  • 2x Florida fighting conch
  • 1x pencil urchin
  • 1x conylactis anemone
Might it still be possible to add a single large centerpiece fish such as the previously mentioned dwarf angelfish in addition to adding coral in the future?

I'll post new pictures of the aquarium after the new fish get settled in.
 
TMartinez;4940468; said:
Aren't domino damsels very aggressive? http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+28+102&pcatid=102

How's the tank water conditions and algae problem. I would get that completely under control before adding more and more fish stock
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Yes, they're supposed to become aggressive when they get larger, but the other damselfish are considered to be semi-aggressive to aggressive, too. The current aggression problem is with the three stripe damselfish; it didn't take too kindly to the three new additions straying too close to its cave in the live rock formation. I'm hoping that they all will eventually get along better by spreading the aggression amongst all of the fish, but I'm prepared to remove some of the damselfish if need be.

The water conditions are still about as good as they can get. We did a water change yesterday and removed the vast majority of the bad algae. It turns out that the powerhead came off of the protein skimmer shortly after my dad got it up and running, and it got sand all over the live rock which gave the bad algae an easy foothold for spreading; I made sure to remove all of the sand from the live rock to prevent the spread of the bad algae. We should be good in the algae and water quality department after the overhaul that we did yesterday.

The final large centerpiece fish will hopefully be something that will help control the algae; if not, we may just add some more invertebrates that eat algae or a single small fish that eats algae to help keep that from spreading like it did before.

Pictures will hopefully be taken and posted sometime tomorrow.
 
i like the coral beauty angelfish. it ate all the hair alge that i had on some rocks and it will pick through the tank at any alge. i have some alge that will still biuld up in my tank, but i just scrape it off from time to time. i have a group of scooter blennies, they comb the rock and knock all the loose stuff off. right now i am in a 55gal aswell for my salt tank, but will be putting a 120gal into a salt setup for this tank to go into. i hate that empty look aswell so i have alot of fish in the tank. i can't have any clean up crew yet as my triggers eat them, but i will continue to try some snails later.

here is my stock for some ideas for you.

1x picasso trigger
1x niger trigger
1x bluejaw trigger
1x pinktail trigger
2x teardrop occel clownfish
1x three stripe damsel
1x blue damsel
1x coral beauty angel
1x blue hippo tang
1x yellow tang
1x yellowhead sleeper golby
3x scooter blennies

i think thats it. the triggers would need an upgrade and i don't know if you plan to or not.
 
sbuse;4941280; said:
i like the coral beauty angelfish. it ate all the hair alge that i had on some rocks and it will pick through the tank at any alge. i have some alge that will still biuld up in my tank, but i just scrape it off from time to time. i have a group of scooter blennies, they comb the rock and knock all the loose stuff off. right now i am in a 55gal aswell for my salt tank, but will be putting a 120gal into a salt setup for this tank to go into. i hate that empty look aswell so i have alot of fish in the tank. i can't have any clean up crew yet as my triggers eat them, but i will continue to try some snails later.

here is my stock for some ideas for you.

1x picasso trigger
1x niger trigger
1x bluejaw trigger
1x pinktail trigger
2x teardrop occel clownfish
1x three stripe damsel
1x blue damsel
1x coral beauty angel
1x blue hippo tang
1x yellow tang
1x yellowhead sleeper golby
3x scooter blennies

i think thats it. the triggers would need an upgrade and i don't know if you plan to or not.
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The coral beauty angel looks awesome! I'll see what my dad thinks. He's looking for a larger fish that's got nice coloration, and that fits the bill very nicely. Plus it will help with the algae, which is a great bonus. The only problem I see with the angel is that it may pick at corals, and we might add coral soon. We may add some of those blennies, too; my dad was checking those out at the LFS, too.

Unfortunately, I don't see an upgrade happening in the near future, or else we probably would have gotten some triggers; those fish are pretty cool.
 
Wiggles92;4941425; said:
The coral beauty angel looks awesome! I'll see what my dad thinks. He's looking for a larger fish that's got nice coloration, and that fits the bill very nicely. Plus it will help with the algae, which is a great bonus. The only problem I see with the angel is that it may pick at corals, and we might add coral soon. We may add some of those blennies, too; my dad was checking those out at the LFS, too.

Unfortunately, I don't see an upgrade happening in the near future, or else we probably would have gotten some triggers; those fish are pretty cool.
Click to expand...


the only thing i noticed with the coral beauty is that it did nip at my anome sometimes. it would be worth a try.
 
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