Re-Setting Up 55gal.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
L

lizardfishman

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2005
1,153
2
38
Oregon
Hey guys, I'm setting up my 55gal tank again. I'm not sure whether to go back to fw or to keep on with sw. I have 45lbs of now dead LR, 20 lbs of LR in my 20gal tank, a protein skimmer, and filters. If I decide to stay with sw should I not use my canister filter at all? I have the protein skimmer and an aquaclear 70 I can use to filter/ move water. I could also add the powerhead thats in my 20gal to the 55gal if I need more flow.

The stock list I've been thinking of is a snowflake eel and either 1 or 2 grunts if I can find one of the smaller species. Would that work in a 55? Feel free to recomend anything else but I'd really like to stay with the snowflake eel and 1 or 2 small-med. predatory fish if I can.

Thanks

O, and how long would it take for the tank to cycle if I used the 20lbs of LR and 20lbs of sand from my 20gal to "seed" the 55?
 
lizardfishman;2363783; said:
Hey guys, I'm setting up my 55gal tank again. I'm not sure whether to go back to fw or to keep on with sw. I have 45lbs of now dead LR, 20 lbs of LR in my 20gal tank, a protein skimmer, and filters. If I decide to stay with sw should I not use my canister filter at all? I have the protein skimmer and an aquaclear 70 I can use to filter/ move water. I could also add the powerhead thats in my 20gal to the 55gal if I need more flow.

The stock list I've been thinking of is a snowflake eel and either 1 or 2 grunts if I can find one of the smaller species. Would that work in a 55? Feel free to recomend anything else but I'd really like to stay with the snowflake eel and 1 or 2 small-med. predatory fish if I can.

Thanks

O, and how long would it take for the tank to cycle if I used the 20lbs of LR and 20lbs of sand from my 20gal to "seed" the 55?
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A snowflake eel is fine in that size of tank, you could have a large hawkfish in there with maybe a school of chromis (even if some got picked of you only lose a couple dollars.) I have had great luck with canisters I know a lot of people don't like them, but I do (in the 1980s my dad kjept a leaperd shark in a hundred gallon with a simple canister filter for a few years with out any problam).

Best of luck!
 
You can get a snow flake, a niger trigger and a dwarf trigger. I would do those 3 fish.. Very popular among hobbyish doing a FO or LR predatory tank.
 
Malawi-;2363869; said:
You can get a snow flake, a niger trigger and a dwarf trigger. I would do those 3 fish.. Very popular among hobbyish doing a FO or LR predatory tank.
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I forgot all about triggers! Defiantly get some kind of trigger.
 
well not "some kind" lol.. Some grow much faster and larger than other spcies and are super aggressive. I would go with either a niger or a humu-humu
 
Not much of a fan of triggers. I like grouper-ish fish and since the smallest grouper species i can find info on grows 10" (v-tail) if that's even correct info, I've been leaning more towards grunts or maybe even squirrelfish. I've also thought about a rock beauty angel. would that work?
 
canisters will be fine, but with the amount of BIO load, it could cause a nitrate issue. Thats the issue with using canisters. Its really something to keep an eye out for and constant maintanence will be needed to prevent this issue. With high nitrate, phosphate issues can occur, causing bad algae outbreaks, bubble algae, hair algae and even cyanobacteria (red algae). Just a few bad annoying things from one little device lol.
 
lizardfishman;2363923; said:
Not much of a fan of triggers. I like grouper-ish fish and since the smallest grouper species i can find info on grows 10" (v-tail) if that's even correct info, I've been leaning more towards grunts or maybe even squirrelfish. I've also thought about a rock beauty angel. would that work?
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tobbacco bass
harlequin bass
anthias
comets

rock beautys are a hard fish to keep

if you were never going to upgrade i would say keep away from the groupers, but if you were even going to go up to like a 75-90 i would say go for it
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'll watch out for the canister filter causing nitrates sweetang. I'm going to a new store this weekend that's supposed to be very good to see what they have there. There's only one real lfs near me and this one's kinda a hike but its worth it hopefully.
 
Malawi-;2363887; said:
well not "some kind" lol.. Some grow much faster and larger than other spcies and are super aggressive. I would go with either a niger or a humu-humu
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What no queen trigger lol ;). You could also look into true puffers like Blue Dot Puffer (Canthigaster epilamprus), Saddle Puffer (Canthigaster sp.) or Spotted Puffer (Canthigaster sp.) Also anthias like BIGgourami said would be great.
 
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