55 Gallon Starter Tank

cjphi14 · Mar 8, 2021

Just recently joined but I've had my tank since June, so I figured that it's better to start a build thread late than never. I basically jumped into this hobby as a complete rookie, I've learned a ton recently, but overall there have been a lot of ups and a lot of downs. I think this would be pretty helpful for anyone else new to the hobby because I did a lot of research and still made mistakes that in hindsight were obvious no nos. Here was my starting equipment list...
55 Gallon topfin set (heater, Hob Filter, Lighting)
Instant Ocean Salt
15 lbs of Caribsea South Seas Rock
40 lbs of live aragonite sand.
I also added some basalt type rock and one branch to the tank
Here is a pic of the tank when it was first set up.

I'll try to keep this updated as much as possible and hopefully get up to where the tank is currently pretty soon. Thanks!

zukihara · Mar 8, 2021

Heck, I was 18 and my first tank looked exactly like this except for an underground filter and I loved the fish only at a much lower cost than full on reef. It's a lifelong illness!

cjphi14 · Mar 8, 2021

zukihara said:
Heck, I was 18 and my first tank looked exactly like this except for an underground filter and I loved the fish only at a much lower cost than full on reef. It's a lifelong illness!

Yea I've had freshwater tanks forever and I decided I wanted some more color and having a reef tank growing in your house is really awesome to see. I was fish only on this tank up until about 2 months ago so I know what you mean.