Calf's 50 gallon community tank

[calf85]

Hey folks, new to the hobby and thought I'd document my progress on a 50 gallon community reef tank I'm working on. So far just rocks, fish, and some inverts, but I hope to eventually add some live coral and get a real reef tank going .

My future mother-in-law gave me this tank, stand, and lighting system as a gift. It sat in my kitchen for quite a while before I got got around to researching and financing its setup.

Bought the life support system, which then sat in my tank until I decided I could afford the live rock haha... Painted the stand to match my kitchen cabinets in the meantime.

Equipment:
Bak-Pak 2R+ skimmer
Pure-Flo II RO Unit
Ocean Pulse Wavemakers Duo
(2) Hydor Koralia Evolution Pumps Evolution 550
Jager Thermostat Heater 150W
(2) 175W 12,000K Metal Halide Lamps

Set everything up + added live rock and sand:
50 pounds of live sand
10 lbs of reef rubble
65 pounds of dry live rock, mostly reef saver, but some Pukani and Tonga
10 pounds of cured Carribean live rock from the LFS
Also added a bottle of new tank bacteria mix.

After letting everything cure for about a month, added my cleanup crew:
(20) Red-leg dwarf hermit crabs
(20) Yellow-tip dwarf hermit crabs
(11) Nassarius snails
(7) Astraea snails
(6) Mexican turbo snails
(5) Scarlet reef-hermit crabs
(5) Super Tongan Nassarius snails
(1) Blue tuxedo urchin

Next came some fishes! (Not a great photo, I need to get another one)
(3) Ocellaris Clwonfish
(1) Royal gramma
(1) Blue damselfish

 

[calf85]

Also added some fun inverts:
(1) Long-tentacled anemone
(1) Bulb-tip anemone (very small)
(1) Fighting conch
(1) Feather duster
(1) Halimeda plant
(2) Sexy anemone shrimp
(2) Fire shrimp

My cat seems to take quite an interest .

Two months in, decorated the background with stuff from vacation beach combing.

 

[bknapp]

The last pictures didn't work, photobucket works well. Hope it's goin good.

 

[PaulKreider]

Looks good! If you ever decide to add some corals youl have to remove some of that aquascaping though! But looking nice! Another side note, the 550s might not give enough flow with so much rockwork, i have the 1050's on my 55gal, seems like just enough!

 

[calf85]

Odd, I uploaded those photos directly to the forums. I'll try to fix them. Are you allowed 5 photos per thread or per post?

How do I know if I'm getting enough flow or not? There seems to be plenty of movement through the tank to me, but what do I know?

 

[calf85]

Guess I can't edit the post after it's been posted. Are the photos not working for anyone else? I can see them from other computers while not logged in, so I feel like they should be working.

 

[revhtree]

I can see the photos and it looks like a great start! Just keep an eye on the clowns fighting. You may need to remove one in the future. Also keep an eye on your anemones. Being such a young tank they may not fair well. That being said looks like you're off to a great start!

 

[calf85]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on them. I figured since I introduced them at the same time they should be fine, and I haven't seen any aggression so far. We'll see what happens when they get older! My long-tentacled anemone seems very happy in the tank and is eating well (almost took my finger with him yesterday haha!), but the small BTA hasn't shown much interest in food. He shrinks up a lot too off and on, doesn't spend much time fully open. My anemone shrimp stood on him a lot until I got the LTA, now they love him more . Hoping that the BTA will be happier not being trampled on all the time, he's too tiny for it!

 

[PaulKreider]

With three clowns one is likely to get kicked out of the pair or picked on, but its possible that they all get along! And about the flow, should have enough that nothing really settles on the bottom if that makes sense, if you were to put in flakes for example they should never find a "dead spot" and just sink. If you have dead spots they will build up with gunk and poo and eventualy lead to a amonia or nitrate bloom.:embarassed:

 

[calf85]

Interesting... That makes some sense, as my nitrates have been rising lately. I think it's mostly due to overfeeding, so I'm cutting back on that, but I may have to consider additional flow

 

[calf85]

Set up an overflow, sump, and biopellet reactor this week.

This enabled me to put some of my live rock into the sump and do some reaquascaping. I also added more sand to the left of the tank to make my LTA more comfortable. He didn't like the reef rubble haha...