First attempt at saltwater/ Stocking 55G

[249085]

Hello everyone!

I've entertained the idea of a saltwater setup for quite some time, and I would like to think at this point I have a decent rundown of what I would like to do. However, I thought it wise to work things over here on the forums before I make my final decision. Ultimately, I want a tank that is aesthetically pleasing whilst being relatively low maintenance. The aquarium would likely be a standard 55G, I would like to add the following to this tank,

Clownfish (pair)
Yellow Tang (Female? I think I read the ladies stay a bit smaller but not sure how hard they are to sex at smaller sizes)
Xenia Garden

is this attainable/realistic? I like the look of the xenias the most of any of the soft corals and regarding the fish a pair of clowns and a yellow tang are more or less the reason I wish to start up a reef tank, thanks all.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I don't think you have a bad plan, except that even the smaller yellow Tangs tend to need a lot of real estate, and wouldn't really be the best choice in a 55.... Wait, what's that?? I'm hearing sirens, we need to run....

Clown pair in a 55, fine. Xenia is way cool, but it can grow so well that it takes over a tank completely.

What is you plan for filtration on this tank?

Good luck with your build!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Always google the "recommended tank size" of a fish you want, in this case yellow tang is suggested to be in a 90 gallon. We all cheat a little bit on tank size, but in this case your cutting the size almost in half, which is pretty risky. Fish get stressed in small tanks, stress leads to disease, aggression and death.

Its a complex and very expensive hobby to "entertain the idea", good on you for doing some research first. This is a good article that explains the basics. Good luck.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-supreme-guide-to-setting-up-a-saltwater-reef-aquarium.138750/

 

[249085]

I thought the tang in a 55G footprint might have been a stretch, so would a 48x18 footprint suffice? I understand these are active fish, and they seem peaceful enough unless I were to introduce another tang that would warrant conspecific aggression, right?

 

[249085]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I don't think you have a bad plan, except that even the smaller yellow Tangs tend to need a lot of real estate, and wouldn't really be the best choice in a 55.... Wait, what's that?? I'm hearing sirens, we need to run....

Clown pair in a 55, fine. Xenia is way cool, but it can grow so well that it takes over a tank completely.

What is you plan for filtration on this tank?

Good luck with your build!

Thanks! As of right now I think I am going to get started with (2) Tidal 55/75, I really do love the AIO setups and sumps are great but due to the part of the house the tank will be setup in weight is of concern, so a sump isn't really an option unfortunately.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

hob filters don't do much on saltwater tanks, saltwater is completely than freshwater. Again I suggest to read the article provided above, it explains the different basic filtrations we can use on saltwater tanks. Good luck

 

[249085]

hob filters don't do much on saltwater tanks, saltwater is completely than freshwater. Again I suggest to read the article provided above, it explains the different basic filtrations we can use on saltwater tanks. Good luck

I’ll have to look it over after work, I appreciate it.

 

[249085]

Decided to set down this morning with a nice cup of coffee and read up on a few more things, the article was very helpful @Mr. Mojo Rising thanks! It was reassuring to know that I had a little over half of the homework done on my end but after reading it became apparent there were indeed several things that had either escaped my attention or I had just forgotten about entirely.

The YT is a must have so I will be looking into a larger tank.

 

[249085]

Would a YT be happy with said stocking? I know one probably wouldn’t mind the clowns I just wonder if they enjoy the company of other similarly sized/active fish, idk maybe I am overthinking it.