Well, the wife just surprised me by calling on her way home from work, and finally gave the okay to set up the "spare" 55. Now, I have to decide salt, or fresh. I have a couple ideas for either, but am kinda leaning toward salt.
If I do SW, corals are a down the road scenario, because I won't be investing in quality lighting for a while. My idea is for some live rock, some live sand, some dead rock (whatever is good to use for that) and some aragonite sand (since the latter two, as I understand it, will become "live" over time) with a few fish and inverts. I actually preferred the idea of a 40 breeder, because it's got a bigger footprint, but I do have this 55 just sitting there already. I don't know if a sump would be necessary for this size tank (and what size), or if I could use an AC 70 (I'd pull it off of my fresh tank, and replace that one with an AC 110, since it's already well seeded) to augment the filtration by the live rock/sand. I understand powerheads are much more important on salt tanks, so I plan to have one running the down each long part of the tank, to create a clockwise (or counter clockwise) circulation. Would the beneficial bacteria from freshwater still be viable and functional in salt?
For fish, I am leaning toward a fairly lightly stocked tank, as listed below.
Black Ocellaris, Picasso, or possibly Maroon Clownfish, x 2 (that is the order of preference)
Neon Goby x 2-4
Banggai Cardinalfish x 2-4
Peppermint shrimp in some quantity, as well as some nerites and Turbo Snails.
My wife would like something yellow in the tank. If the other clowns or cardinals will eat the fry, mollies may do the trick.
My big concern is that I'd like an anemone of some type, and I'm not sure how well that would do with the other fish listed. And yes, I'm aware enough of the risk of hitchhikers on the live rock to know that I should observe day and night, to see if I can spot potentially dangerous hitchhikers.
So, advice? I even mean as "basic" as how much live sand/rock to the dead sand/rock, and so on. I know my LFS won't deliberately steer me wrong, but they still stand to gain from any misunderstandings. At the least, I don't have RO/DI in the house, so I'd be going back for their pre-mixed salt water.
If I do SW, corals are a down the road scenario, because I won't be investing in quality lighting for a while. My idea is for some live rock, some live sand, some dead rock (whatever is good to use for that) and some aragonite sand (since the latter two, as I understand it, will become "live" over time) with a few fish and inverts. I actually preferred the idea of a 40 breeder, because it's got a bigger footprint, but I do have this 55 just sitting there already. I don't know if a sump would be necessary for this size tank (and what size), or if I could use an AC 70 (I'd pull it off of my fresh tank, and replace that one with an AC 110, since it's already well seeded) to augment the filtration by the live rock/sand. I understand powerheads are much more important on salt tanks, so I plan to have one running the down each long part of the tank, to create a clockwise (or counter clockwise) circulation. Would the beneficial bacteria from freshwater still be viable and functional in salt?
For fish, I am leaning toward a fairly lightly stocked tank, as listed below.
Black Ocellaris, Picasso, or possibly Maroon Clownfish, x 2 (that is the order of preference)
Neon Goby x 2-4
Banggai Cardinalfish x 2-4
Peppermint shrimp in some quantity, as well as some nerites and Turbo Snails.
My wife would like something yellow in the tank. If the other clowns or cardinals will eat the fry, mollies may do the trick.
My big concern is that I'd like an anemone of some type, and I'm not sure how well that would do with the other fish listed. And yes, I'm aware enough of the risk of hitchhikers on the live rock to know that I should observe day and night, to see if I can spot potentially dangerous hitchhikers.
So, advice? I even mean as "basic" as how much live sand/rock to the dead sand/rock, and so on. I know my LFS won't deliberately steer me wrong, but they still stand to gain from any misunderstandings. At the least, I don't have RO/DI in the house, so I'd be going back for their pre-mixed salt water.