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yes will definitely be looking at more corals, especially since I dont have to worry about lighting issues now! I was real hesitant to get any corals, even low light requirement ones with my old PC lights. But now the skys the limit!

Howdy stranger. Nice to hear from you, although you have been through some serious hiccups. Please feel free to blog more often, as we can help when questions arise. It looks like you have room for more corals.

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the majority (approx 50 lbs) was dry base rock and I added about 5 lbs of LIVE rock from the LFS. Also have 60lbs of live sand.

I added 2 clownfish, 2 camel shrimp and 3 snails... things are looking good so far. After a day they are all eating the snails are moving around the tank and all my parameters look good. going to wait about another week or 2 and get some emerald crabs since the LFS I was at did not have any.

diatoms only eat silicates in the water usually associated with new plastics/equipment but you don't necessarily always have a diatom bloom depending on if you rinsed the equipment very well or if it was used, also if you prefilled to check for leaks/testing to make sure stuff works you may have diluted a lot of the silicates to wear it was there but very minor and not really noticeable. algae is kind of the same way but more so for phosphates, did you use all "live" rock or dry rock? what type of rock? if it is well cycled live rock then you probably won't have a phosphate issue and I never had any real hair algae with any of my setups (I had bryopsis instead) so you may not have to worry about that either for an initial startup especially if your choeto is out competing the other potential algae for nutrients which is exactly the idea behind having choetomorpha. I personally would add a small cleanup crew when you add the first fish to the tank. I am not sure the size but on my 75 gallon restart I have only about 5 reef crabs and no snails currently with the fish that are in there and I am working up to more as demands increase, otherwise I have always felt too many too fast and you don't know what you need and then your replacing starved CuC instead of helpful ones. Remember no matter what anyone says snails will never keep glass clean so look for what they will actually eat and go from there, reef crabs and shrimp I like for their ability to find and devour uneaten pieces of food.

I think the issue was two filter pads I have in the tank. I have them in the sump to gather bacteria for use in a QT tank...They slipped down into the bubble trap and I think they were blocking flow into the return pump chamber....Have to find a better place for these.

Where did the excess water go during the power outage? Is the carpet wet? If your return pump sucked air and pumped this into the display tank, the sump has less water. The overflow didn't fail, because the system resumed draining, correct?

For the AC3 to report a power outage, it must be plugged into a UPS or have a 9v battery connected to allow it to store the power loss.

Nice to see how you've adapted the knowledge you took in. It'll be nice to see it grow in with your coral choices in the coming months.

oh we all know about the bug you got, lol it's always exciting to see a new start up so we can see progress . Usually the Nitrite portion of the cycle doesn't last very long so watch it closely

You have to have a pump that sucks in and chops up the air that is injected into the skimmer body. Please edit your blog entry and attach some pictures in your original post above.

Chbix, lets see some pictures so we can get a better understanding of what you're talking about.

That is a power head pump. Is this a Prizm protein skimmer, they are usually fully see through and have small power head style pumps?

I think Midnight mean this.... The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of pipe.

No its not a venturi, its an odyssea ex350. It was just a pump I had laying around for testing as I get this thing up and running. I will look at venturi pumps then. What kinda GPH am I looking for to power this protein skimmer?

pictures man pictures...so the pump has a venturi? if so it should suck air unless it is backwards. But we need to see this pump in order to help.

If you are going to run t5s. I personally would look at ati. Their products are great and while they may be more expensive, you can keep anything under them and realistically you will never have to buy another fixture. I have a 10 x 54w powermodule and I love it.

For $100 the T5 would be fine to start with and while not great it's not prohibitively expensive when you want to upgrade.

Long term you would be better with two of the combo lights. (I'm not saying you cant grow high light corals with T5, I'm a T5 guy, but I think you'd want a better quality fixture for long term use.) But two of those would be just fine I think for a 55. In the mean time you could raise it up to get more coverage I think, but your PAR into the tank would take a hit as it's only 150W. Edit: just noticed that the MH combo is only 18 wide. Not big enough. It says expandable to 24" which means the legs will spread that wide.

The other potential issue I see is what happens in a few months or next year and you decide you really want a bigger tank.

If I were you, I'd do one of the following:
1) save and get a decent fixture. Yes it means waiting, but nothing good comes in this hobby by rushing.
2) buy a decent fixture used.
3) DIY of some type. You need a canopy most likely though.

http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-4...le-p/52305.htm

Above is the 48" t5 fixture im looking at

http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-1...nt-p/54242.htm

Above is the MH/T5 fixtures im looking at getting two of them. But can only afford one for now and was gonna get another later.

I have a 50 long, same as your 55, just an inch shorter, and I'm growing SPS quite well under 4x54W T5. Mine is an Icecap retrofit kit, but it's the standard high output, not the overdriven version.

Phil

It depends on what you want to keep and what type of fixture it is. If it's an ATI fixture, which at that price it probably isnt, then yes it would good for anything. As it is, it would be fine for softies and fish. And maybe some low light corals such too.

The potential problem comes down the road when you decide you want SPS/clams/anemones etc and need more light. Then you have to upgrade your lighting to a more powerful unit, which means you spend another $3-700 depending on what you choose. So, spend $200 now and then $3-700 later, or wait a bit, save, and get a good fixture now that you can utilize later too.

The other option is a DIY setup that you can upgrade later. Say, you can swing 2 T5 48" setups now, then in a few months get another 2 or 3 and have a banging setup that will grow anything.

The reason I ask what type of fixture it is is that ideally you want individual reflectors on a T5 setup.