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Since I am working for an AWESOME fish store, and I get a great discount, I might be setting up a saltwater aquarium soon. I was wondering what i could do.

I want some corals and inverts, but again, I am also new to this so I don't want something too challanging. I could get some great lighting if corals are a possibility:

two actinic compact flourescent, two HQI metal Halide (new, 1.5 to 2 times the light of conventional metal halide, and HALF the price), and three lunar lights

I was thinking a 55 gallon. What would be a good stock if I really like:

Flame angels
Percula Clowns
Yellow Tangs
Manderian (spelling??) fish
Most dwarf angels
Most gobies and blennies

Thanks

corals and other inverts would def. be a possibility once you get your tank matured and stable, especially with the lighting you have planned.

Flame angels
Percula Clowns
Yellow Tangs
Manderian (spelling??) fish
Most dwarf angels
Most gobies and blennies

You could get by with a small yellow tang (1) for awhile, but you would need to upgrade sooner or later.

You could do a flame angel, clowns (I prefer Ocellaris), a gobie. The flame angel and the coral beauty angel are about the only "reef safe" dwarf angel you can get, but may nip at zoa's, and clam mantels.

I would skip the mandrian, they don't do well in smaller tanks. They need a large constant supply of pods to eat.



Dan

Well, if you could fit a couple hundred pounds of LR in a 55 gallon tank the Mandarin would be fine.

bah.....I completely forgot to say anything about the mandarin!

Agree with the above.....in a 55 it would IMO do fine IF you had it hooked up to a 55 gallon refugium with atleast 100lbs of rock between the 2.......but you would still be looking at atleast a year before your pod population was stable enough and big enough to try to support a mandarin.

I've only had my tank set up since Feb. It's a 75 gallon with 75 lbs of haitian live rock. I wanted a mandarin but wasn't too sure about the whole pod thing. I set up a sump with a big part partitioned off for a fuge. I put some sand and lots of live rock rubble in the fuge, along with some Chaeto. I then ordered 3 bunches of pods form Florida Pets. They have great prices and and customer service, and are pretty cheap on shipping.

http://floridapets.tripod.com/floridapets.html

I put the pods in the fuge, where they can breed safely, and some are carried up to the main tank through the return pump. This feeds my mandarin and keeps him from getting skinny. Plus I can always order more pods if I think the population is getting a little low (which hasn't happened yet).

Now for the disclaimer:
This might not be a good idea for everyone, but this is what works for me, and I thought I'd share.

edited for my awful spelling


[span class="edited"][Edited by i8chicken 2004-07-24 10:46][/span]