Need lighting help

[Foxface]

I have a 55G tank with two 18" 15 watt fluorescent lights, bulbs are 9325K 15 watt aqua rays, also have a 36" odyssea T5 with one 39 watt 12,000K daylight and one 39 watt blue acentic. what if any corals and anemones can i keep with this type of lighting? and what would be a good up grade that wont brack the bank? thanks for your help.

[charlie]

With what you have now, I would say stick with soft corals, no anemones. An upgrade would be to add more T5 lighting.

How old is your system?

[TimH07]

I hate to sound harsh ever, and please correct me if im wrong, but from the pics it seems like this tank was JUST set up (that rock looks too new to me and the filters look just out of the box)

how long did it cycle? the lighting is a bit low for any lps or sps.

what are you running for a refugium and why the double carbon filters?

if you just started the hobby, i would recommend alot of reefland.com searches... alot of amazing people here with amazing insight!!!

[Foxface]

Thanks for your replys.

my tank has been up and running for about a month and a half, cycled for about two to three weeks. i don't have a refugium, but was thinking of useing an old 10G tank i have. any idea's on that? there is only one carbon filter on my tank and it is a 30-60 whisper, the other on the right is a prizm skimmer. yes i am new to the saltwater hobby i have had lots of freshwater but wanted to try salt and so fare i love it. P.S the filters are not just out of the box, how ever i do like to keep things clean. i also do a 10G water change every week.

my levels are

Nitrate-20
Nitrite-0
PH-8.2
ammonia-0

[Ninong]

Your foxface (Siganus unimaculatus) is a very nice fish but, unfortunately, a 55-gal tank is really too small for one of these fish. They grow very fast and once they reach anything close to adult size, they need a tank much larger than 55 gallons.

I kept a foxface (Siganus vulpinus -- without the spot) in a 120-gal tank and the tank proved to be too small for it after two or three years. It was only 2.5"-3" when I got it and it was at least 7" two years later. A year later I gave it to someone with a 300-gal tank.

They're great herbivores but I think a 135-gal (6' long) tank is probably a decent minimum size (IMO). Their behavior is fine in a smaller tank until they start to get more than 4-5" long, then they get spastic and start pacing the front glass and swimming up and down from the bottom to the top at the end of the tank over and over.

As far as your present lighting is concerned, I agree with Charlie. Stick with softies and avoid any anemones.



P.S. -- Be sure to feed the foxface lots of greens. Natural seaweed on a clip works best. They will eat absolutely everything you put in the tank but it's very important that they get a lot of natural seaweed in their diet.

[Foxface]

thanks, i will have to think about re-homing him . he does alot of that " swimming up and down from top to bottom". i thought it was nateral. boy am i glade i found this site. hay, any recomendations on the softies? is there anything i can get for my clarkii and tomato clowns? as for feeding him greens, i give hime a peace of seaweed at least twice a day on a clip. i try to make the peace of seaweed about 1 1/2" X 2". is that enought for him or should i give him more. i also give flake and brine shrimp as well. my fish are the foxface and clarkii, tomato clown and one blue damsel.

[Ninong]

thanks, i will have to think about re-homing him . he does alot of that " swimming up and down from top to bottom". i thought it was nateral.

Mine didn't do that until after I had him for at least 18-24 months. In other words, he didn't do it in my 120-gal tank until he got to be about 5" long. He didn't do that as a juvenile. He was about 7" long when I gave him away to a guy with a 300-gal tank.

hay, any recomendations on the softies?

I would suggest you try some Ricordea florida. They're really very beautiful, fairly inexpensive and they're easy to keep. They also adapt to various lighting conditions, including moderate-to-low lighting such as that found at the base of the live rock structure where it meets the sand bed. They will reproduce (by splitting) but won't take over your tank like regular mushrooms.

...is there anything i can get for my clarkii and tomato clowns?

I think it would have been better to have two of one species so that they can form a pair. Both of these species get fairly large and both can be fairly aggressive once they're mature.

Your present lighting is really too weak for any of the host anemones but one thing about Clarkii clownfish is that they accept all ten of the clownfish-hosting anemones. Not now, maybe later on down the road if you improve your lighting.

As you may already know, any two clownfish of the same species will form a mated pair provided you don't start out with two mature females.

They will do fine without an anemone or even a substitute surrogate host but if you may find that they will accept a lot of different soft corals and LPS hard corals as a substitute host. You might try a hammer coral (Euphyllia), which is an LPS hard coral.

...as for feeding him greens, i give hime a peace of seaweed at least twice a day on a clip. i try to make the peace of seaweed about 1 1/2" X 2". is that enought for him or should i give him more. i also give flake and brine shrimp as well. my fish are the foxface and clarkii, tomato clown and one blue damsel.

You could even feed just one piece of seaweed of that size once a day if you're feeding other foods to the tank because the foxface is going to eat everything that hits the water.

Skip the brine shrimp (unless they are either gut loaded first or newly hatched babies with the yolk attached) because they're not very nutritious. Mysis shrimp are much better.

[Foxface]

my foxface is about 4 1/2 to 5" now and he acts frecked out up in the corner alot. would the tank size have anything to do with it? i know i should not have put the tomato clown in there but he was given to me after i bought the clarkii, maybe i will re-home him as well and get another clarkii. how hard are the hammer corals to keep? as for the feeding the foxface seaweed once a day, i will cut back because like you said he eats anything that hits the water. he even tries to take the seaweed from my hand as i am puting it in the clip. i have to kind of shew him away. the brine shrimp are inriched but maybe i will swich to the mysis shrimp. thanks.

P.s. this site is so much more help than the fish chanel.com i have been trying to get help on. they don't answer your questions and if they do there not very helpfull. thanks again

[Ninong]

my foxface is about 4 1/2 to 5" now and he acts frecked out up in the corner alot. would the tank size have anything to do with it?

I think these fish really require a minimum size of 6-ft long and at least 135 gallons, but 180 gallons would be even better. I don't think they do well in smaller tanks.

i know i should not have put the tomato clown in there but he was given to me after i bought the clarkii, maybe i will re-home him as well and get another clarkii.

As long as the new Clarkii clown is an immature juvenile, you will be good to go. Adding a new Clarkii that is at least 1/2"-3/4" smaller than the one you have now should make the introduction quick and not all that stressful.

...how hard are the hammer corals to keep?

I've never kept one but I believe they're fairly easy to keep -- certainly a lot easier than Goniopora, a species that almost all clownfish adore.

[Foxface]

Thank you for a the info, you have been a big help. see you around as i will be on this site alot. i have never gotten so much help from one site before. if there is anything else you can think of please let me know. and thank you again.