Salt water aquarium additives and maintenance.

Question
Hi Scott,
I'm somewhat experienced with a 55 gallon ,fish only,(one Blue tang - one clownfish Percula) Salt water tank. The fish are 3 years old, 3 inches in size and very healthy. I want to upgrade my tank to accomodate corals and invertebrates ( as in a beginning reefer). At this time, I monitor S.G., Calcium, alkalinity and P.H. levels. However, I'm sure that I need to upgrade my equipmemt, maintenance and additives. I now have four 40 watt vho fluorescents, protein skimmer, wet-dry filter and two power heads(in the tank).
Can you please recommend specific corals, invertebrae , additives, Water Chemistry Parameters, and equipment upgrades, if necessary for this beginning reefer.
By all means if you are a supplier with a catalog and/or price list please send those to me @:
   1874 Del Oro Crt.
   Dunedin, Fla. 34698
Thank you very much  

Answer
Jim,
I've had the hardest time getting your questions answered.  Seems like every time I'd come out here to answer it the site would start acting all screwy.  Sorry for the delay.

Regardless, let's see if we can't get you taken care of...

Sounds to me like you've got the right filtration going on the tank.  I'm curious why you've got the extra powerheads going.  Is your filter's return pump not pushing 600 gallons per hour or more at the head pressure you have against it?  If not, I would suggest upgrading the return pump to do so and ditch the powerheads.  Less equipment to maintain the better.  Spend the time enjoying your tank rather than cleaning it!  I suggest the Rio 3100 or the Velocity 2 pumps that we carry on our online catalog at www.aquariumcrazyfish.com

Before doing this, please make sure that the overflow box you have feeding the filter can handle that much waterflow.

You've got a fairly decent lighting system on there but I really wouldn't recommend some of the moderate to high light requiring corals.  In the long run, I'd consider upgrading to a powercompact fixture.  Most of the 48" fixtures come with four 65 watt bulbs.  This would increase your lighting quite a bit and also increase the numbers of animals that would do well in your tank.  JBJ makes a great fixture that has been increasing beginning reefers success since it was released a couple of years ago.  Check it out via our online catalog.

As far as the types of livestock you should add.  I will always suggest picking up a couple of species guides to educate yourself as to what is out there and to get an idea of what they require.  Julian Sprung has some of the best coral and invert species guides out there.  Check them out on our online catalog.  You should keep what you want in your fish tank, not what is dictated to you by someone.  Again, I would suggest staying with low to moderate light corals and photosynthetic inverts until you upgrade the lighting.

Live rock and sand will help supplement your filtration and provide a home for your fish, inverts and corals.  I recommend about a pound per gallon for the sand and and between one and two pounds per gallon on the live rock depending on how full you want the tank to look.

Additives... you'll want to continue adding calcium and you'll want to start looking at using a supplement with iodine, and other important trace elements in it.  I strongly recommend using Two Little Fishies C-Balance calcium additive and SeaElements for all the rest of them.  Again, keep it simple with only a couple of bottles under the tank.

Foods for the corals are going to depend on what you are buying and their feeding requirements.  A good phytoplankton diet will do wonders.  I strongly suggest using BioPlankton by LiquidLife.  I've tried all of the plankton diets out there and this product by far produces the best results.

Water parameters are as follows:
pH:  8.2
Specific Gravity:  1.021 to 1.023
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: less than 20 (as close to 0 as possible)
Phosphate: .05 or less
Calcium: between 375 and 450
Iodine: .5
Alkalinity: 2.5 to 4.5 is typically fine

Best of luck with your tank, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Regards,
Scott Johnson
Aquarium Crazy Fish
www.aquariumcrazyfish.com