Help With My Newish Tank

[BigBeginner]

Hi, im new to fishforums and to marine life, and just wondering if i could get some suggestions for some fish that are easy to take care of but still nice, a clean up crew, corals that arn't to picky about lighting and waterflow and hardy (in thinking starting out with some mushrooms?), and extra things i need to get/buy or look for to make sure the water is safe, ect.

My tank is 55 gals (i thought if i was going to start a marine tank i might as well get a decent sized 1), i've had it for about 3-4 months now (with some rocks and sand). A few weeks after i got the tank i got a few damsels and a starfish, both the damsels died in about a week, and the starfish is still alive. i just bought 2 more damsels and a turbo snail a few days ago and they are doing fine. Also i got a small toadstool mushroom leather about the size of a dime.

Also, i wanted to know if adding liverocks later on will affect the water quality and if i should just add all of it now and wait a few weeks then add fish or if its fine to add them later? Right now i only have a couple plain rocks and 1 liverock that came with the leather.

My last water test results were:
PH = 8.2-8.4
Amon = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 20

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[SkiFletch]

to the salty side of life and the forums

Damselfish are good beginner fish to be sure, but they come with one caveat, they are extremely aggressive fish. Having them in your tank will make it very difficult to add new fish, as they will likely be bullied by the damsels.

Having said that, some other good fish suitable for a 55g include most gobies, clownfish, flasher wrasses, and fairy wrasses would all make good choices. You could also go with some blennies or dwarf angelfish, although those do have some incompatabilities with corals/inverts. Your other end of the spectrum would be predator tanks, but those aren't the easiest out there. I'd suggest having a look through liveaquaria.com or some other large online retailer to see whats out there and what you may be able to have in your tank. Then perhaps come back and ask about them

 

[mr oscar]

if you going to add live rock add it at the beginning, you can add it later but only in very small amounts, best to add it first if you can afford too, less problems later

 

[BigBeginner]

Alright, ill probably keep the damsels for now and ill just start setting up my live rock, and ill be looking around for fish.
Thanks

For clowns, will i need to get coral of them?
and what type of corals should i get?

is it bad to have snails and stars in the same tank?

 

[connorsbala]

Nope, captive bred clowns these days dont need anemones to host in
If you choose to gor for a reef, then you need to make sure your lighting etc is ok for them etc. Make sure youve added all your live rock before you add your coral as if theres a slight spike in the water quality from die-off, at least you wont lose any exspensive coral!
Start off with zooanthids, mushrooms and types of leathers which are hardy etc.
If you want an anemone for your clownfish, do your research and wait at least 6 months...ideally a year! But your clowns dont need oen to live in like in the wild!

 

[BigBeginner]

okay thanks ill try some mushies and zoos after i get my rockwork in and ill wait and get anems later

 

[BigBeginner]

this isnt really related to my tank but what does curing do and what the diff if a rock is cured or not

also, this is kinda of a stupid question, are liverocks really alive, like need nutrients and grow, or do they just have bacteria on them and hitchhikers

and wat should i get for a clean up crew in my 55gal tank

 

[connorsbala]

If you get cured it doesnt take as long to cycle your tank as uncured as its been in a tank of water for a few months where its spiked the water etc. Al the life etc is in it so you can put it in the tank and hopefully wont have too much to deal with water quality.
If you put uncured rock in a tank, it will take months to cycle as apposed to a few weeks.
Well LR is part of your filtration system, so its refereed to as 'live' as it breaks down the ammonia etc in your tank, hense why its a good idea to have 1kg per gallon of water.
For your CUC, you want a fe hermits, mixture of snails which will deal with different types of algae, detrius etc

 

[BigBeginner]

alright and are most LR from LPS cured or do i need to cure em or should i ask?

and wat is a fe hermit? and is aiptasia bad? or can i just ignore it?