Newbie 55Gal Tank Setup Questions

[mkjava]

Hi all, I just setup my first saltwater tank about 2 months ago, really love the hobby so far, and want to make sure I'm on the right track. I get a lot of conflicting advice at the local fish store, so it's hard to tell good advice from bad. Here's what I have:

- 55 Gal Tank (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 30 nitrates, 8.4 ph)
- Emperor 400 Hang on filter
- Aqua-C Remora Skimmer (on the way, just ordered it based on what I've read here)
- approx 30lbs live rock
- live sand
- 2 clownfish, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 sailfin tang
- 1 coral banded shrimp, 9 turbo snails, 6 trochus snails, 3 red-legged hermits
- standard flourescent lights (i know i'll need to upgrade when i want to start building a reef, what would be the best way to go on that?)

My questions at this point would be if this looks like a good start and where to go from here? I've got some hair algae, and I know I need to expand the cleaning crew. What would be good choices for that beyond what I already have? And what about the amount of live rock, what is appropriate for a tank of this size? Thanks in advance for any advice!

[amcarrig]

Whew....4 fish in two months is a lot. I think you should just sit back and let the tank stabilize for a little while. You can add snails and hermits for clean up but the tang should take care of most of the hair algae.

Watch that coral beauty if and when you decide to go reef. Some are reef safe and some are not.

Good luck and keep us posted!

With your fish load, you're going to need to help that filter of yours out by adding more rock. You can save yourself some money if you want and buy some cheap base rock from www.hi-rocks.com. If you don't want to go that route, I would add another 10-20 pounds of live rock.

[mkjava]

Thanks for the advice, I already thought I was a little ahead of myself on the fish, it's hard to remain patient! I will take the time to invest in some more live rock before any other additions to the tank.