Upgrading my saltwater tank?
Hello I currently have a 48 gallon saltwater reef tank and and upgrading to a 55 gallon. I have an ocellaris clown, Hawaiian tang, fire fish, and several hermits /snails, etc., as cleanup crew. I would like to get another clown or 2 and also a blue hippo tang. What would be the best way for me to switch the tank over. I will be adding live rock and sand from the other tank. Should I add this and the fish including the new fish at the same time? Also would 2 Hawaiian tangs fight? How many fish would be ok in a 55 gallon tank? Thank you
-Thanks for the help, I think I will just keep both tanks then. Starting the 55 as a brand new tank. I will keep my eye out for deals on larger tanks for future upgrades. I know the 55 was not muuch of an upgrade but i got a really good deal on the tank with asll supplies, metal halides, live rock and sand. too good to miss !
Hello I currently have a 48 gallon saltwater reef tank and and upgrading to a 55 gallon. I have an ocellaris clown, Hawaiian tang, fire fish, and several hermits /snails, etc., as cleanup crew. I would like to get another clown or 2 and also a blue hippo tang. What would be the best way for me to switch the tank over. I will be adding live rock and sand from the other tank. Should I add this and the fish including the new fish at the same time? Also would 2 Hawaiian tangs fight? How many fish would be ok in a 55 gallon tank? Thank you
unfortunately you won’t have room for much more than you have now, 55 gallons really is not much more than 48 gallons, you might want to consider a bigger upgrade, maybe to around 75 gallons, then you will have more options.
You’re not really going to have room for the other tang or in all honesty the tang you already have. Hawaiian tang get quite large and are active so really need at least a 90 or 120 gal tank. hippo need at least a 75 gal. Also it is not generally recommended to keep more that one tang unless they are all introduced at the same time or you may have aggression problems.
As far as moving everything over since most of the good bacteria will be on the live rock and sand your best bet is to move everything over at one time, rock , fish, sand water and all. Drain your existing tank down about half way putting the water in your new tank then move your rock and then sand over then drain most of the remaining water into the new tank leaving just enough to cover the fish. This will make the fish much easier to net. Then move the fish and the remaining water. You will need to have enough water premixed and the the correct temperature, SG and pH to finish filling up your new tank.
Upgrade to a 72 gallon.
There is almost no benefit to such a small upgrade unless you just wan to deal with a brand new tank. What your foing will allow for an extra 2 inchs of fish.
Thats alot of work and risk.
but we all do it for the love of the hobby.
If your going to upgrade then upgrade i say.
Good Luck.
your clown is most surely still male and adding any more clowns at this point is almost surely going to lead to the death of the new one.
as said the 2 tangs will most likely fight vigoraously as well.
your new 55 would be over stocked anyway.
hippo tangs need 125 at least and the hawiian tang should be in a 90.
i’d reccomend upgrading to a 90 if anything. or just losing the tang and get some more smaller fish, dotties, grammas, firefish, damsels, chromis, fairy wrasses, dwarf angels, etc…