I haven't had a tank in a few years and I got this 55 for free so decided to try a reef tank again. It's a 55 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump and a 100 gallon in sump skimmer. The return pump creates 700gph of water flow and I have a 750gph power head that disrupts the flow so different areas of the tank have different amounts of water flow. For lighting I have a 165 watt Apollo LED fixture that in my opinion was well worth the money, I have had the tank set up for only a month and have had huge coraline algae growth and everything in the tank is vibrant and healthy. Right now I have a zoo colony and a colony of green metallic star polyps. For fish and inverts a fire fish, gold banded maroon clown, large green true carpet anemone, decorator crab, 2 sand sifting starfish, lots of different crabs and snails, lots of feather dusters, and several other things that I'm not sure what they are,came on the live rock. The carpet anemone was a bad idea as it has taken over a large portion of the tank floor and eaten $60 worth of fish that I have added to the tank. I am trying to get rid of the anemone before I and anything else to the tank so that I can do a bit of rearranging first. I want a diverse reef with lots of color when I'm done. Any ideas on some hearty corals that will coexist? Anything else I would need to keep the tank healthy? The pic here is an old one, I don't have any current ones.
The tank was set up with all live sand and about 20lbs of sand from an established tank that was torn down. I had a large algae bloom so I bought one of sifting starfish and got one free with my order. They seem to be doing ok when I can see them but I guess time will tell...