Planning 55

[fishguy2727]

I am setting up a 55. I am getting about a 100 pounds of live rock.

The max stocking of fish will be: a pair of percula clowns, a pair of green clown gobies, a coral beauty, a purple firefish, and a royal gramma. In addition there will be small hermit crabs and snails for cleaning as well as other invertebrates like featherdusters.

I am trying to figure out what filtration I want to use. I may set it up with a sump and a Super Skimmer from Coralife. What do you guys think would be minimum for this setup?

[PuffDandEd]

Sump and Skimmer are a must! I like the Pentair modular filter system with UV, Chemical, etc...

[fishguy2727]

The sump would just house any extra live rock and others seem to think the skimmer is not even necessary with such a light load. I may use the sump for a refugium.

[bsagecko]

ok IMO, get the biggest skimmer you can afford the oct 150 NW is popular. (Never have used it myself) It is less than $200 and it is good for a tank IMO up to 90g in case you decided to upgrade.
If that is all the fish you are going to have i would skip on the sump and just go with a 20g fuge.
But if you insist on the sump i would do a 29g tank with a 10-17 gallon fuge inside the sump plus a skimmer

and really you dont even need a skimmer if you go with 29g sump/fuge as long as you do like 30% water changes like every 2 weeks.
With that small of a system with no corals i would not do a skimmer but if you insist the oct 150 NW would work

[fishguy2727]

If I use a skimmer it will be the Super Skimmer. My cousin is breaking down his 90 and I am getting a good deal on anything I want. That is the skimmer he has.

If I did a sump it would be a refugium, otherwise nothing would be in it but the pump.

I am looking for minimum maintenance. I do not want to have to worry about water changes every week, or tweaking different things all the time. I am trying to keep it as simple as possible.