Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I am looking into converting my existing 55 gallon freshwater tank or possibly purchasing a 75 gallon setup. Meanwhile I have been readings about different inhabitants and was wondering if anyone could help me out with a couple compatability concerns: I am looking at a Snowflake Moray Eel but was concerned with it's compatability with reefs. The site says to use caution with reefs. What types of corals might not mix with this type of eel? And which tank size would be optimal?

Eels tend to knock everything over, that's why you need to have everything glued down GOOD if you want to keep one with corals. Plus they are great escape artists and will most likely eat any shrimp/crab in the tank

Most people that I have heard of doing an Eel never do it for long before they ditch the Eel and go full reef. You also have to worry about feeding, over crowding after it grows, not being able to mix most of the coral/inverts available.

Welcome and get the 75 gallon. You will be much happier. Or get the 120 for sale here for $1000 and save a whole bunch of money.

Scott wrote:Welcome and get the 75 gallon. You will be much happier. Or get the 120 for sale here for $1000 and save a whole bunch of money.

Scott is saying this because the 55 gallon tank is so narrow. Doing anything like placing rock, cleaning the glass is an large effort.

agree on how not-deep the 55G is... get a 75G or get the $1k setup, as others have said... the $1k setup in forsale is a KILLER deal, I wish I had the money, I'd snatch it up.

Thanks for the advice everyone -- very helpful. I already have an eel in my fresh water tank and eels have always been a favorite of mine but i don't know if i would sacrifice the ability to create a great reef. What about the compatability of other fish like triggers, tangs, and different clowns in the same tank?

There are a few triggers that could be put in a reef tank. The main concern is size of tank both for the trigger and tangs. A 75 is on the small end for say one of each and I would only go with a few select tangs in a 75, kole, yellow, purple. As for Triggers I have one on hold at the moment at a local store. I'm putting a Blue Jaw Trigger in my 135 gal reef tank. From what I have read about them they rarely go after fish but might take out all shrimp, snails and crabs. Other triggers that are so called reef safe triggers are Pink Tail triggers, Niger triggers, Crosshatch triggers, and one more i can't think of.

If you wish to go reef and do not have the tank yet the above mentioned tank would be great to buy. Even if you tried to get all the proper stuff for a 75, maybe even 55 you could and would easily spend over $1000. Lord knows I did for my 55. I don't even want to begin to think about what i spent so far on my 135, and i'm not even finished spending.

Yeah the only problem is having a thousand dollars cash at one time, which seems like a lot of people's problem in buying that setup. I'm just a college student and planning on buying my setup over the summer when i can raise some money. I have looked at the blue throat (or blue jaw) trigger and see that it says reef compatable with caution and a minimum of 70 gallons. Is there another site where I can find more specific reef-fish compatabilities. I've been using www.liveaquaria.com for most of my information on species.

Try a book. I have "Marine Fishes" by Scott W. Micheal and it helped me a ton when I first started and even now.