Outside of your system and qt tank, per se, I'd advise...pretty well in this order, if you have to prioritize.
1. ro/di filter or access to ro/di water. Yes, you can use one in an apartment: if you have a washing machine, use a brass Y connector to give yourself access to the cold water and put the waste into the machine. There is also a sink faucet adapter. In this hobby, just resign yourself: you're going to learn to do plumbing, teflon tape, purple glue and gate valves, hose barbs, hose clamps, interior dimension, exterior dimension, and bulkhead connectors and all; it'll come. Note: never use brass AFTER the water has been filtered.
2. ATO. An autotopoff unit. They don't have to be pricey. You can't be running constantly to check your 'fill line' and add two tablespoons of ro/di to keep your salinity steady. Let a little float switch (sorta like the float in your toilet tank, only electric) do the job.
3. Refractometer. If you can run quick (as in instant) salinity checks, you will not make as many guesstimates. This is how you check bag salinity and tank salinity quickly and reliably. They have no battery. Protect it from water and keep it dry and it'll live long in your service.
4. test for alkalinity and a jar of DKH buffer. Once you have living critters, you MUST track this, nearly daily in some phases, until you reach stability, and then at least once a week. Don't chase PH---track alk and keep it steady. I keep mine at 8.3. If it trends below 7.9 your fish will be suffering and nothing nice will be happy. If you start keeping stony coral, you'll also need a calcium and magnesium test and supplement. Also---don't buy test kits. Buy a test that works best for a particular element, and that's dead easy to run, and that gives you NUMBERS, not 'it's pink.' That's personal opinion, but if you're asking help and say your test result is a color---my next question is 'how pink?' and neither of us can help the other much. If your answer, say, on alk, is 6.7---I can say precisely, OMG, buffer is needed now!
5. THEN the skimmer. You won't get much out of one at the start, because your tank is squeaky clean---almost too clean. But ultimately as your house needs a toilet---your tank needs a way to clear out the amino acids left in the water.
6. if you do have a lot of hair algae, a GFO reactor is indicated. All the algae eaters in the world won't help you without some means to get the spare phosphate OUT of the tank. Figure about 1 jar of GFO medium per 50 gallons of tank to be de-phosphated. And change it out monthly until you see results. THe stuff doesn't change in any way when it's gotten saturated and useless: you can't tell by color. When you're done with phosphate removal, remove the reactor: don't run them forever. Also, do wash the medium as instructed: the iron pellets are safe. The dust on them is tiny enough to cause trouble with some corals. So get it out. Wash until water runs clear.
HTH.
1. ro/di filter or access to ro/di water. Yes, you can use one in an apartment: if you have a washing machine, use a brass Y connector to give yourself access to the cold water and put the waste into the machine. There is also a sink faucet adapter. In this hobby, just resign yourself: you're going to learn to do plumbing, teflon tape, purple glue and gate valves, hose barbs, hose clamps, interior dimension, exterior dimension, and bulkhead connectors and all; it'll come. Note: never use brass AFTER the water has been filtered.
2. ATO. An autotopoff unit. They don't have to be pricey. You can't be running constantly to check your 'fill line' and add two tablespoons of ro/di to keep your salinity steady. Let a little float switch (sorta like the float in your toilet tank, only electric) do the job.
3. Refractometer. If you can run quick (as in instant) salinity checks, you will not make as many guesstimates. This is how you check bag salinity and tank salinity quickly and reliably. They have no battery. Protect it from water and keep it dry and it'll live long in your service.
4. test for alkalinity and a jar of DKH buffer. Once you have living critters, you MUST track this, nearly daily in some phases, until you reach stability, and then at least once a week. Don't chase PH---track alk and keep it steady. I keep mine at 8.3. If it trends below 7.9 your fish will be suffering and nothing nice will be happy. If you start keeping stony coral, you'll also need a calcium and magnesium test and supplement. Also---don't buy test kits. Buy a test that works best for a particular element, and that's dead easy to run, and that gives you NUMBERS, not 'it's pink.' That's personal opinion, but if you're asking help and say your test result is a color---my next question is 'how pink?' and neither of us can help the other much. If your answer, say, on alk, is 6.7---I can say precisely, OMG, buffer is needed now!
5. THEN the skimmer. You won't get much out of one at the start, because your tank is squeaky clean---almost too clean. But ultimately as your house needs a toilet---your tank needs a way to clear out the amino acids left in the water.
6. if you do have a lot of hair algae, a GFO reactor is indicated. All the algae eaters in the world won't help you without some means to get the spare phosphate OUT of the tank. Figure about 1 jar of GFO medium per 50 gallons of tank to be de-phosphated. And change it out monthly until you see results. THe stuff doesn't change in any way when it's gotten saturated and useless: you can't tell by color. When you're done with phosphate removal, remove the reactor: don't run them forever. Also, do wash the medium as instructed: the iron pellets are safe. The dust on them is tiny enough to cause trouble with some corals. So get it out. Wash until water runs clear.
HTH.
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