New reefer looking for insight

[jerseynano]

Hi everyone I am new to the hobby and this forum.I am from New Jersey and purchased most of the setup from my LFS, Ocean Gallery II(livestock selection is great) except for the tank which I got on amazon. Aquarium has ben running for little over a month and fully cycled pretty quickly.Pictures will be posted. Here is my setup:

• Jbj picotope 3 gallon bowfront
• stock HOB filter (running filter pad, carbon, bio sponge)(40gph)
• stock 9 watt light 50/50
• Hydor pico powerhead (180gph)
• Aqueon 10W mini heater (tank temp is 78)
• live sand and 3.5lbs of live rock

Clean up crew:

• 2 turbo snails
• 1 astraea snail
• scarlet hermit
• blue legged hermit

Current Livestock:

• False Perc

Questions:

1. Have the powerhead adjusted to about half strength right now is this good cant seem to figure out when the power head flow is just right?(so including filter waterflow is around 40gph)
2. I understand that the bio sponge is not necessary because the LR provides the bio filtration and from my research most people in this tank just run a filter pad for mechanical and chemi-pure elite for the chemical filtration. Should I run chemi-pure or what media?
3. Aquascape suggestions? should i add more live rock in the back?
4. My levels are all 0 based on my api test kit so i was planning on adding some corals this weekend. The light is only suited for Zoas and mushrooms and I don't plan on upgrading it for a while. Just looking for insight or possible species that would thrive in my tank.
5. suggestions for other invertebrates/livestock I could eventually add to the system.(can i add a sexy shrimp to the tank)I understand I am pushing it by even having the small false perc in the tank so I don't plan on adding any more fish. My false perc seems very curious and happy.
6. Final question for now is just looking for some help identifying 2 hitchhikers. One is some type of leather coral i believe and the other I think is a large fan worm. Question with this is mainly about the coral that came hidden on the LR. It has grown and opened up more since i placed the live rock in my tank. Can i sustain this type of coral with my current setup?
   
   Answers to any of the above questions are greatly appreciated.Thank you and any help, advice, constructive criticism, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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[gone fishin]

I'm sorry I have nothing for you. I have never kept anything that small before. There is a nano forum. You may want to post there for some tailored advice. Good luck

 

[Pluedke1]

Definitely check out nano forum, you shouldn't have a clownish or any other fish for that matter IMO in a 3 gal tank.

 

[jerseynano]

update: Coral has been identified as Kenya tree coral.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1 on no fish. I havn't had a saltwater nano, only freshwater, but realy it's even hard to find fish that would be happy in a 10 gallon reef. Most of the nanos I've seen (or pico for a 3g?) have had only coral. My LFS has a 1/2 gallon with a few zoas and macro algae. It's neat looking.

 

[Zooxanthus]

1. If you can try to make pockets of different flow then you can move things around to see how they react.

2. I have always used chemi pure 24 hours at a time, I cant remember but i think it says that in the directions. Carbon will leech nutrients out of your water and mess with the PH balance as well so I stopped using it all together. I use micron pads for mechanical filtration, they are a little expensive to buy but i bleech them and reuse them, just make sure you get all the bleech out first with some declor or just letting it dray out for a day. I have been using the same ones for over a year now.

3. More live rock is a good thing IMO.

4. All levels are at 0 I hope this is not true for calcium magnesium and PH. Those just to name a few will have to be stable as well. desired levels should be on the test kits. I have read that xenia corals are very hardy and are often the first corals to repopulate an unhealthy reef.

5. I would concider getting a bag of coepeopods (spell check) They have babies and those in turn will feed your coral.

6. the feather dusters in your tank are filter feeders so they need a good source of plankton you can buy these in a bottle to feed also but be careful with it especially in a nano as it can pollute your water pretty fast.

I think a clown fish is fine actually even in my 180 gal they dont swim around much, they always stay next to the anemone.

hope that helped and best of luck to you!

 

[jerseynano]

zooxanthus thanks you very much. extremely helpful. as for levels are at 0 I meant ammonia nitrite and nitrate