New to the hobby, questions and pics

[reef_monkey]

Hi Everyone!

I am a new saltwater aquarist and would like to introduce my tank and hopefully get suggestions on optimizing my setup and getting some questions answered so that my soon to be fish and coral thrive. I guess first things first, I have a 34g Solana tank, I have set up the water, live rock and live sand and have had it cycling for about 7 days now. I have a current sunpod MH light on it, it has peripheral LED's but they are not working at this time. I have the original pump and skimmer running in it (this set up was in storage for several years).
On to the many questions I have about how I can help my tank thrive in the future. My skimmer does not seem to be producing the bubbling effect I was hoping for, I do plan to pull it out in the next day, take it apart and see if I can clean out any junk that may be in there. If that does not fix it, does anyone have any recommendations or experience with the nano reef systems skimmer, I was reading about it, it sits up higher in the tank but seemed to have good reviews. Next I would like to change my light, I have been given several suggestions from the LFS and I dug into google for reviews on all of them. I feel the AI Prime would probably be the best suited light for my tank, I would like to do corals (very noob on coral names), a few fish, maybe an anenome down the road. Suggestions on lights would be welcome, as well as any suggestions on corals that might do well in the tank I have. I added some live rock to my bio ball section which is very small and located under the white screw pictured below, is this a good idea?..should I change anything? I also seem to blow through fresh water like no tomorrow, basically two of the top off container that came with the tank, I imagine they are 12-20 oz each if that. Is this typical? I run my light about 6 hours a day right now. I checked my water about 4 days ago, ammonia high, no nitrites/nitrates, Sp. G is 1.025 as of today. I use a piece of black filter mesh, fairly porous for my intake slot, and a piece of blue floss in the middle section on a ledge above the carbon bag which sits on the bottom. I am a newbie and will welcome any and all criticism and suggestions! Thanks for reviewing my tank, if you need any more information from me please let me know and I will respond as soon as I can

Attached pictures hope it works

~ reef_monkey ~

 

[reef_monkey]

One with skimmer and one with small area for bio balls I filled with live rock. Also another quick question. I do not currently use a top but am interested in something for a couple of reasons. One I dont want to lose fish due to jumping which i've read a lot about and two, my water seems to attract dust and little furbaby hair and I don't want that circling around on the top of the water.

Thanks everyone!

 

[reef_monkey]

Adding my water test results from tonight. Looks real high in nitrates, ammonia to me looked negative but then might have been leaning to a trace. Any advice on nitrates welcome also!!

 

[Capt.Nemo]

I would do about a 20% water change.

 

[Scottshopinc]

I have the Cardiff, the little brother of the Solana. I replaced the biobals with seachem pond matri. Also purchased the intank media basket and foam holder. It will help tremendously. And makes changing your filter pads and chemical media much easier, you will notice a big difference with it over the lil black filter plate. As you water evaporation I purchased the Tunze nano ato/automatic water top off. Those bottle never worked well for me. I'd wait another 3 weeks, then do a big water change, you could use some instant ocean biospera to help boost your bacteria population to bring that ammonia down. But I am still new, maybe someone else knows better.

 

[reef_monkey]

Thanks for response to my inquiries. I was wondering, do I need to buy a bag for the Seachem pond matrix if I got it, I plan to buy the intank media basket, that is really nice and super convenient, which for me limiting frustration is best lol. Also, what are your thoughts on Seachem Purigen? Should I also add that? Right now its the stock in the Solana 34g AIO and I have a carbon bag on the bottom and 1 sheet of filter floss riding on that top black drip plate. I looked at the Tunze skimmer also, it seems nice, mixed reviews all over the net. I just want to silence my tank as much as I can. Right now between the waterfall sound, the skimmer, the MH light and the extra fans cooling it, you might as well stick a v6 engine in my living room.

Also I spoke to my LFS, they informed me my nitrate spike is to be expected while cycling, also I found out that Publix spring water (local grocery chain) is about 40-80ppm nitrates. I took it all back and switched it out for purified(distilled) 0 nitrates in it, so I think the way my tank sucks fresh water that I was pouring nitrates into the tank with that spring water. I may need a water change just to fix that mistake.

Appreciate any and all help you can give. My lady and I are excited to start adding higher life forms soon!

Thanks!