Hi everyone!
I am new to these boards and new to the hobby. I've read a ton or posts and articles and feel entirely confused about what I should be doing. Two months ago I setup a 45 gallon reef ready glass tank with 50 lbs of Tonga live rock, 30 gallon sump, 3" of sand, a Top Fathom 110a skimmer, 200w of atentic/10k lights and an external Little Giant 3 pump for circulation. If anyone is living in the Southern Illinois region (Carbondale) and wants to stop by my place to check out my system, I could sure use some helpful advice.
For now, maybe you could help me by answering some of my urgent concerns:
1) How much water flow is too much? I have about 1100 g/h running through my 45 gallon tank. Is it too much or not enough for a reef tank?
2) I have about 15 turbo snails, 10 Nassarius Snails, 15 hermit crabs, 1 emerald crab, 1 brital star, 1 sand sifting sea cucumber and 2 cleaner clams. Is this an adequate clean-up crew or am I over doing it?
3) How do I know if my protein skimmer is working properly? It is producing some bubbles that are flowing into the collection cup, but it doesn't seem like much. Over about 3 days, I collect about 1/2 inch of dark green liquid in the collection cup.
4) How can I tell when my water quality is good enough to start adding corals? All my tests are well under the acceptable limits, but they are not absolutely zero yet. What else besides whats included in my basic Master Test Kit should I be checking?
5) Every day I notice that the snails are leaving a trail of detris all over my rock. I’ve been using a power head to blow it off the rock, and doing this really creates cloudy mess in my tank. But after about an hour, it seems like this snail “poop†just settles back down on the rocks again. Should I worry about cleaning up this stuff, or just leave it? I am worried that this stuff may cause ammonia build up in the water. Is there something that will eat this stuff that I can add to my tank. Maybe I need to get rid of some snails?
6) I have seen many posts about phosphate reactors being the best solution for controlling algae. Should I be considering setting one of these up now? What about ozone, ultraviolet light, mechanical filtration or the million other things people are using to clean their water? What is really essential for a qualit system that I need to add to my tank setup right away?
I better stop there before I make someone angry with all my stupid questions.
Thank you for your feedback.
I am new to these boards and new to the hobby. I've read a ton or posts and articles and feel entirely confused about what I should be doing. Two months ago I setup a 45 gallon reef ready glass tank with 50 lbs of Tonga live rock, 30 gallon sump, 3" of sand, a Top Fathom 110a skimmer, 200w of atentic/10k lights and an external Little Giant 3 pump for circulation. If anyone is living in the Southern Illinois region (Carbondale) and wants to stop by my place to check out my system, I could sure use some helpful advice.
For now, maybe you could help me by answering some of my urgent concerns:
1) How much water flow is too much? I have about 1100 g/h running through my 45 gallon tank. Is it too much or not enough for a reef tank?
2) I have about 15 turbo snails, 10 Nassarius Snails, 15 hermit crabs, 1 emerald crab, 1 brital star, 1 sand sifting sea cucumber and 2 cleaner clams. Is this an adequate clean-up crew or am I over doing it?
3) How do I know if my protein skimmer is working properly? It is producing some bubbles that are flowing into the collection cup, but it doesn't seem like much. Over about 3 days, I collect about 1/2 inch of dark green liquid in the collection cup.
4) How can I tell when my water quality is good enough to start adding corals? All my tests are well under the acceptable limits, but they are not absolutely zero yet. What else besides whats included in my basic Master Test Kit should I be checking?
5) Every day I notice that the snails are leaving a trail of detris all over my rock. I’ve been using a power head to blow it off the rock, and doing this really creates cloudy mess in my tank. But after about an hour, it seems like this snail “poop†just settles back down on the rocks again. Should I worry about cleaning up this stuff, or just leave it? I am worried that this stuff may cause ammonia build up in the water. Is there something that will eat this stuff that I can add to my tank. Maybe I need to get rid of some snails?
6) I have seen many posts about phosphate reactors being the best solution for controlling algae. Should I be considering setting one of these up now? What about ozone, ultraviolet light, mechanical filtration or the million other things people are using to clean their water? What is really essential for a qualit system that I need to add to my tank setup right away?
I better stop there before I make someone angry with all my stupid questions.
Thank you for your feedback.
