My tank has been running for around 6 months by now, and I have just had 2 clownfish in it, both of them have been doing fine. I started this tank with adding coral in mind, and after neglecting the tank a little I want to start getting ready to add corals.
Currently, I have several types of algae present. There is a ton of GHA on the rock, some cyano on the rock, and some algae on the sand (diatoms? not too sure what species it is.)
I know it would be a bad idea to add coral to my tank in its current state, so on top of weekly water changes and manual removal of the algae, I just was wondering what else I can do in order to get my tank in a position where adding coral would be a possibility.
Should I add a clean-up crew? I was going to get a cuc but one of my LFS told me I should hold off if I have low levels of nitrate/phos, but after doing some more digging it looks to me like as long as there is algae, then snails should be fine.
I'm also curious as to how long it'll take to suppress the algae, whether it be a month, 2 months, 3 months, etc.
Also, currently, all I have for filtration is a protein skimmer (bubble magus, super good so far) and some filter floss. Should I add anything else, or anything different?
My nitrates are 0, ph 8.0, salinity 1.025 ppm, I can't check alk/phos currently (ran out of reagent) but I should have those numbers in the next couple of days. I also know calc/mag is important but I dont have the testing kits for those, just alk/phos.
Currently, I have several types of algae present. There is a ton of GHA on the rock, some cyano on the rock, and some algae on the sand (diatoms? not too sure what species it is.)
I know it would be a bad idea to add coral to my tank in its current state, so on top of weekly water changes and manual removal of the algae, I just was wondering what else I can do in order to get my tank in a position where adding coral would be a possibility.
Should I add a clean-up crew? I was going to get a cuc but one of my LFS told me I should hold off if I have low levels of nitrate/phos, but after doing some more digging it looks to me like as long as there is algae, then snails should be fine.
I'm also curious as to how long it'll take to suppress the algae, whether it be a month, 2 months, 3 months, etc.
Also, currently, all I have for filtration is a protein skimmer (bubble magus, super good so far) and some filter floss. Should I add anything else, or anything different?
My nitrates are 0, ph 8.0, salinity 1.025 ppm, I can't check alk/phos currently (ran out of reagent) but I should have those numbers in the next couple of days. I also know calc/mag is important but I dont have the testing kits for those, just alk/phos.