Filtration and Flow question

[Thunderrap]

Hey all,

Been a long time since I've been in the saltwater game and trying my hand at my first time reef tank. First My tank specs and then my question:

38gal bowfront
approx 36lbs live/dry rock
x2 eFlux 1050GPH wave pumps
cyclone 100 protein skimmer (soon to be upgraded to Aquamaxx 1.5 HOB)
Fluval 307 canister (only bio and carbon media on the recommendation of my LFS)
1 domino damsel
1 3 striped damsel
4 truncus snails
5 Astera snails
5 blue leg hermits
2 scarlet hermits
2 serpent stars

running 2.5 weeks

using instant ocean salt but getting ready to switch to Fritz RPM
used 4oz Turbostart 900 by fritz
about to add Dr. Tims one and only

The first question, do I need some sort of mechanical filtration? I've researched and read that the rock will be the only biological filtration needed.

Second, I cannot seem to get my parameters to drop from the following:
ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrites - .50ppm
Nitrates - 10ppm

did one 25% water change so far

I haven't even started testing the alk, calcium, and phosphates yet as I can't get the basic parameters to stabilize. What am I doing wrong, I know things come with time and I get I'm being a little impatient but I thought the turbostart was supposed to kick start the nitrogen cycle. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Intense37754]

Do you have fish in there already or only rock? If no fish you need to feed your bacteria. There’s a lengthy thread on here that is a good read

 

[Intense37754]

Bacteria in a bottle, Myth or Fact

Call me old school, back in the day we placed a deli shrimp in a tank to kick start the cycle. When tank reached 1.5-2 ppm ammonia we pulled it out and waited sometimes weeks to months for bacteria to colonize and drop ammonia and nitrites down to 0 to make tank safe for livestock. With recent...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Thunderrap]

Do you have fish in there already or only rock? If no fish you need to feed your bacteria. There’s a lengthy thread on here that is a good read

Thank you, I'll take a look at the article! To answer your question though yes I have a domino damsel and a 3 striped damsel

 

[Intense37754]

I’m sure others will say to let your tank do it thing, but per Dr. Tim you cannot overdose one and only.
I think in that article and others have posted that one of the ammonia types is not harmful and/or test kits don’t measure ammonia completely accurate. I have had a lot of luck with a simple Seachem ammonia badge.

Happy reading...there’s a lot of pages

As far as filtration I don’t have an answer, but curious what others will say.

I have very basic filtration, no sump (yet), overfeed, but my numbers are good, everything appears healthy and do weekly 30% water changes