Looking for a Pro advice

[ChevyReef]

Howdy howdy to all reading! New to R2R but 10 months into my first salt water venture. Been reading on this forum from day one and have learned so much i thought it was time to give and receive some advice from others with experience. I currently have a 20 gallon long tank that i put together to get to know the hobby inside and out before upgrading to a major reef system. My tank currently houses the following:

6 Blue legged hermits, 2 Red legged
2 Tuxedo urchins, one red and one blue
1 Nassarius
1 Snail
1 Halloween Hermit
2 True Percula Clowns
1 Purple Firefish
1 Rose Tip Anenome
Small Colony of Zoas
Small Colony of Xenia

Behind the scenes for filtration/ movement we have the following:

20 lbs. live sand
Roughly 15- 20 lbs live rock
Fluval CP1 powerhead
ViaAqua 100 WATT heater
Fluval 30 HOB filter, Running filter sponge, Chemi pure, And live media
Paired up with an HB 1000 Reef octopus
All underneath a Kessil A160We
Maintenance is a 50% water change every two weeks, I use Imagitarium boxed sea water

The Skimmer was just added in a few weeks ago to compensate for excess nitrates, and recently dropped to 2 water changes a month instead of weekly on maintenance. Levels are all stable except varying nitrates.

So im curious about a few things;

Is the HOB filter needed at this point with such high filtration from the Bh 1000?The skimmer is turning over water volume 5 times per hour

Does anyone else use Kessil lighting with the kessil controller? If so, what does your lighting schedule look like?

If anyone has any suggestions about adjustment or additions i would be happy to hear them, always looking for a healthier happier tank. Thanks for reading! (Will post pics tommorow)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Welcome to Reef@Reef. Glad ya joined up!

You do know, we love Pictures.

Is the HOB filter needed at this point with such high filtration from the Bh 1000?The skimmer is turning over water volume 5 times per hour

it housing yoy chem media. Imo thats a good thing, the skimmer is NOT doing as good a job gettin solids out if its packed correctly and adds more to overall turnover and physical flow. OMO, hobs are good for little tanks. But no no not a necessity. Id suggest an hob refugium before even seeing the tank. $14

Odd your having high No. How high?

Does anyone else use Kessil lighting with the kessil controller? If so, what does your lighting schedule look like?

Id slowly ramp that to almost full.

Id suggest another small powerhead I believe.

Any algae or cyano probs because of nutrients?