New reef, who dis?

[toygrr]

edit: I know these questions are silly but every tank is different, I've done nothing but read old threads but I'm still a little lost.

Hey y'all, so my tank has been cycled and I have a pair of very happy clowns. They're the only things in the tank right now. I purchased reef water and a couple of rocks from my LFS to start the tank, as well as 30lbs of Fiji pink sand. The rest of the rocks are coralife life rock.

I guess I'm just looking for input for basic stuff like; your water change routines, what media you'd use in a small tank, bottled bacteria, should I add copopods or wait? I'd like the tank centered around the clowns and soft corals with minimal fish.

I was planning to keep the light cycle on so some algae grows before I consider adding CC, but it's been so long I'm unsure of the process. I have some minor brown/green algae starting on the live rock, but none of the dry rock yet.

Just trying to figure out a game plan, I'm sure things still need to settle out a bit still...
Things are stable at:

-1.024 SG
-78°f
-dKH 8.5
-phosphate .5< ppm
-nitrate 5-10 ppm
-calcium 485 ppm (probably the LFS dosing for corals)
-ammonia .14 ppm (not stoked about this)

-33 gallon RedSea Max Nano G2 XL, stock skimmer, stock light, 100w heater with inkbird controller, mesh sock, RedSea ATO+

 

[Sam7]

Welcome to the hobby.......Nice setup. You should base your water changes based on your water parameters and if you need to change the water. I usually change once a month, some do every week but depends on your system. I just use a 5 gallon bucket and gravel vaccum hose. I pump it back in with small pumps or you can just pour in little at time. I would raise your salinity up some to 1.026...thats just my opinion and some do run lower levels like you are running. For soft corals wont really matter. Only run your light on 8-12 hour schedule each day. A timer works best if your light doesnt have one built in. If you run them too long it will cause too much algae. Just buy some cleanup crew you will need it and then you wont get behind. Just start with some snails you can add more as you need it based on growth.

 

[toygrr]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply, it's been 16 years since my last tank ha. I'll grab a couple snails after the holidays. I picked 1.024 because my LFS uses that so I figured I'd make acclimation easier, but maybe I'll up it to a happy medium 1.025. The ammonia hopefully isn't alarming, I guess it would be a miracle if it was 0 at this point ha

 

[Sam7]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply, it's been 16 years since my last tank ha. I'll grab a couple snails after the holidays. I picked 1.024 because my LFS uses that so I figured I'd make acclimation easier, but maybe I'll up it to a happy medium 1.025. The ammonia hopefully isn't alarming, I guess it would be a miracle if it was 0 at this point ha

you can leave the salinity as is, consistency is key....do you have a auto water top off? Looks like you do just saw pictures under tank

 

[Sam7]

I like those clowns...nice color

 

[toygrr]

you can leave the salinity as is, consistency is key....do you have a auto water top off? Looks like you do just saw pictures under tank

Yes I do, I replaced the float style that came with it today with the redsea ATO+

 

[toygrr]

I like those clowns...nice color

Thanks!

 

[kevgib67]

Very nice, well done and Welcome!

 

[Aqua Blue]

A very nice reef tank.
Looking forward to seeing the way you develop it.
I also like the clear racks mounted on the inside of the compartment door. I never thought about that but I think I will try that for the convenience of using the items that I need most often while also keeping them organized.

 

[toygrr]

A very nice reef tank.
Looking forward to seeing the way you develop it.
I also like the clear racks mounted on the inside of the compartment door. I never thought about that but I think I will try that for the convenience of using the items that I need most often while also keeping them organized.

Yeah! I just used adhesive spice racks from amazon, hopefully they hold up haha.

Do you or anyone know, are PAR meters pretty much a requirement once I start adding coral?

 

[Aqua Blue]

A very nice reef tank.
Looking forward to seeing the way you develop it.
I also like the clear racks mounted on the inside of the compartment door. I never thought about that but I think I will try that for the convenience of using the items that I need most often while also keeping them organized.

Yeah! I just used adhesive spice racks from amazon, hopefully they hold up haha.

Do you or anyone know, are PAR meters pretty much a requirement once I start adding coral?

I’m not that deep $ into corals my few corals are pretty simple.
I know that PAR meters are expensive but some people just rent them to use and mark the front of their tanks with sticky notes showing the par levels at different locations within their tank.
They can the take pictures to save the results for future needs.
Just an idea.

 

[toygrr]

I’m not that deep $ into corals my few corals are pretty simple.
I know that PAR meters are expensive but some people just rent them to use and mark the front of their tanks with sticky notes showing the par levels at different locations within their tank.
They can the take pictures to save the results for future needs.
Just an idea.

Yeah I guess that makes sense, set it up right the first time and place corals where they're best suited for the levels