New Reefer - Feedback on my setup

[bpham4]

Hello! I am new to saltwater reef fish tank and any tips or feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Tank size: 20 Gal, HOB, ATO
Tank age : 1 month
Lighting : 95 WATT SMATFARM (Amazon product)
Filtration : HOB (Bio media from LFS (plenty of healthy bacteria), and poly filter
pH: 8.2-8.4
Salinity: 1.03
Temperature: 77.5-78.2 F (temperature controller, backup heater shipped)
Ammonia: <0.50 ppm
Nitrate: <5.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Phosphate: unknown (just purchase a test kit)
Calcium: unknown
Alkalinity: unknown
Live Rock: Carib Sea ACS00372 3 case South Sea Base Rock and Seiryu Rock Stone
Sand: CaribSea Arag-Alive 20 lb Fiji Pink Sand

I just started my first reef tank so bare with me as i am new to this. I started my cycle last month with live rock, used saltwater from my LFS, and purchased bio media from LFS. Should i be adding active Carbon to my media? And/or adding liquid bacteria every day?

Recently i have been seeing some brown algae spots all over my tank so i added some snail to help. I just purchase a phosphate test kit but haven't had the chance to test my water yet. I have also lower my light as I think i had it too high (now 6.5 inches above the top of my tank)

Currently i have 1x frostbite fish, 1x GPS Coral, 1x Naked Ocellaris, 3s Astraea Snail, 2x peppermint shrimp.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Congrats, it looks great. My only comment is to point the powerhead up, break up the water surface which will help oxygenate the water, flat water surface is not good. Good luck

 

[bpham4]

Congrats, it looks great. My only comment is to point the powerhead up, break up the water surface which will help oxygenate the water, flat water surface is not good. Good luck

Thanks for the tip! forgot about that.

 

[shakacuz]

looks good!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your tank looks good! What are your future plans for it?

 

[bpham4]

Your tank looks good! What are your future plans for it?

not fully sure just yet. my main goal is just to maintain a healthy tank for a prolonged period. I am concern of the horror stories of others having a major failure of sort, to the point where it is difficult to restart. So i am taking it slow and doing proper maintenance.

But in terms of additions to my tank, i want to stock more GSP (not sure what yet, just going with the flow) and add more rocks to improve the verticality and utilize the space better for my fish.

Unfortunately, i just lost my neon goby i added 4-5 days ago. I think i may have brought a sick goby as the rest of my corals and fish seems to be content and healthy-ish.

I added to my cleaning crew: 3x Nassarius Snail, 2x Astraea Snails, 1x sand sifting snail. One more GSP: 1x pulsing Xenia