New to Saltwater set up

[Fish Fan]

Thanks. Being new and taking in a lot of new information at once I'm doing my best to keep from panicking every other moment lol.

You're more proactive than many :)

 

[Kantherion]

Here's a couple shots of the rock I added to the tank. Its the large flat one set up as a shelf, the other rocks were dry. The rock spent three years in an active tank with fish and snails. Is that a decent size relative to the tank and is it a proper 'live rock'? I've seen a lot of conflicting information.

 

[Fish Fan]

I don't know about your one large "live rock", it doesn't look like typical rock, but the other rocks look like freshwater dragon stone hardscape. I don't know, but I would be concerned that they might be leaching heavy metals or something else that is not good for reef tanks. I would remove those and go with "typical" dry rock from an aquarium store that specializes in saltwater.

And not to pile on, but if you want an Odontodactylus scyllarus Peacock Mantis, they typically require a PVC hide, not just sand and rocks.

 

[Kantherion]

Okay I removed the other rocks and left the large one in there. My local saltwater store opens at 11 so I'll need to grab a couple rocks from him when I can. I do have a length of PVC pipe with two entrances buried under the sand along the back of the cage, the rock was just in the way of them as I was focusing on that. Tested ammonia again this morning and it came out that same cloudy slightly green color. I've got one of those API master sea water test kits coming as well.

Thank you for all your advice and letting me pick your brain!

 

[Kantherion]

Okay removed the dragon rock, put in two chunks of wet rock straight from Badgerland Saltwater (cheap plug for the local guy \o/ ). These had snails all over them, he removed most of them but it looks like there was a hitch hiker or two. THe tank light is on in this picture but I usually keep it off. PVC doom cave runs under the sand along the back of the tank, has two entrances and used the store bought rock as sort of a shelf for him to chill under. Will be adding more little rocks for him to seascape with.

Going to test ammonia levels tonight after work. I found a website that calculates the unionized ammonia from TAN test results and a website with a Ammonia toxicity chart from several Florida University studies. Has anyone else gone over their date before and are the calculators useful or just smoke and mirrors?

 

[Kantherion]

So I've read differing information on lids. For mesh/open it seems that gas exchange is better but leads to more evaporation while having a glass/plastic hood covering does the opposite. Any thoughts/experiences with this anyone?