New to saltwater. Tips to preventing nasties?

Foxchase

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Hello, I have kept freshwater tanks for a while and decided to try my luck in salt. i have been cycling my 20g long nano tank for a few weeks now. I put a 20lb bag of Caribsea live sand with about 30 lbs of live rock. 2 480gph pumps. I have an RODI unit. My only stocking ideas right now are a pair of designer clowns. I do have an aqueon 75 sitting around I could use as some sort of mechanical filter. Any tips on what else I may need? An affordable light for softies in the future? I've read about using phosguard to avoid algae in new tanks. Any help is sincerely appreciated. I've done tons of research I would just like some input.
 

glb

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Hello, I have kept freshwater tanks for a while and decided to try my luck in salt. i have been cycling my 20g long nano tank for a few weeks now. I put a 20lb bag of Caribsea live sand with about 30 lbs of live rock. 2 480gph pumps. I have an RODI unit. My only stocking ideas right now are a pair of designer clowns. I do have an aqueon 75 sitting around I could use as some sort of mechanical filter. Any tips on what else I may need? An affordable light for softies in the future? I've read about using phosguard to avoid algae in new tanks. Any help is sincerely appreciated. I've done tons of research I would just like some input.
Do you have a sump? Also, no matter what you do, the tank will go through an ugly stage. It’s part of the cycle. Expect algae, diatoms, and other stuff to appear until the tank is stable. What are your nitrate and phosphate numbers? You’ll want to make sure you don’t zero them out in an effort to keep the tank clean. Been there, done that, and I got cyano, dinos, and something else that looked like fur! Good luck and ask a lot of questions!
 

SeaSickness

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Welcome to R2R!
What kind of filtration do you have? Also, depending upon what you want to keep, a powerhead will be useful.
 
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Foxchase

Foxchase

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Welcome to R2R!
What kind of filtration do you have? Also, depending upon what you want to keep, a powerhead will be useful.
At the moment just a hob aqueon 75 and powerheads. Don't know what else I could use
 

fishguy242

Cronies..... INSERT BUILD THREAD BADGE HERE !!
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hi welcome to the reef going to love it here
open 24-7
pics are required....lol ..we all love pics
 

fishguy242

Cronies..... INSERT BUILD THREAD BADGE HERE !!
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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If you want to avoid the uglies altogether, do so.

lift out your rocks, scrape or kill brush off anything you don’t want, work around what you do want as a nontarget. Set rocks back in

so simple, vs wrecking your tank.

Read up to date cycling threads that don’t permit the uglies phase, that way you aren’t waiting eighteen months to start enjoying the reef.
It is one option of two to purposefully do nothing as various successions invade your tank, and decide the happy date for you. The other option is to not do any of that

25191274-D795-4986-B47B-016EC93DBCCF.jpeg

be Paul Jr
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Read this, a roadmap to not uglies + coral + not waiting months


he‘s already stocked a bounce mushroom check out his feed and water change willingness.


 
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