Newby

Hello GIRS! My name is Scott and I am from Eagle Grove. 18 years ago I started my first marine aquarium. At only 13 years old, I had no experience, no money, and a general lack of information to get my 55 gallon tank going. This experience was a total failure for me to say the least. After nearly 20 years, I am giving it another go, only on a much smaller level... I recently purchased a fluval evo 5 nano reef tank. After setting up with live rock and live sand, the tank seems to be nearly through its initial cycle after only a couple of weeks. To my understanding, nano reefing is extremely difficult, but I am determined to be successful this time around and eventually scale up and perfect larger tanks. I'm sure I will need some help along the way, and I look forward to to getting some expert advice from fellow Iowans. Ive spent many nights reading articles on the internet and after looking through your forums, I feel this is the right place for me to be. I am very open to criticism and would appreciate any advice you all could give me. Maybe some day I will be able to pass some knowledge along to some else... tanks y'all

 

Thank you. Yes, and it's a pretty basic setup so far.. 10 watt 11000k led lighting, 80 gal hour pump. 50 watt heater, I'd like to run without a skimmer but have read mixed reviews on that subject, open to suggestions. Instant ocean reef Crystal's with RODI water. Currently have about 7-8 lbs live sand, 5.5 lbs live rock, a few Bristle worms and aiptasia lol. Next week I plan on finding a sexy shrimp and a few nassarious snails for starters. I will likely only get one ocellaris clown fish or a tail spot blenny as it is such a small system. Would like to start out with some mushrooms and polyps to get myself in to corals, I've been doing a lot of research and still trying to learn what would be best for my tiny eco system... deffinately going for hardy, easy to care for corals...I'm open for any suggestions you guys could give me.. I have no friends that are in this hobby, so I look forward to getting to know some of you and getting your input.

 

You're exactly right about the power head, good point! I want try to keep this system as simple as possible but still maintain consistant parameters, so far I've been golden aside from a slightly low pH and dKH.. of course I suppose this will all change when I start adding livestock. I plan on doing 10% water changes (1/2 gallon lol) biweekly. Setting up a refugium is a great idea as well, yet for me it may take away some of the simplicity that I am aiming for. All good things to consider though

 

Does anyone know exactly what this is?? So I ran out and got my first inverts last night, picked up a small peppermint shrimp, and a handful of various snails, they are doing great. I hadn't planned on getting any coral yet, and really was not aiming for zoanthids, but I figured if Petco was selling them for $15 and they didnt even know what they were, than they must not be expert level. So I impulsively bought one and put it in my tank. Obsidian zoas are the only thing on the internet that they look like, but I'm really terrible at identifying corals. Hopefully I didnt make a bad purchase..
.. Any advice?