Take some craft mesh and wrap it around that powerhead. That will prevent the nem from getting chopped up.
Being as you are are new to the hobby, I would recommend you start with zoas and shrooms. Learn to test for Calsium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, Phosphate and Nitrate. Dont use API kits. Most people like salifert. Red Sea makes good kits too.
After being able able to get consistent results then learn how to manipulate those parameters. You want to be able to have stable parameters before you add Anything other than soft coral.
Nitrate and phosphate are essentially nutrients where as alk, cal, and mag are coral skeleton building compounds.
To maintain nutrients, think of nutrient export through harvesting macroalgae and use of a protein skimmer. The other three will drop with growth of coralline algae and Stoney coral.
Quick question: are API kits really that bad?
They are so much cheaper that I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. But... they are so much cheaper! Star ratings seem to be high online too. My LFS uses API 5 in 1 test strips and I was thinking about getting those.
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Oh man, Im sorry to hear that. It was a pretty fun project and a cool idea, I enjoyed following along. You will have to post up some pics of the 75.RIP to this tank. After a year, I transferred all contents to a proper 75G tank. This project was fun while it lasted and it served its purpose. I learned a lot!
The major problems I had with this setup were constant diatom blooms (because of direct sunlight) and major evaporation because of no lid. I was topping of about half a gallon a day on this approx. 30 gallon tank. Also, my three year old kept throwing his toys in the tank! Other than that, it was pretty cool. Thanks to all who helped me with this.
Oh man, Im sorry to hear that. It was a pretty fun project and a cool idea, I enjoyed following along. You will have to post up some pics of the 75.
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