Minimum requrements to start a reef

ya i would definatley go for refugium get some chaeto

 

Could do that too....and nope don't want yellow water...but prefer to try and do w/o chemical filtration if I can.

 

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

You mean you won't run carbon and just run a sponge? Almost everyone here does for the fact that the clearer the water is, the more light gets through the tank.

 

No I wasn't planning on using a sponge was thinking LR rubble. I thought use of carbon or other chemical means was not what you were supposed to do with salt water....good to know I can.

The HOB filter has slits cut in the top from the manufacturer so I can put chaeto in there and a light on top so will probably do that and since I can use the activated caron or the wht stuff (forgot the name).

the additional tanks are what I'll be working towards....jsut need it up and running......which is kinda good that I have limited funds for a couple of months will force me to take it slow and help me & my tank from being a victim of my impatience.

I have a old tv cart to put a 20 gal high tank (I just got for free, was in the garage of my parents new place) on for a display fuge (and breeding ground for pods, since I want a pair of mandarins & will eventually get a pair of seahorses...after much more research) and an old 10 gal to put under that be a sump & to link the 2 systems.

I'm going for inexpensive not cheap this hobby isn't cheap. I hope to get used items of what I want or get on a good sale. I have a 2 fixture T5 light that when I can replace it with a 4 or 6 light one will go to my brackish tank...so the $50 I spent on it (it came w/the 50/50 lights)won't be wasted, got it used as well

I'm trying to be thrifty becasue I already know if I like the hobby and can keep my livestock alive that I want a bigger tank...so I'm either buying stuff I can use later for my brackish tank or in the case of eventually buying a new skimmer will get an overkill one knowing I want a bigger tank later and can slightly overstock by going overkill on said skimmer.

 

Sounds like you have a plan there. Just make very sure that the TV stand can hold the weight and will be stable. Good luck and keep us updated

 

Yup sure do...have done enough reading/researching to at least think I know a lot for a newb (practical experience however is far different from "book learnin" ;D).
Also have the smarts to know there is a huge ammount of stuff yet to learn.

Have done more research, of course, since the beginnings of this post.

 

Oh...and as a side note my nano tank has yet to have much of an algae outbreak...just a little brown stuff on the glass...no GHA I'm I doing something wrong or did I luck out? Or is the GHA still yet to come?

It's a little over 2 weeks old parameters are good only detected a .25 amonia spike and have 1 fish in there and one kenya tree.

Oh and the LS was from an established tank and the LR was pre cycled and still in the tank when I go it from the LFS.

 

GHA would only appear if you had phosphates in your water or something in your tank was leaching phosphates. Sounds like your water is clean. Good job on getting the diatom bloom and not getting GHA.

 

Yay....cross fingers I don't get the GHA.
Either I haven't read it yet or am information overload...buthow do you get excess phosphates.....so I know what not to do.