My First Reef Tank

in a tank thats only 1 . 5 weeks old, with no live stock and no live rock, its perfectly normal not to get any skimmate - there is nothing in the tank for the skimmer to pull out

many people dont run a skimmer until they make their 1st live stock purchase

the thinking is that , you need decaying matter in the tank to encourage the bacteria you need for cycling, if you skim, you remove this potential bacteria food and thus increase the time it takes for you tank to cycle

Steve

 

That's sort of what I was thinking. Thanks!

 

+1 there. Nice set up you have there. The only thing I would add to it is another MH and change out the CF to T5. Better (deeper) penetration.

 

its been up now for 18 weeks, i would post pics if i could, i have 150lbs of LR, 40lbs of sand, mated percs, mimic tang, colt coral,GSPs and brown buttons under 6x54w T5s

 

looking good caint wait to see updated pics of the setup

 

Thanks. I'll most likely end up changing the lights in the long run. The place I purchased the canopy from wouldn't give me any information (dims) on it, other than rough external. I bought something that would safely fit, and actually had to mod the canopy when it came in to get that to work. They seem to light things ok, but I can see already that you're right for deep penetration I'll need something different. Thanks for the input!

 

That sounds awesome!

 

I put a pic of my hand fish up yesterday (rare silver ringed white handfish) ;D

I'll get a couple more on today most likely.

 

Really sweet looking setup, sometimes I wish to have a bow front aquarium