2 Months in... What next?

[RiversideReefer]

Hey guys my first tank has been up and running for about 2 months now. Went through the diatom bloom, which then turned into green algae along with brown hairy stuff. About a week ago I bought 5 astreas snails and they have been doing a good job at keeping the brown hairy stuff under control, but it seems the growth outpaces their appetite.

What will take care of the green algae? I purposely asked for astreas with coraline algae on them hoping to start them in my tank.

Nitrates reading 2ppm as of this morning... i currently have 2 clown fish, 1 blue-green chromis, 1 red fire shrimp, 5 astreas, 8 nassarius snails, and 3 hermits.

I was planning on getting a rodi kit.. but 20% water change in my tank means 5 gallon a week which is not much and my LFS is down the street... so with that said i plan on getting fresh sea water from LFS. This would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about alk, ca, mag for the corals correct?

I am excited to get corals however I understand 2ppm nitrate is going to be too low... hoping to bump that up to 10-15 range. My plan is to introduce more fish and start feeding a bit more heavily.

Also... what would you guys recommend to use for a pump to transfer water from a jug to the tank? Once i put corals in i want to be able to do water changes as gently as possible, and picking up a 5 gallon jug and pouring it in is not the best way to do this.

 

[Webslinger]

Slow and steady. Freshwater molies, are hardy, algae eating monsters, cheap and easy to catch. I would put a few in.
The ugly algae stages usually last about a year.

 

[4tanks]

If you have a cup in the tank held in your hand and pour from the jug into the cup it's very gentle for filling it breaks the fall of water I have a small bucket I float in mine that I pour the water in and it spills out of the bucket into the water