A few newbie questions

[grenseal]

My setup:

Display: 50 gallons
-about 30 lbs of marco rocks
-up for about 3 months, 1 week

Sump: 25 gallons
-Sump is very simple, 20lbs of marco rock, filter sock, refugium, and return pump.
-Sump is mainly a refugium with marco rock rubble, a small section of panty-hose filled with carbon, and chaeto floating on top.

Fish:
-2 clownfish
-1 Diamond goby
-1 Yellow coris wrasse
-1 Royal Gramma
-1 Melanurus Wrasse
-1 Yellow watchman goby

Inverts:
-3 Peppermint shrimps
-1 Cleaner shrimp
-1 Pistol shrimp
-4 Trocus snails
-4 Nassarius snails
-7 Blue legged hermits
-about 20 zoa polyps
-1 small patch of Green Star Polyps isolated on a rock touching the back wall
-1 green finger leather
-1 medium bird nest frag

Water parameters:
-Temperature: 77.6F ~ 78.4F
-Ammonia: Undetectable
-Nitrite: Undetectable
-Nitrate: ~.75 ppm
-PO4: Undetecable
-Mg: 1440
-Ca: 420
-dKH: ~8.3
-PH: No idea, I've never measured this.

Tank was cycled for 4 weeks using ammonium cloride and bottled bacteria.
The first 2 fish in were the clownfish, then fish added in pairs every following 2 weeks. Inverts were added every other week.

Some concerns:

-Undetectable PO4 and too low Nitrate. The Nitrate used to be at 5ppm, now it's .75ppm. I think my tank is pretty ovestocked and I feed twice a day; I was anticipating higher level of PO4 and Nitrate. Did the chaeto work too well? I started with a small clump, the fuge is now fill with it. Or is there something else in the tank masking nutrient levels? Should I be concern?

-Cyano or Dino. I don't have a microscope so I can't tell for sure. For the last 2 weeks, there are rusty brown stuff on the sand bed and some on the rocks. Most people from a local forums are saying cyano.
The fish don't seem to care and go about their days like nothing. The corals don't seem to be bothered either, although I do use a baster to blow off the rusty stuff if they approach the corals.
Is Cyano or Dino harmful to the live stock? So far I've been siphoning the rusty stuff away once a week. Should I be more aggressive, or is this just part of the growing pain of a new saltwater tank? I don't want to use any harsh medication unless I absolutely have to.

-Water changes. So far my water changes are very small, at most 5 gallon a week. Pretty much only enough for me to siphon out the rusty brown stuff. Are water changes needed when water parameters stays the same and nutrient is super low?

 

[brandon429]

there will be many helpful opinions coming up, all amount to success. i like to show progression threads for my posts if possible, we have one matching your tank descrip

check out Daniel's slightly smaller tank and how its being managed, this applies to your tank fully. you have hit all the high notes by the way we're doing for his tank, listening to your inclination to remove topical growths as daily maintenance. since they're persistent, go ahead and step up to about 1/3 water changed used to siphon all of the growths out, hit em fully for once now as step up care.

Daniel is not there yet in his tank, but its coming, see if you can see the progression of how he's invincible. We're not even measuring for po4 or nitrate. we are managing the growths you see in balance, no chems, you are on track:

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

the cool part of work threads is that it doesnt discount someone else's advice or ways/means.

its simply a roadmap, if you like the direction he's heading. its an action roadmap, we can never change enough water, step it up if you like its not destabilizing. the only reason he's not changing 50% of the water each week (allows for that much more feed input, see the linkage over and over stated in the thread) is because I dont want to burn out on work, not that it would harm the reef. 50% water changes plus 50% more feeding would simply grow corals faster than they're already growing new heads lol and his tank is 1 mo old


*your 5 g water changes and overall balance are right for this tank, you dont have to veer far from course we're agreeing mostly with your take above. experiment though with perhaps a 20 gallon change, pouring slowly as to kick up no waste, to acclimate your tank into action

if you do that they'll feed and grow well

 

[grenseal]

there will be many helpful opinions coming up, all amount to success. i like to show progression threads for my posts if possible, we have one matching your tank descrip

check out Daniel's slightly smaller tank and how its being managed, this applies to your tank fully. you have hit all the high notes by the way we're doing for his tank, listening to your inclination to remove topical growths as daily maintenance. since they're persistent, go ahead and step up to about 1/3 water changed used to siphon all of the growths out, hit em fully for once now as step up care.

Daniel is not there yet in his tank, but its coming, see if you can see the progression of how he's invincible. We're not even measuring for po4 or nitrate. we are managing the growths you see in balance, no chems, you are on track:

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

the cool part of work threads is that it doesnt discount someone else's advice or ways/means.

its simply a roadmap, if you like the direction he's heading. its an action roadmap, we can never change enough water, step it up if you like its not destabilizing. the only reason he's not changing 50% of the water each week (allows for that much more feed input, see the linkage over and over stated in the thread) is because I dont want to burn out on work, not that it would harm the reef. 50% water changes plus 50% more feeding would simply grow corals faster than they're already growing new heads lol and his tank is 1 mo old

Thank you, I will check Daniel's tank out.