What does the film look like? When I first set mine up there was foam at the top similar to sea foam. Seems like a regular occurrence in new tanks.
Some hypocritical advice here - you probably should be testing on a regular basis to ensure everything is on track. I don’t (mostly out of sheer laziness), but if a problem shows up I will test. I may be more inclined if I had better test kits (api is not the way to go). I am not nearly as experienced as other reefers on here (only been doing it for a year and a half), but I think that everyone soon figures out their tank. If certain corals act off you can generally tell something is up. My frogspawns will start to close up in the days before water change day, may just be coincidence but I take the hint.
I just remove water from the top with a jug. You can siphon substrate, but when you have a strong enough cuc and good flow, there really isn’t a need.
My rocks are close to the back (about 1-2 inches), so I can’t really fit my hand back there for algae. I try to do my best. Even towards the front it gets close near the bottom, and don’t get me started on the torch coral (it’s decided that I don’t go for the algae there).
Most of my corals are pretty low maintenance, my hardest are probably my torch and frogspawns. The sinularia leather out back could probably use a trim but I like how big it is.
I regularly have to pull out Xenia and trim the gsp to keep them from overwhelming the tank. I take the frags to the lfs for store credit.
Happy to help! Keep the questions coming!
