Hello everyone, new to the hobby.

[Marlin_theClown]

I am a new reef tank enthusiast. To start off, I have a 12 gallon nano tank, with about 8 pounds of live rock inside, along with 4 hermit crabs, a peppermint shrimp and a yellow tail damsellfish. This was a previously established tank that a friend of mine is letting me "get my feet wet" with. So far i love the tank. Specific gravity is a little high though, and there is some algae growing on a couple Of the live rocks. Anyone have any pointers on how to clean this up without taking them out of the tank? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to R2R!!! As far as trying to get rid of the algae I would suggest manual removal of what you can easily get off and keep up with water changes to keep your nutrients low. Best of luck!

 

[Marlin_theClown]

Awesome thanks for the advice. Also, Im considrring purchasing a skimmer, not really sure if it is nessessary yet but any info on brands or personal experiences with setting one up would be appreciated

 

[Waters]

I wouldn't bother with a skimmer on a 12 gallon tank....it would be a waste on money. You can easily remove any excess nutrients with regular water changes. Save the money for a larger skimmer when you eventually upgrade the tank size

 

[Marlin_theClown]

Thanks for the input. I was advised to do at least a 3 gallon water change at least once a month. Would it be wise to do a water change more than once a month or would one suffice for the time being? My hope is to be able to upgrade to a 75 gallon tank in the future with a sump and refugum underneath the main tank. If anyone has any general advice on starting a tank from scratch I could sure use some pointers and notes to write down for future reference. Thanks for the love guys, I love this community and this hobby.

 

[Waters]

It depends on your water parameters....I do water changes once a week to keep everything under control but every tank is different. If you aren't having issues with nitrates, phosphates, Alk, Ca, etc than doing water changes every month would be fine.

 

[Marlin_theClown]

I just did my first set of tests, thr pH is at 7.6, the amonia level is at .25, however I also just did my first water changr and added amonia remover so hopefully tomorrow when I run my next set of tests that aspect looks ok. Also doing a water change dropped the specific gravity in my tank to a level I am comfortable with.

 

[Marlin_theClown]

UPDATE:
pH balanced out to 8.2, most of the algae was removed from the live rock. All my inhabitants seem to be thriving well and the water clarity is nice. I want to find a way to mount lunar lighting on the hood so I can still view the tank while the daytime lights are off. I will do another ammonia, nitrite and nitrate check this evening. Here is a photo. Happy days everyone