Rookie setting up new reef tank!

[Kwann373]

Hello everybody!

I’m relatively new to the hobby, and new to reef2reef!

I took over a friends saltwater tank a couple of years ago, it was a 10 gallon tank with live rock, live sand, and 1 clown (ocellaris). I added a second clown and left it at that.

Finally I am ready to upgrade! I bought a 45 gallon tank in January, filled it with 30lbs of new live rock, (and 10lbs of live rock from the 10 gallon tank) also I added more live sand and let it cycle. I’ve recently transferred the two clown fish into the new tank along with a couple of snails I’ve had for a while.

Now I’m trying to plan for what’s next! I want to eventually have fish and lps.

I set up the old 10 gallon tank as a quarantine tank, due to the research I’ve done I figured this was a no brainer. I’m reaching out because I’m curious to whether or not people qt their cuc? I was about to start adding my first fish but this threw me for a loop. To qt cuc do I need to add sand and rock to the qt? Do I need two separate qt tanks? I’m in a small apartment so space is limited. does scrubbing snail/hermit shells prevent the introduction of pests? Any and all advice is welcome!

Also I would love some input to reef safe fish that would do well in a 45 gallon, and some of your favorite lps beginner corals!

I currently have a fluval 307 canister filter (I couldn’t/didn’t have what I needed to do a sump) But I plan on adding a protein skimmer in the next month. Will this suffice for filtration?
sorry for the long post, and thank you if you read this far!

 

[Idoc]

Fun times planning new systems.

I quarantine cuc for at least 30 days and try to go 76 days if possible. I have sand in my coral/invert quarantine tank.... helps with some snails, hermits, etc..

I also have a single piece of live rock in there... gives room for algae to grow and bacteria.

If you quarantine corals, you also need a cheap black box light. You can do all this in a 5-10g tank with a HOB filter, heater, and maybe a small powerhead.

 

[Tradevg]

Almost the same situation as me minus the larger tank. Will scale up when I have more space. Following.