New proposed coral reef tank - pic
 

Here is a picture of my new tank set up. In day 2 of cycling. Can't wait!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...s/IMG_0126.jpg

I like the caves in the rockwork. A little too high for my liking, but I love it. :-)

Can't wait to see it progress. And 40G right?

i like the rockwork too, what kind of lights are you planning?

whats in the canister filter? your going to want to remove that as they do more harm then good.

:) good to hear, this was my first attempt. Thank you! I may change it again if I don't like it, we'll see how I like it.

The canister filter just has a nylon carbon bag and some pieces of live rock. I figured it's sort of like a extra place for live rock and I heard carbon bags or okay to remove phosphate, that true?

Edit: I will be purchasing T5 lighting once I start to get livestock. I assume that'll be in 3 weeks or so.

just carbon is fine in the filter, which removes in-organics not so much phosphate. phosban would remove phosphates but needs to be run at a much slower rate then carbon. i have heard if your phos grinds up it can poison your tank ( which im not sure about ) anyways i would just put the live rock in the main tank. an extra peice or two wont add much more the display and will prevent anything from getting stuck to it inside the filter which may cause issues.
its prob. going to be alittle longer then 3 weeks. even then it will only be picking up a few snails and then waiting another week or two for your first fish. do you have stocking plans? nows the time to start thinking about it, also corals.

Where is the protein skimmer?

The rock display is well organized, from a functional point of view. Not a ton of sand to rock contact, which is beneficial for water flow.... helps control cyno outbreaks.

Continue to be patient before adding livestock. Wait for the diatom bloom, then add a few crabs and snails. Give it a couple more weeks after before adding sturdy fish.

Skimmer is in the back-left corner. :-)

Yes, the skimmer is hiding in the left corner. I honestly am not planning fish at all at this point, even down the road. It is the coral and inverts that caught my attention to begin with :D

As for corals, I will do a little more research as far as choices go and then get back to you folks to see if they are good to keep, easy to manage, how to care for them, etc. I'll get back to you guys about that.

As for a clean up crew, I got some suggestions, if I need more when the time comes I will ask.

So I think I am just going to disconnect the canister filter all together then I guess. I mean it is not necessary and i've only heard potentially harmful effects. I had it running for now because I wanted to clear up the water from what the sand created, what a cloudy mess. Now it is clear so I am going to disconnect the canister.

Thanks!

Ok so day 3 test results:

Nitrates - 20 ppm
Ammonia - 3.0 ppm
Nitrites - 1.0 ppm
PH - 7.8
Calcium - Turned final color at 29 drops, seems very high, equals to 530ish ppm
Phosphorous - 0.25 ppm

Day 4
Carbonate Hardness - 13
Calcium - same as day 3, around 530 ppm
Ammonia - Dropped to between 0.25 and 0.5!! Strip test measured 0.5, API test measured at 0.25
Phosphourous - 0.25
Nitrite - 1.0 ppm
Nitrate - 20 ppm
PH - 7.8

So from day 3 to 4, ammonia has dropped

I will be using this thread as a personal place to keep my results lol, but you are all welcome to follow :) And you better wish me luck