New yellow tang

What if he pays cash? ;D

 

More biological support

HI,
I would tell you dad to consider more biological support for your tank one fish shouldn't change you chemistry that much.
One way to improve biological. is to add shrimp, hermits, sand stiring snails,
Add lot of live rock or base rock that will help with biological load and Ammonia removal.. I stack my base rock in the back builiding a wall of rock leaning on the back of the tank be sure its stable. The little snails shrimp all live in the rock cleaning it if it becomes fouled with food or poo.
Saltwater tanks are at supersaturation with salts, calcium, mg and other elements so freshwater rules don't apply.
Things that helped me was adding a sump, a good skimmer, deep sand in the sump with a bunch of those nassirus snails. I ve added things that stir the sand I actually but about 20 bristtle worms in the sump and a few in the main tank the stir the sand under rocks this help break down waste . Most worms are good for sand.
This help skim the fat from food off the top of the water and allows the skimmer to capture it before it get in the sand.
Another way to speed up the biological system is to buy live sand at the LPS a few pounds of that live sand from a established tank will add millons of those good bacteria speeding up the cycle. The snails love fish poo and will help speed up the bacterial action buy breaking it down to a more liquid form and allow the skimmer to help clean the water.This prevents the negative effects .
feed smaller quanities off food . I also have more of those simple pad filters to capture any waste in those pads that I rinse weekly.
The less poo in the water the less problems.
Ammonia can be used by anerobic bacteria in the sump under the dsb I have never had a nitrate problem or ammonia and my tank has only been running since jan.
adding more water to the column helps that why sumps are great they help dilute the problem
My simple little 55 gal tank has a 110 gal Vol cause it has a 40 gal sump with a 37 gal tank sharing the same sump.
Its amazing how easy it is to keep things if you provide enough filtrationand adequate skimmiing.
Doug
If you use biolgoical system you need to watch KH, ca, MG, the rest will take care of it self/

 

"Cash," What is that?

;D

 

Thanks for the advice. I currently have 3 sand sifting stars, 4 mexican turbo snails,1 cb shrimp, and maybe 120 pounds of base rock. My tank has been running for 2 months with only a green chromis which has been there since the beginning and i just introduced the tang. Im pretty sure the cycle is done already,as for skimming im holding off using it for a couple more months to let the coraline grow.

 

Yeah nobody uses cash anymore only plastic. Thats the reason why alot of people are in debt.;D

 

Skimming may help

HI,
I believe skimming may help remove, things that are preventing the coraline from growing.
I would skim and maybe buy one live rock at the LPS thats covered with coraline it will seed your tank with coraline spores eventually.
Coraline will not grow if the phos is to high, or other things are a little off.
Coraline is usally a indicator of pristine water quality.
DOug