new to salt water

yes im new to saltwater fish and have many more questions. any advise would b very appreciated

 

wel lets start with what you have.What size tank what kind of lighting.What you plan on having FOWL(fish only with live rock) or do you plan on having corals.How long has your tank been running stuff of that nature

 

some advise:

1. go slow

2.read up and ask questions

3. don't skimp out on equipment it will just cost you more later

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef.

 

welcome

 

Greetings......and welcome to 3reef. Ask away.

 

wellllll lets start off with the tank. what can i say its glass..... lol...im basically runnin a dry(no filter) under gravel system with halid lights... crushed coral for a substrate... its been up and runnin for bout 3 weeks.... i have aprox 55-60 lbs live rock/dead coral from what i was told. for a week i ran it with no back filteration but now there is one there
currently i have a smaller powerhead for water flow, and air stone, nothing really fancy yet.. now lets talk critters,,,lol,,, overcrowded maybe, 6 hermit crabs, 1 scarlet crab,2 emerald crabs,(hehehehehe i got crabs),2 turbo snails, 2 long tenticle purpletip anemone's, 3 electric blue (with yellow tail) damsels, 2 footballers, 1 peppermint shrimp, nemo, and then last but not least mufassa the lionfish... salinty stayin at a steady 1.023 and the ph is stayin around 8.o.... i have no protein skimmer..... am i doing good so far?

 

Your def going to need a protein skimmer....Its one of the best ways to keep the "bad" stuff out of your tank. But seems like you do have a nice setup started thats for sure.

 

i have done tanks with freshwater and african cichlids so brakish water im familiar with... i have some really dumb ?'s esp about my anemone's and electrci blue damsels... it appears 1 of the damsels turn a very dark blue towards evenin hours and each one tends to find a spot in the tank for "a home" ? is is it normal for them to change their colors like that or is it a sign of breeding time?