When to use 50/50 white and superactinic lights

I dont think 2 gals off tap wpuld do that to a tank of that size. If the sand was live it probably came from that.

 

Remove the filter batting from the wet/dry as its will cause you a problem and no need to feed that little fish but a little pinch every other day.. Ron just the actinic for the next 8weeks then you can start with the 50/50's as for the stuff from the good Dr's ?

I'm not familiar with it or its quality.. You have to have some good coralline to kick start the process. Or at least a good covered rock. You will hear all kinds of myths about wet/dry's , I've have used them for many many yrs never had a problem with the build up of detritus or nitrates even.. I did at one time use the sponges on my stand pipes but gave that up about 15 yrs ago.. Got better REDOX levels with out them.

Trick is not to feed the tank to death as many do. And you won't have need of one for several months But you will have to have a damn good skimmer on this system so make plans for when the time arrives. F/O tend to have plenty of DOC's to pull out of the water column.. Oh and you will need a denitrater coil also or some other means of dealing with NO3's and I'd get that going ASAP or Buy one . They tend to take 2 to 3 months to fully cycle and start to really work and its easier to never let algae get a start then fight it after the fact and a Phosphate reactor should be out on line ASAP also,

As for the diatoms thats all normal and part of the game you will have other algae issues also as you bring this tank along everyone does all we can do it to remove as much of the fertilizer from the water as we can as soon as we can thats why I mentioned the coils and skimmers and phosphates

 

Hey! Welcome to 3 reef...!