Newbie questions

[coralfever]

Hello,
This is my first post, and first reef tank, so an help is appriciated. I have a 55gal with about 35lbs of rock(more to come) 3-4" live sand bed. 20gal sump w/bio balls (soon to be rubble rock), and a hang on filter(cascade?) which leads me to my first question: what is it? It has replaceable charcole filter and a pad filter. How often do these pads need to be cleaned/changed and the same for the charcole? And is it necessary?

what is the best way to switch over from bio balls to rubble rock?

Also I would like to identify this coral(?) that came on a piece of LR

ps. I have plenty more questions but this will do for now. Thanks

[coralfever]

Just to clarify. I bought this setup about 5 weeks ago, it had been running for about 4 years prior to the purchase. I broke it down, moved it (including30-35gal of water) and set it up in the same day.
The tank came with some livestock. Undulated Trigger, Big Eyed Squrrelfish, Copius(?) Tang and a snowflake eel(about 16-18" long)
All have been traded to the local LFS except for the eel(for now).
The new livestock is: Bi-color angle, Lawnmower(algae) Blenny, Solomon Isl. Sand Goby, 3 small Damsels and newly added mated pair of Madarins(doing great!). Red Starfish. About a dozen astria snails, a few scarlet hermits, and about a dozen blue leg hermits. Over-stocked?
As far as the coral goes: 3 different colonies of zoos(10-25 polyps each) 1 gogorian(sp?) pink/white bubble coral and three different mushrooms 1 green stripped, one purple/green(watermelon?) and one purple which just popped out a baby about a week ago. 25 or so green star polyps. Any advice and or suggestions are appriciated. Thanks

[josh_crosson]

you filter is a marineland, and i would say you should ditch the carbon for now only run it when you want to take good clear pics of the tank or if you want to imoress friends when they come over to just pollish the water, the biggest thing i could tell you is get a good skimmer. a protien skimmer will do most of your filtering rather than your bio-wheel will. get good water circulation in the tank and some good lighting. you dont need to spend a whole lot of money in filters, and gizmos when it comes to a good set up reef tank. i myself have a 50 gallon and all i have is a ton of live rock about 130lbs, about 650 gph in water flow by three powerheads and two skimmers. look at pics of my tank and you can see what basic but good set up can do.

[optical]

as far as that coral you were wondering about, its kinda hard to tell with the polyps closed up but it looks like a sun coral to me. if it is, try placing it under a rock ledge where it can get shade. i dont think your tank is over stocked with fish, but i would watch your angel fish and your lawnmower.
i saw a lawnmower totally maul a goby to death in a 45 gal.
is that eel in the tank with your other fish now? yikes!

[coralfever]

thanks for the responses. the eel is still in there for now, but i keep him well fed so he seems to be ok. The only reason he is still in there is the wife thinks he is "cute".

One more quick question do the lawnmower blennies usually change color? After he has been on the purple coraline rocks for a while he gets really dark with a little purple. Is this normal? healthy?

[optical]

not sure.

[josh_crosson]

yes they are able to slightly change , but not from grey to red to blue just get lighter and darker

[coralfever]

thanks josh