80 gallon Reef Tank Help!

[fidyyreef]

Hello Im new here and I was reading advise about
properly setting up a tank and how many fish to have and I was
wondering if anyone could help me out.

Tank Age:6mths
we didnt put any thing in it for the first month other than live rock and 5 blue Chromis

Here is info on my tank:
80 gallon long ( 6' long 16.5 wide 16 deep)
4 power heads ( 1 rotating, 2 smaller Approx for a 30 gallon tank, 1
lrg for up to 100 gallon tank)
1 power filter for water movement only - there is no filter media in
it.
3.5' MH lighting w/LED night
30 WATT FLOURESCENT BULBS, ONE 10K DAYLIGHT, AND ONE ACTINIC (on the other side) we will be adding another MH light before putting any lil creatures over there.
At this time our Live rock only goes as far as the MH light ( we are
slowly adding to the other side, only cured LR)
Heater (temp of tank is 79-81 degrees)
live sand bottom
we use OR water from LFS

Livestock:
1 Pacific Blue Tang
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
10 Blue Chromis
1 cleaner shrimp
1 star serpant
1 bali star (sm orange)
1 emerald crab
lost count of red reef scarlets about 5
2 Nassarius Snails
10 Cerith Snails
2 Turbo Snails
1 sea hare

1 Bubble tip Anemones (which I know now that we should have waited a
little bit longer before adding )
1 Galaxy Coral
1 Star Polyp
1 small orange sponge
2 xenias

We run the ligts 10:30 am - 8:30pm they are set on a timer
We feed the BTA silver sides, Tang gets Seaweed,brine and pellets,
chromis & Clowns pellets and brine. Xenia, galaxy, polyps - phytoplankton. Sea Star -krill

Please advise me as to what I have done right or wrong. I am new to the
salt water world - but I want to be smart about it, We want to have a
healthy reef tank. I hope I have given you all the info you need to help me
please let me know if I left anything out.

We had our water tested Wednesday and all of our levels were fine. we
have our water tested every wednesday, and have done so since we set it up. Im sorry I do not know the numbers.
Thanks I look forward to hearing any advice!

[charlie]

Hey there,



Do you have a skimmer set up on this tank, I don't recall seeing one in your list. A skimmer is a very important part of filtration!!!
I also noticed that your bioload is a little high for the amount of LR you have in the tank now, I would get more rock before adding anything else. I also noticed that you don't have a sump, I would look into adding one. If the tank isn't drilled, you could use a hang on overflow to get the water down to the sump. HTH

[fidyyreef]

Thanks, we have been talking about a skimmer.
but I didnt know about the sump - what does that do for the tank?
We have Approx. 40-50lbs of rock at this point and still adding -

[charlie]

I believe that right now, a skimmer is more important than the sump. It will really help reduce nutrients in the water.

The sump, it adds more water volume, thereby creating a more stable environment for your critters. If you plan on adding one, rule of thumb tells you at least 20% of the volume of the tank, or 20 gallons, give or take a few.

I would also try to get the rest of your LR in there, that will also help the tank stabilize over time. Just work on finding a good skimmer, the remora pro comes to my mind.

[FishTechie]

what charlie said, but first decide if your going to get a sump, if you are then that would add at least 30 more gallons of water volume to your setup if you go with a 40g sump, then you will probably be looking for an insump skimmer opposed to a hangonback.

[charlie]

what charlie said, but first decide if your going to get a sump, if you are then that would add at least 30 more gallons of water volume to your setup if you go with a 40g sump, then you will probably be looking for an insump skimmer opposed to a hangonback.

A very good point, thank you!!!