[Dentoid]

Hey Casey & Cody. Don't have an aquapod, but will try to answer your questions. First and formost you must realize that maintenance of a smaller tanks is more stringent due to the smaller volumn of water.

1. Is the circulation that the standard 290 gph pump provides sufficient for a starting reef tank?

The rule of thumb for return circulation is 10 times the tank volumn, so you have that covered.

2. I recently learned that is appropriate to have 1 lb of LR per gallon of water, but we only purchased 10lbs with 20 lbs of LS and realized we needed more LR. Is adding the extra rock in a couple days going to harm anything?

If your tank is still cycling from the first batch of LR then and the answer is no it won't mess-up anything. It may however, prolong your cycle. Also the length of youur cycle before and after the new LR addition will depend on whether the Lr was cured or not cured. Cured LR generally cycles the tank quicker.

3. I was told that if you don't move the sand out from under the rock when placing it that it can cause dead spots in the sand or something. Is this true and how does that affect my tank? In adding the new rock, seeing as we have already started the tank what is the best way to avoid causing the dead spots?

This is true. By setting the LR directly on the sand prevents water from flowing over that portion of sand possibly causing the buildup of hydrogen sulfide gas which is deadly for your tanks inhabitants. In smaller volumns of water this could be significant. If you do not want to remove the sand to place the rocks directly on the bottom then reintroducing the sand, try pushing the rocks down into the sand as far as you can without damaging the bottom of the tank.

4. I was reading something about the filtering system and saw that it was being mentioned that the sponge may not be necessary. I definitely don't know enough about filtering systems. I know that the tank came out of the box with the blue sponges in the filter, 4 black balls (which I am assuming are bioballs), and this bag of these round white chalky things (which I can't seem to find what they are anywhere in the paperwork that came with the tank!), as well as plates that can be moved to adjust the flow of water thru the filter, we currently hve it set to where it is supposed to be skimming water from the top. Any advice or knowledge about the filtering system and what we should be doing with it would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully someone with an Aquapod will chime in on this. It is generally accepted that sponges, bioballs and that chalky biomedia will eventually cause unnecessary nitrates (not good for an anemone in your case). Most Aquapod owners forgo these artificial filter medias for LR rubble in the filter chamber.

5. After getting a more appropriate amount of rock what is the next steps to take? I know we have to check the water daily, but are there any otherstep we need to follow in order to aid in the tank cycling?

Again, if your LR is cycled you may need to add some decaying matter that will break down and release ammonia to kick off the cycle. Most hobbyists use a piece of cocktail shrimp from the seafood counter at the supermarket. If your rock is not cycled, there should be enough die off to kick off the cycle. You will only be able to tell this by testing.

You should be testing daily and plotting the findings on a graph. You will first see the ammonia rising, then a couple of days or a week you should notice the nitrites rising. When both of these fall to zero (could take several weeks), you will see the nitrates start to rise. After your ammonia and nitrite are zero for a week then you add a clean-up-crew (CUC). By the end of the cycle, undesirable algae will most likely be growing in the tank. The CUC is there to scrub the tank clean. The CUC consists of snails, hermit crabs, shrimps, starfish etc. By no means should you use live fish to cycle your tank. It is just inhumane.
After the cycle the nitrates will continue to rise and this is when you start you weekly 10% water changes to keep the nitrates down. Eventually, with a deep sand bed (DSB) and as the denitrifying bacteria mature (may take a year) the nitrates are converted to nitrogen gas for export. It is at this time that you can consider having an anemone. Tanks parameters have to be strictly stable for keeping an anemone.

6. The LFS we went to said something about adding some damsels to help out the cycle because they are hardy. Is this necessary? When is it actually safe to add inhabitants?

This is old fashioned and becoming unacceptable in the hobby. This is equivalent to making a cat live in its litter box. The LFS is a business and they make their money by selling fish. Do not do this! A piece or two of shrimp will do the same thing and you won't be pulling your hair out later trying to remove a damsel, if it survives, when it starts picking on your clown fishes.

Go slow. Nothing good ever happens fast in a reef. Do research. Ask questions. You will get many different responses, but ultimately, you have to decide what is good for your reef.
Best of luck to you!