This sound ok?

[Annie742]

I decided to go with soft corals such as leathers and the shrooms. I also want some more pulsating Xenia ( love those!)
I'm using 4-65 watt pc light.
Maybe a frogspawn.
My tank is in it's algae stage and it rather ichy to look at LOL.
Been set up for about 5 wks now.
As for fish I'm not real sure, still looking at those. I have a Remora Pro with the mag 3 pump comming from Marine Depot. I have about 3 inches of sand but not a lot of live rock as of yet. I will be adding more in bits and peices.
Right now my nitrates are about 10. I am using a penguin filter until I get my skimmer. I think this may be where my nitrates are comming from.
Amo=0
Nitrites=0
Nitrates=10
So I still have a while to wait out the nitrate.

Am thinking about a sump. But not sure if I want to mess with one again. Will a skimmer be enough?
Don't plan on to many fish.
I know I want a couple of clown fish, but thats all I'm really sure about as of now Still reading up on the fish.

[Woodstock]

You don't have to have a sump. I think that skimmer will perform very well for you. I have one and love it. I bet you see a significant drop in trAtes once you get the skimmer going and remove the penguin. Keep us posted!

[Cougra]

How big is your tank? For the types of corals you want the PC lights should be good enough provided you don't have a really deep tank. I agree that the sump isn't necessary and I ran my tank for the first year without one. The one thing I did find better is that I didn't get annoyed with the water levels in the main tank dropping since I've had the sump as I hate seeing a water line in and aquarium.

As for nitrates, with the setup you currently have you wont see them drop to 0ppm. You really do need the proper amount of live rock, a good skimmer and an established sandbed before you start seeing readings less then 5ppm. In any case, the corals that you wish to keep will do fine in a tank with 10ppm nitrates, just don't let it get too much above 20ppm once you have the corals in. I know there are a lot of people out there who demand 0ppm nitrates in any tank but it's really not absolutely essential, especially in a soft coral tank as the corals are very hardy. What is more important then 0ppm nitrates is stability in water chemistry, even when the chemistry isn't ideal since the animals have a limited ability to adapt to sudden changes.

[Annie742]

It's a 75 gal. the standard kind. I'm looking into a RO/DI unit. I'm buying my water now.

Was thinking about MH lights but i'm not real sure as of yet. My hubbys son has a lighting business and he is going to look into them for me.
But like I said i'm sure I'll be happy with the softies (for a while anyway

Those were the ones I had before.

Here is a pic of my last tank. Oh why did I ever go back to freshies
Think I got the pic on here LOL.

[amee6730]

nice tank! Very pretty. I like the look of softies too. Just be patient and everything will work out. RS is great...lots of knowledgeable folks here. You're on the right tract by being here!

[Woodstock]

It was a beautiful reef!!