New to saltwater and reef tanks

[Carlo Minotti]

Hello everybody,
I received a 12Gal. Nano-cube DX as a gift and was terrified about maintaining a saltwater tank. My first experience was in the late 70's when I was a kid and things were not as advanced.
I now have the tank set up (April 07) and do water changes (3gal.) weekly (Kent marine salt). I have a Polyp Coral pack from (Doctors Foster and Smith) with a Mushroom pack as well. I have 3 Peppermint shrimp, one Emerald crab (to eat the Bubble algae and Green hair algae) I have a Turbo snail and a conch. I have a blenny (1\2 inch) from the Jetties in Galveston. I have live sand, two live rocks and I use RO water for changes. I mix the salt in a bucket with a power head overnight. I have done no modifications to the tank and I am using everything that came with the set up but the charcoal. I test weekly (Saltwater masters Liquid test kit) and only seem to have a chronic Low PH problem and have been using Pro-Buffer DKH to deal with that. I am using Purple up, Coral Vital and Zooplex as prescribed by the containers. I have the timer for the light on for 7 hrs a day. I am feeding the Shrimp and Blenny Mysis shrimp.

I was wondering about adding a Protein skimmer (Safire aquatics has one for $109 that fits into a 12gal. Nano) and a sump.
Any help you can offer would be great.

[Dentoid]

Carlo, Welcome to the Sanctuary.

[blue_eyes53813]

Hello welcome to RS

[Cassette87]

Welcome to RS! any pictures of your setup? A skimmer will definitley help your bio-capacity

[Dentoid]

Carlo, that Sapphire skimmer looks similar in design to the Aqua Remora C. In that, I mena it looks like a down draft style skimmer. It should do the job and the price is surely right. You don't have a very big bio-load with one blenny, but you will want to add skimmer.

[goldenmean]

Howdy Hooo!
Welcome to RS!

[AQTCJAK]

Welcome aboard