New 30 Gal Reef

[MikeYQM]

Good Day,

I started cycling a 30 gal 2 days ago and had a couple questions. Right now I've got sand, live rock (15lbs going to 30), a heater, a 240 power head and a 750 power head. I got tank water from my LFS and just waiting for sand to settle right now. Im planning a reef setup.

I'm wondering, with this setup, if I have a protein skimmer, do I need a filter? Which is more reasonable - a canister or HOB? I'm more concerned with tank cleanliness & health than cost, but don't want to throw $ at something totally redundant.

I'm looking at a Seaclone 100 skim bc as I understand it can be HOB at first then moved into a sump if I decide to later. Is this a decent unit? Or am o better with a Prism HOB?

Should I be running the skimmer during cycling or will it hurt the process?

Should I do a PWC towards the end of cycling before live stock goes in?

If I'm buying water from my LFS for PWC, 5 Gal in a bucket, how long can it sit sealed before I add salt to do the change?

I think that's it for now.

Thanks a ton!

Mike

 

[aaronalam]

Filter over skimmer, especially with only having a 30 gallon.

I would wait for other people to chime in if I were you, I'm still learning, but, afaik, as long as you do good weekly changes, on a 30 gallon you should be ok with no skimmer, just a filter.

 

[MikeYQM]

Well, that's the first I heard that, my guy says I'd be good with just power heads & bio filtering and I've read skimmer with no filter and skimmer and filter.

I *think* if I need both, I'll get a HOB skim and canister filter like the Fluval to minimize clutter on the tank.