Hi

I recently set up an orca TL450, I used water and live rock from a much larger tank that had been running for around 6 months, it had an internal filetr in it (as well as external) so I took the sponges out if it and used them in the Orca
The tank is set up as follows
1st chamber, UV is running, there are the sponges that came with the tank on the first part of the UV with additional sponge sections from my inernal filetr from previous tankl
2nd chamber, skimmer is running, have been gradually opening up the air supply pipe
3rd chamber, heater plus about 5 black plastic balls that came with it
4th chamber, bag of ceramic rings that came with the tank, plus the remainder of the sponge I had from the internal filer in previous tank
The reason I changed was I wasn't getting the time to set up a large tank and a larger range of fish meant a much more varied diet than I need to give a nano reef ( i was away from home sometimes)
The tank appears to be settled, a couple of clowns are in there, plus a clean up crew of hermit crabs
I have put some small corals in, everything seems OK apart from a toadstool coral that has just shrivelled up, another coral isn't doing too good either, the name I have forgot (jasmine .....) it had small almost flower like heads that came from inside light blue coloured pods, but I havent seen any come out since it left the shop!
Apologies for my lack of knowledge with names, I just enjoy the contents without getting into all the names and stuff
Is the filtration system adequate as it is? This tank has been running like this for around 6 weeks and has a 25% water change once a week, maybe a little longer sometimes

Tony

** for those that are not familiar with the orca, it's similar to a nano cube/bio cube***

first order of business..... Ditch all sponges, bio balls & ceramic rings. They become nitrate factories & do more harm then good.



i dont have the effort to explain anything else at this time

Hi Tony

I have the 450's big brother the 550. First business of order sponges, ceramic rings and bioballs have got to go like the above user said they cause nitrate issues and that is probably why your corals aren't doing so well. You have LR in your tank so that goes a long way in filtration, the stock 450 skimmers aren't great as far as I know, the only other skimmer that will fit in the back chambers is the stock skimmer for the 550 you can get them dirt cheap on ebay if you wish to upgrade. What I would do is put some LR rubble and maybe some macro algae chaeto is best] in the back chambers instead of all the other crap, it's what I did. I not sure how much of the light gets into the back chambers in the 450 but you may have to get some LED's in the back some how to make sure they are getting some light.

What results are you getting on your tests, also what temp and gravity/salinity are you running?

Mary Ellen.