Fairly new reefer looking for any and all advice!

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow. Quite the difference.
Those are vermatid snails. Snot monsters.
Snap em off or a Dab of putty over them.

 

[Be102]

Wow. Quite the difference.
Those are vermatid snails. Snot monsters.
Snap em off or a Dab of putty over them.

Thanks man, means a lot! Hopefully me maintaining water changes will keep up the nice looking water. Those snails, I have possibly hundreds of them.. Can i just use like tweezers to snap the heads and call it a day? Any other way to handle them? COULD THEY HAVE BEEN WHY MY FROGSPAWN (or torch no clue what the difference between these two are) DIED? So going forward from here. Weekly water changes, 5 or 10 gallons? or maybe even 5 gallons a few times a week? Can you tell me if 2 - 5 gallon water changes are equivalent to 1 10 gallon water change? Hows that all work out? Can I use that 'clarity' stuff by seachem? You suggesting to take everything down and clean it all out was a great idea. I ironically even came across that my protein skimmer wasn't even set up the right way hence why with a bubble stopper I still got bubbles! Will update tomorrow with more updates on my levels. What do you recommend I focus my testing on? Which main elements are I aiming for as of now?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just practice cal and alk. And magnesium. It shouldn't change much with a low bio load.
Nitrate phosphate and ammonia you should know. The No and Po you'll want to watch.
You could do a five or ten each week for a while. Then slow down and water the nitrate and phosphate numbers.
No idea what clarity is.
. A five gal is a five gal just more often.
Your replacing minerals like calcium and magnesium and other trace minerals and removing extra nutrients and fish poop.

Check out Randy Farley articles on the basics of chemistry here in the fourum it'll get you started on nutrients and minerals. Go to the chemistry forum and look for the thread Randy's articles.
Don't get freaked out by it. It actually easy. Test weeklybunless something weird happens and do a weekly water change. That's about it really.

 

[Be102]

Update: Removed filter, did a few water changes. Dosed 6ml of Vibrant yesterday for first time. Currently am facing a layer of stuff on the top of my tank. Skimmer is struggling to keep up with it. Pistol shrimp keeps stirring up my sand which causes a sandstorm inside my tank, could be part of the problem. Curious on people's opinions on my carpet anemone. Should I leave him be? Should I attempt to remove him? Starting to think that 65 Gallons would be too small for him considering he is so aggressive. Corals look healthy, hoping to see some growth! Wondering what the red algae is on my rocks in the middle. It seems to come back after the lights are on for a few. The pictures are to attempt to get my clownfish to go to the anemone.. but after they saw what he did to my green watchman goby I'd be amazed if they ever tried to mess with it.

 

[Brew12]

Currently am facing a layer of stuff on the top of my tank. Skimmer is struggling to keep up with it.

Glad things are looking up for you!

You can help your skimmer out by laying a paper towel across the surface of the water and pulling it back out. Normally works well to pull that surface scum off. I need to do that to the return section of my sump on occasion since it doesn't mix well in there.