wuz up i am new to this salt water /nano hobby . unfortunatly i havent been able to get a bigger tank so im starting off with a 12g jbj nano cube...i plan on adding coral soon and a couple colorful fish. so far my tank has been running for almost a week with approx 10 pounds of live rock. it has a lot of purple and red and dark people spots here n there (i assume those are dead spots?) and also a couple spots of this flourecent red that glows wen i turn on the led lights looks kinda nice. oh yea and some shelled critters here n there i assume came with the sand. also, some green hairs on the rocks. the water i added was pre made at the store i assume thats good. i bought several chemicals i beleive i would need in the future heres a list of them... Cycle...kent marine iodide....kent marine zooplex...and the A and B chemical process. i plan on getting the test kits this weekend. wich would i most necesarily need?
I hear a lot about protein skimmers some people say u need them and some say u dont regardless i bought one but does not fit i realized too late wen i got it it says for 14 gallons n up...that was the oceanic skimmer they also had the fission one...but it seems to be the same size..should i really worry about having one? or will my chemicals be enough along with water changes?? should i remove the carbon wen i add my chemicals? or can i leave it there? and last question for now....other than damsels wat fish are good to start with? i apologize for the bombarbment of questions but i like doing things the right way so i would appreciate the help from anyone willing to help thanks again :o)

Hey Manny how are you? Nice to have you on the board here. If you look around you'll find lots of good information. The colored areas on the rock are not dead spots but coralline algae. They're a good thing....you want to have them. People spend big bucks for lights and chemicals to encourage their growth. If the tank has only been set up for a week you still have a way to go for the cycle to be complete. You didn't mention it, but you need to have some good test kits; I like the Salifert ones.You can then track your cycle by the presence and/or absence of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.Go and get those test kits, then post the results for us.A problem with starting with a small tank is that any mistakes (and we all make 'em when we're starting out) have an immediate effect. So read up as much as you can on starting a marine reef nano tank. Good luck.

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hey man thanx a lot for the reply iv been reading a lot through many forums so far most things are about the same info. i have a little experience in fresh water tanks considering people compliment me for having three cichlids in a 6 gallon eclipse. salt water seems a lot more fun and things to do im anxious to add something but i know i have to wait