Hello everybody!! well you guys better be prepaired, because i've got a million questions about my new reef tank.. i'm just joking, its not quite a million, but pretty close :) i bought a 55g reef tank, that had already been set up for a couple of years.. i've had fw tanks all my life, at one time we had 5 55g cichlid tanks... and i've always wanted a saltwater tank.. but my mom said it was too much work and blah blah blah.. so now that i'm on my own, and i came across the whole set up tank fish coral LR, (for a really great price too) i thought i'd start a new hobby!! so here i am!! woo hoo... :bounce: ok well like i said i have a bunch of questions.. however i'll take it easy on you guys, for now! my first question:: when i bought the tank the girl i bought it from kinda told me how to maintain it.. (note i said kinda) so i've been doing pretty good i've had it for 4 months now with no major problems. except i accidently killed the shrimp... i moved some rocks and he accidently got trapped, i was sooo sad!! but anyway she said when doing water changes just mix the salt with the fw and put it in the tank... so thats what i've been doing about every other week.. i change about 2 or 3 gallons.. however i have read that your supposed to aerate the new sw atleast over night... do you think i should start doing this?? i have a 10g old fw tank that is empty with a filter and a bubble wand, could i use that for my fresh sw??? ok just one more question.. this tank came with a bunch of testing stuff, however its all mixed together.. so it makes it really hard for me when i dont know how to in the first place, and i gotta piece it all together.. eeek.. soo i've read about the test strips, would that be a good thing for me to use?? and could anyone please give me a name of a good brand, because i'm a little worried about my LFS, i've went there and the guy that was helping me knew less than i did (thats scary.) i would appreicate any help or insight that anyone could give me!! oohh i bet you guys would like to know what i have in my tank huh?? well i have lots of LR (dont know how much exactly, like i said i bought it stocked and she couldnt tell me much about the specs.) also i have a yellow tang, a yellowstripe marron clown fish (which the girl i bought it from said it was a tomato clown, after some research i found out it wasnt... :grumble: ), and a yellow tail damsel, for the coral i have a green brain, and what she called trumpet coral (i'm really not sure if thats the correct name or not???) i also have a huge green carpet anemone, and a bunch of little anemone things, that have kinda all of a sudden popped up everywhere.. also yesterday i found a new thing growing in my tank!! i think it is a baby trumpet coral (if thats what they really are) but the other bigger ones are like a red/green brownish color, and this one is very iridescent and its a bluish/green... and its only like an inch or so big.. as for the lighting and filer i really have no idea, all i know is that it works!! thats bad.. lol i think the light is a corallife... and the filter is a hangon.. so thats my tank! (and my novel, geesh) and this is only the beginning, there's alot more!! but i'll save it for another day... again thanks to anyone that can give me some help (because i sure need it :D ) ~~Eryn~~