growth of corals?

[debaric]

Today my boy gave me his 20 gallon nano tank that came with a bunch of live rock covered in algae, 2 koralia 2's, 96 watts of t-5, and some corals that i have no clue what they are. I went out and got some live sand to keep the bacterial colonies going for the fish until my live rock is totally free of the horrible algae. The corals are really small, a few i believe are polyps and a few are zoas.

how long does it take these things to get bigger? Is there anything besides the lighting that I can do to make these corals happy and healthy? (right now they are just sitting in the layer of live sand at the bottom of the tank)

I was also told by my friend that I have to leave the live rock in the bucket of water for at least a week to kill the algae and roots of the algae as well as brush off the visible algae. Is this correct?

Would a protien skimmer be a good investment too? Im really into this tank more for the corals and color than the fish.

Im pretty excited for this, I will appreciate any help you can give me.

Chris

[debaric]

I would also like to add that my lighting has a total of 96 watts, 2 actinics and 2 10K bulbs. Also, its a 20 long so the height is only like 12 inches.

Also, the water is the premixed kind that you buy at the lfs. I was able to get about 15 gallons in the 20. I have to figure out how to use the hydrometer to measure salinity, and of course, i have test kits to test nitrate, nitrite, ammonia.

[fsn77]

The growth rate of the corals will depend on the exact corals you have. Good quality pix will definitely be useful for IDing and providing suggestions for each coral. Many corals will grow just fine without supplemental feeding, while others require regular feedings to survive.

There's different ways to help remove algae and excess nutrients from live rock. Unfortunately, I don't know of any that keep the rock alive that work as quickly as a week.

A protein skimmer could be a good investment towards maintaining good water quality, however, be choosy as many skimmers made for smaller tanks are not all that good.

If interested in keeping corals, it's going to become necessary to also test the water for calcium, alkalinity, and pH (at a minimum). If you would prefer to not invest in so many test kits, most LFSs will test your water for free or a small fee.

If you can swing the $40 - $60, it would be a good idea to invest in a refractometer to measure SpG instead of using a hydrometer. Ultimately, a refractometer is more accurate, as well as being quicker and easier to use.

[Conski]

yea man get the refracto.. im just buying one myself and i know the salinity in my tank is not what it says it is, btw good move on getting RO man, good to see you jump right on that, had a stupid friend thought getting into this hobby the quick way 34 gal tank crash a little bit ago becuase he used tap with no dechlor.. wont admit its crashed though lol