New Tank, Please Help!!

whats in your 10gallon tank, what kind of filter do you have on it now, sand bed or crushed coral on the bottom? Do you plan on putting anything else in the tank when you move it into the 30 gallon? For water changes its good to do a 15-25% change every two weeks... I dont know if your tank cycled or not, but a 10 gallon tank is a small tank and will be hard to keep the water quality stable. The evaportaion will make the salinity increase far more than it would on the 30 gallon your going to move too... I guess you woulnd't NEED a skimmer but they will be benifitial for your tank, but the book The Marine Aquarium Problem Solver by Nick Dakin or basically any book will help you anwser any questions that you need anwsered quickly. I like using books for quick reference and they will probably hlep you incase anything happens with a sick fish or anything. Ive heard biowheels aren't prefered for a reef tank becase the nitrates will eventually build up on them, if you wanted to use a hang on filter without hte wheel it would be good for circulation, not really worht it if you were buying one to do that, I have a 29gallon and for now only use 50lbs of live rock and a fluval 204, which works fine. Not sure on feeding damsels, i've never had one so i dont want to say something htats not true.

I feed my damsels "Bio-Blend Marine Food Staple Diet Small" and they go nuts over it. I feed them a sprinkle or two twice a day.

Cow fish are cool, if they die I'm pretty sure they can release a poison...which if not removed could kill things. But its not a reason to not get one, its negitive to just look at the end of something, they're super cool. Live rock is porus rock that has become "home" to various invertebrates and algae. Since the live rock is porus, dentitrification can take place in those areas. So if you have live rock, it will do natural filtration, which is a good thing. Alot of people on this forum simply have live rock and a protien skimmer for their filtration. Once your tank cycles and is established for awhile the sand will become 'live' anyway... so I guess you could just use both and you would have alot of life in your tank, quicker... but I'd get live rock. I have 50lbs of live rock in my 29gallon tank, also it gives your tank decoration and a place for things to live and grow, most likely your LFS doesn't have alot of liverock in their fish tanks but they don't really need them, but in the end it could help your tank. Also, if you ever wanted to go to reefs (i wouldn't do that with a cow fish) you would have the rock which you need for corals to live on.

I'm sorry to hear that I just lost another tank mate, Blengermin, my blenny... the first death that is unexplained. One, a bristle worm at it, i had a star fish which came from a bad shimpment of 3 star fish. I got one my friend got the other (which i found out later) and the store had one... all died the same day. It sucks dude, how long was your tank set up before you put the fish in there??

Check this thread out...

Pete,
Take a look at this thread if you haven't already.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11232