Tank Running For 2 Months, Next Step?

[cm11599ps]

We set up a 46 gallon bowfront at my brothers house about 2 months ago. It's got about 4 pieces of LR and a bag of LS. There's currently two little chromis and a pajama cardinal. He's also got about 2 snails and 2 blue leg hermits.

There's also a bunch of pulsing Xenia, some mushrooms and kenya tree I believe.

His lighting is a 2 bulb fixture, one actinic, one daylight and led moon lights. He's got a Prism protein skimmer, a powerhead and an eheim 2217 filter with all the included media. He hasn't done a WC yet and he says all is readings are in the "safe range," although I don't know what he has tests for. He has strips instead of drops. Everything in the tank seems to be doing well and growing though. No casualties so far.

What would be the next step as far as maintenance goes? The LFS told him he should look at the filter every two months or so and that time is now. What should we do with the media? What should we leave, what should we replace, what should we add....etc?

He originally filled the tank with tap water but has been topping off with RO water ever since. Should we do a WC?

Thanks!

[gofor100]

Before you do anything else, I would suggest getting an accurate reading of the parameters (including the ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and pH).

If your parameters are are in check (meaning you have 0/near 0 in the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, and around 8.0 to 8.2 in pH), then I would still suggest doing a little bit of a water change (around 10%) before adding anything else (especially if your tapwater is high in TDS). If your parameters are not in check, then I would suggest doing a larger water change (i.e., 20% or so) and continue to do so not more frequently than weekly until things settle before adding anything else.

I'm not really familiar with the eheim filter, so I can't add anything there.

Good luck!

[cm11599ps]

I just bought a new RO unit so any water going in will be at 0 TDS. I haven't looked at it to know what the reading is before being purified.

I asked him what his readings were and he simply said they were "good." Being he never really took care of a tank as an adult and I've been keeping them for the past 15 years I asked him how he knew what "good" meant. I asked him what the # value was. That's when he told me about the strips. lol

Since I'll be starting my own tank soon I'm going to have to buy a kit myself so maybe I'll pick up a drop kit so I can get a better understanding of what "good" is. lol