Welcome to Canreef, I'm sure you will find the answers you are looking for here as this bunch of people are always looking to help.

The tank is looking good...now that you're in SW, expect the urge to upgrade to hit you soon.

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I have snails die in my tank all the time. Mostly due to predation from the hermit crabs though. If you have hermint crabs they will take care of the snail for you, they probably want it's shell. If you don't have hermits I still wouldn't worry about it, unless the snail is huge.

Good to hear that you are taking out the foam filters, they'll just be a PITA.

Welcome to canreef. Congrats on your "free" tank!!
Didn't i tell you two you'd love the salt :mrgreen:
I'm glad you have found your way here, there is lots of knowledge here. Although it sounds like you have been busy researching already. Before you know it you'll be the answering the questions.
Welcome aboard, Brenda (30g, overcrowed)

Welcome to canreef
fair warning this hobby is an addiction and free is a myth :lol: My 29 gallon from last spring has now added a 90 gallon and the house we are going to be building has a fish room and 200 plus gallon already in planning.....to bad the rest of the house is not fully planned out ....hehe. I have a very patient wife
enjoy the new tank

*update*

Okay, after talking at length with several people, including the guy at J&L we decided against a protein skimmer at this point and will go with plenty of regular (once weekly) water changes. The two perc clowns are VERY happy, but I'm wondering if they are related to piranha? (I know they're not, but they sure are cheeky!). Every time my husband puts his arm/hand in the tank to do something, he is attacked by clowns. The larger (female?) circles his hand, then darts in quickly and hammers him, the smaller male just darts in and out trying to bite him. They are obviously well named as they truly are clowns. Can't tell you how entertaining it was to watch my hubby scream like a little girl the first time they did it! LOL!! (no really honey, it was funny - water everywhere, you yanking your hand out of the tank, things flying - funny stuff!!). Here's where we stand with regards to 'livestock'

-2 percs
-3 peppermint shrimp (cleaned up the aptaisa beautifully!)
-electric blue hermit (I know now that he wasn't the wisest choice, but he's pretty good at not lumbering over everything)
- 6 tiny blue legged hermits, 2 red legged hermits
-12 - 15 assorted snails (including an infinitely interesting Tonga snail!)
- riccordea
- small colt coral
- small pulsing xenia (two separate stalks - or whatever that part is called)
- anthelia
- yellow polyps (parazoanthus?)
- unknown zoa (brown edges, green centers)
- plate coral (fungia sp)
(can't forget my little pieces of Halimeda and Grape Caulerpa macroalgae).

Now, given that we have few fish (and are in no hurry to add others), but would like to add a few more corals/ricordea/mushrooms, etc. we're wondering what kind of 'dosing' will be needed at this point. Remember that we're doing this rather low-tech right now, no skimmer, fluval with carbon and phosban, two Hydor Koralia's and lots of live rock (about 45 pounds or so in the 29 gal hex tank). We run a Coralife reflector light (actinic & blue) for a few hours in the morning, then that goes off when the 150 watt metal halide goes on at 10am, then that goes off at 6pm and the Coralife goes back on for a few more hours. We have a CFL UV light for night viewing.

So, if you've read through all that, you deserve a medal! LOL My husband wants to start dosing with Seachem's Reef Complete and Reef Plus. We also need to get some phytoplankton food as well. Good grief for utter and complete newbies, this is crazy! LOL Anyway, any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Tank parameters:
Specific gravity - 1.024 (please don't quote me on that, my husband checks these things and I'm going by memory as he's not here right now to ask!)
Ammonia - zero
Nitrite - zero
nitrate - 5ppm
phosphate - zero
Temp - averages 80 degrees
ph- 8.3

thanks for any help, suggestions, offers of alibi's when we have to rob a bank to cover the impending addiction! :) Much appreciated!

Update!! So things are rolling along well. We lost a Xenia to a cute little crab - no haven't caught the little bugger yet, but he's toast when we do (nasty little hitchhiker that my hubby named 'Hannibal' - he crawls inside the stalk of the Xenia and wears it like a costume - creepy!!). Other than that, we've lost one shrimp, though who knows how old it was when we got it, a few snails, a few tiny hermits, and one hairy orange crab that was trying to kill a soft coral (hubby took care of him - I didn't ask questions!). Now, we have added lots of 'stuff' to the tank, including an amazing purple gorgonian from Aquatic Addictions, a few colonies of mushrooms and polyps, a frogspawn frag, a green slimer frag, an acropora from J&L, a new Xenia, and my new favorite a sarcophyton (toadstool leather). Within half an hour of being in the tank, the smaller clown (assuming male) immediately started hosting in it. It took the bigger (female?) 24 hours and now she's hosting too. They LOVE their toadstool. The toadstool seems to like them too, although it kicked out the little guy in the middle of the night. But everyone is happy today, so no complaints! Here's a pic of the clowns and toadstool (forgive the crappy pic - best I can do with this camera and a not so perfect acrylic tank - hey, it was free, so no complaints! LOL).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrieedwards/3898604160/

We haven't added any other fish besides a signal goby who's life mission is to excavate under the plate coral. i'm waiting patiently for J&L to get black capped basslets - I want one. Then that will be it. We did get an electric blue hermit crab who is rather huge, but he has behaved himself so far (bit of a clumsy oaf, but hasn't hurt anything). I can totally see why you guys are so committed to your tanks - this stuff is addictive!! We're looking at setting up the next one this year sometime - maybe a 90 gal? MTS strikes again!

Hmmm, wonder why the pic isn't showing? I'll try to figure it out and post it again. Sorry!!