Proper Setup

[orwolf77]

First off, I want to thank everyone who post here. I'm very new to the board and have only had my saltwater tank for 6 months. The information here is of great value.
I'm looking for opinions (good or bad). I have a 30g tank with an emperor 280 filter, ls, and 10lbs lr. I currently have a baby clown triggerfish, a flame angel, a purple dottyback, and a damsel fish. I lost my butterflyfish today .
Should I set up differently? More lr? Protein skimmer? I just have a flourescent tube light that I bought at the fish store?
My levels (nitrites) have become a bit unstable lately?

 

[fshhub]

more lr would help, and how deep is the sand bed, a deep sand bed(4 ot 6 inches) woudl not hurt anythign either, and a skimmer definitely would help out, other thatn taht, the butterfly may have died due to the water problems,i got into that deeper in your other post
and for lighting, you may want to increas that a bit too, especially if you intend ot get some corals or invertsin the future
HTH

 

[guppie]

More lr and a skimmer would work great, prizm would work for the skimmer. Good Luck

 

[broomer5]

Sorry to hear you lost the butterfly.
Unstable nitrites I assume means you are getting some readings on your test kits, that may vary from time to time.
Correct me if I misinterpretted your statement.
Nitrite levels indicate insufficient biofiltration, the bacteria are not converting it to nitrate and levels are building up.
That is a major problem in my opinion.
One to deal with asap.
Either add more live rock, more substrate, more erfficient filter or decrease the number of fish, and watch out you don't overfeed.
A skimmer as mentioned may help your overall water quality - but the lack of having one is not the root cause of nitrites.
Ammonia is.
Five fish in a 30 gallon tank IMO is pushing it.
Good luck and let us know how things work out.