cloudy water

I would remove the bag of Chemipure, clean/recharge it according to the manufacturers instructions and save it for future use. Future use would be very limited. It has a very specific use but isn't needed on a day to day basis.

It's not so good to place any media in the filter floss bag. The water coming in churns around fast and pulverizes the media sending tiny particles throughout the tank. It's better to place a loose bag of media near or draped over the return pump intake. I run AC this way for 2 weeks/month.

Your rock placement is fine. Do what you would like to do with it. Build one or more coral heads if you like by placing rock in separate distinct structures coming up from the sand. Use the tripod method from the Tip in the link below, to help keep the rock off the sand as much as possible. A little Caulerpa growing across the rock would make the setup more attractive to me and healthier for the entire system. Is there a Refugium?

All circulation water that hits the water surface gets oxygenated and goes back down around the tank to help things breathe easier. I recommend moving powerheads down low pointing up to the water surface. This more effectively moves water directly from the bottom to the top for gas exchange. A diagonal/vertical water stream seems to be better for the entire tank. I've put together smaller tanks with only one ordinary powerhead sitting at the back bottom pointing straight up. These tanks had no external filtration, just the biofiltration of LS, LR, LW and Macroalgae. That one water stream seemed to create a healthier environment than any other money I could spend on the tank.

Your tank is a 120, right. Here's a pic of my old 120. On the right side you can see some loc-line sending water up to the surface. There is another on the other side. Notice how the surface water is rolling in two places. Instead of powerheads this system had a "Closed Loop". Powerheads are much improved. If I were to do this system today, I'd use powerheads rather than a closed loop.
This tank has a suspended reef structure. You can barely see the Blue Spotted Ribbontail Ray underneath the reef on the right side behind the Batfish. Yes this was a very unique system; the hit of the 2006 WMAS Reef Tour.



Here is the entire system  6 months earlier with a view of the simple RDP Refugium



Edited by Mark Peterson - September 14 2011 at 11:52am

Yes, Activated Carbon (AC) for 2 weeks every month. I stay away from AC in cardboard boxes. I like the pelletized AC because it's easier to contain in a larger mesh bag. There are people on utahreefs that sell it for cheap because they bought it in bulk. I once found it very cheap at Petco.com and bought a case.

The life that grows in our aquariums is absolutely amazing. Each organism handles an aspect of the filtration. Hermits, bugs, worms and bacteria eat fish waste, bacteria eat bug waste and then algae and other bacteria eat the final bacteria waste(N compounds; the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate). The freed up N dissolves into the water and escapes via gas exchange at the water surface. Bugs, snails and fish eat the algae and so it goes round and round.

A film of bacteria forms on all surfaces making particulate matter stick, removing it from the water column.

All of this waste consumption is the water cleaning activity that we call biofiltration. As a tank matures and more worms and bugs develop good populations in the sand and somewhat in the rock, their spawn and larvae end up floating around the tank, especially at night. This feeds the tank with tiny live food which makes the tank even more stable and full of life. Enjoy.

When you pick up the Macroalgae, ask the person if they might throw in a couple cups of their best LS. That will add diversity to your sand bed, hopefully introducing organisms that were lacking or had died off in your sand bed. The life in the sand bed is constantly changing. Populations of organisms are competing for resources, eating and being eaten and sometimes an entire population of an organism may disappear. Adding a little LS or a piece of uncured LR can help keep the diversity in our tanks.