Adding corals

[James5214]

Ok so I'm going to be adding some corals to my tank soon. A few softies as I'm still learning about the whole saltwater situation. So my question is for my low budget tank do I need to be dosing all the fancy things people do with there display tank? I'm thinking of green star polyp and maybe xenia. Something hardy and easy for beginners. Will good lightning be enough for those guys? Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks and happy reefing

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Lighting, good alkalinity range (between 8-11dkh) and decent but relatively gentle flow is good enough for those corals. Starting with a good salt mix takes solves the parameter issues for most soft corals if you keep up with water changes.

 

[James5214]

Yea I'm definitely going to be changing salts after going with the cheap IO mix I must of got a bad bag and it has left a film on top of my water in the tank and when I touch the salt mix my fingers get greasy like. My LFS is sponsored by red sea may check that out since they always have it. And yes I do water changes on my off days every week. So Friday or Saturday I do water changes and daily RODI top off.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

Yea I'm definitely going to be changing salts after going with the cheap IO mix I must of got a bad bag and it has left a film on top of my water in the tank and when I touch the salt mix my fingers get greasy like. My LFS is sponsored by red sea may check that out since they always have it. And yes I do water changes on my off days every week. So Friday or Saturday I do water changes and daily RODI top off.

I usually consider Red Sea Coral Pro (black bucket) to be one of the best mixes for the price. There's mixes made with medical-grade ingredients; price is much higher for a little extra purity.

Oil-slick on top of the water isn't usually a salt issue, it's protein build up (which is normal) without proper surface skimming/ample surface turbulence. I'm assuming you aren't using an overflow set up since this is you first foray into marine aquaria. Eheim makes a cool little surface-skimming pump if you're interested in fixing the problem. Generally, the oil slick is just an esthetic issue though, doesn't really cause harm itself, but could be indicative of poor surface movement, which might lead to oxygen issues in the future.

 

[James5214]

I have a macro-50 HOB protein skimmer and it pulls some dirty skimmate. And yes I don't have all the fancy things yet since it's first tank I don't want to go over board and kill everything. But I have a HOB seacheems tidal filter that moves water alot and causes survive agitation.

 

[James5214]

You know I just thought about it my HOB skimmer intake pump is well below my water level and maybe like you said I need the surface skimmed...I may be onto something here lol. But for a 60$ HOB skimmer is does pull some dirty skimmate out

 

[Steve and his Animals]

You know I just thought about it my HOB skimmer intake pump is well below my water level and maybe like you said I need the surface skimmed...I may be onto something here lol. But for a 60$ HOB skimmer is does pull some dirty skimmate out

Yeah even with an efficient skimmer proteins in the water don't just disappear, so every aquarium will have that oil slick occur without it. Look into the Eheim surface skimmers if you want to try something.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

To be honest, dosing is very overrated, its seems to be a popular fad these days, but its not really neccessary until you start getting to intermediate/advanced level.

I also see you have the macro 50 skimmer, is that the aqua macro 50? Get yourself a better skimmer as soon as possible. I bought that for my nano tank. Its ok, not great, but you will wake up to a flood on the floor sooner or later.

 

[James5214]

Funny you say that... It already happened.... Smh came home half the tank was.on the apartment floor -_- @LordofCinder