Beginner coral.

[RareEarthCorals]

Yes, it is normal to see different forms of algae, as long as you keep it in check. Keep it clean and lean.

Clean every three-four days by rinsing out polyfilters, nylon bags need a rinse off too in order to remove the brown stuff, feed three times a week/every two days. Keep your main lights on no more than seven hours. Keep you glass clean. Remove anything that dies quickly. Top off with RO only.

Do not dose unless you test for it first. Test all other parameters every three days and keep a log (simple excel spreadsheet works) so you will be able to understand your tank and its maturation. What affects it and what works best.

 

[Jordan berry]

Sounds good. My lights are on a morning and night cycle running from 8 am to 10pm before going to the moon lighting. I'll have to figure out how to program them to run a lot less. Will less be better even after adding coral?

 

[RareEarthCorals]

I did read your tank is a month old so I would hold off another month before you add corals. You want your tank to be at least two months in before you sink money in corals. Your biocolony is too new to start making any changes or additions. If you add anything at this stage I would say fish is ok to put you biologic filter to the test. After you feel confident then proceed with corals. Just my opinion.

 

[RareEarthCorals]

Corals can only photosynthesize 7-8 hours of direct sunlight. Anything after that is wasted or causes tissue damage.

 

[3dees]

I have mostly easy softies and a few lps in my 120 gal. going on two years. I have a bit of phosphate but nothing but a little algae on my glass. I have no sump. I don't dose anything and they get whatever food my fish get. ph is a steady 8.0.

 

[Harold Green]

Jordan I'd like to get and give a little information about your tank. To start with what kind and how much of an ammonia source did you add to the tank to get it to cycle? It's quite simple to have a small quick cycle if you start with live rock and add little or no ammonia source but if you want to have enough bacteria to handle the load of a full tank you will normally have to add an ammonia source over a period of days and continue to add it until the tank has a large enough bioload to keep the bacteria fed or it will eventually starve. This generally takes around six weeks give or take. At this point your tank is still very new and it's likely you haven't grown enough anaerobic bacteria to consume the nitrates. If you have a refusium it will usually do a pretty good job of reducing the nitrates. I'd let the tank run for another month or so monitoring the water quality to see if it's stable or not and then add animals one or two at a time a week or more apart to give the bacteria a chance to catch up after each addition. Many of the lps corals are fairly easy to keep as long as the water quality is maintained and you have sufficient water flow around them.

 

[Jordan berry]

I added 3 shrimp for about 5 days. Day 3 hit 2.0 ammonia and 2.0 nitrites. When I removed the shrimp it took a day to get the ammonia and nitrite to 0. My nitrates only ever got up to about 40 and now sit stable at 20. I haven't tested nitrates in about a week so I will check that tonight and see if it has gone down. My refugium right now has some sand and some live rock ruble with a baseball sized piece of chaeto. I'm thinking about adding a little power head to the fuge. Because it doesn't tumble and half is doing well and half is browning out possibly from too much light.

 

[Jordan berry]

After adding the 2 fish my water levels didn't change but I went through a diatom bloom.

 

[Harold Green]

The diatom bloom is a natural part of the cycle and your tank isn't cycled completely at that time. Although the 20 on the nitrates is acceptable I would have expected it to go down to near zero during the first year of running in. Since you already have fish in the tank I'd just monitor the water parameters at least every other day for a while letting the tank run without adding any more fish or corals. What are you testing the nitrates with? It's unfortunate but most of the cheap kits are pretty inaccurate and eventually most of us move up to the better quality tests. I'm not going to say there aren't a lot of hobbyists out there who can start a new tank, load it fully in a month or two and it become a successful tank. But from my experience it takes a tank close to a year to fully mature even with fish and corals put in near the start. My 210 is just over a year old and I'm beginning to see wild sponges growing out of rock now and pods running all across the bottom of the tank after the lights go off and my tank cycled in a week or so because I used a lot of live rock and some live sand. I still waited for a month or so to allow the tank bacteria a chance to multiply before I really began to add corals to the tank. For me fish are just window dressing and I waited six months before adding any to give the filters a chance to fully develop, not necessary but just the way I did it. I guess what I'm really trying to tell you is there are lots of ways to start a tank but the most important thing is to go slow and research as much as possible before you make any changes.

 

[Jordan berry]

Sounds good. I have api test kits for everything but ph I got an Ellos kit and salinity I have a refractometer. I want to get accurate kits but it seems like every forum question about test kits no one agrees on anything. Which hanna test kits are worth the investment and if not the hanna what kits should I invest in? I don't need ph ammonia or nitrite. Any other kit I would like to upgrade if possible.

 

[RareEarthCorals]

No one does agree on test kits it seems, you are correct! Key is your testing and controlling. It doesnt matter if one test says 20 and the other 23. Im glad to see you have the equipment. One thing you will find and rings true is patience is key to success. Its time to show us your tank and start your member tank write up so we can follow along.

 

[Harold Green]

OK I have to ask why you feel you don't need ammonia, or nitrite kits. Ph should be monitored frequently and ammonia whenever you have an issue or something dies in the tank. You might consider phosphate, nitrate, calcium, magnesium, KH. With a lightly stocked tank and frequent water changes you may be able to get along without most tests but as soon as you begin to get into corals you really should have some idea where your water chemistry is. There are lots of test kits out there but after reading so many poor reviews on the api I avoid them choosing the salifert kits for my own use. As with many things learning to use the test kits well gives better results. When buying the test kits make sure they are current as reagents tend to give poor results after a certain amount of setting on the shelf.

 

[Jordan berry]

I have the api test kits for everything. The ammonia and nitrite seem to be accurate. I have the Ellos test kit for ph that works a lot better. I also have the seneye reef monitoring system for a second and 3rd view for ph, ammonia, and temp. It will hopefully come in handy for the par, lux and Kelvin metering. That's why I didn't need those. All of the other api test kits I don't know how accurate they are. For phosphate and alk I will be going with the hanna checker. Maybe the others I'll try salifert or red sea to compare with the api kits.