I know of three ways.
Ok, Can you type a list of what needs to be done to save the tank
Well I’m not sure how your tank is set up. But I’ll give you a quick rundown of stuff to look out for.
Starting with dry rock is the hard way or the long way but it gives you a chance to start pest free.
Pest come from coral, rock or substrate.
To set up a reef you need good water, good flow, good filtration and a good light.
Before we get into coral we need to go over the basics. Your tank needs time to mature and stabilize. You can do this by maintaining good husbandry.
REEF HUSBANDRY
1- test first then supplement
2- filtering your sand bed, cleaning your glass and changing the water every 1-2 weeks is good husbandry
3- have a plan in place to replace evaporation in the tank
4- keeping your pumps clean will maintain your flow
Many more I’m sure but these are what come to mind first.
Before adding coral you want to see coralline algae growing in your tank. You want to monitor your parameters to make sure they are stable and not fluctuating too much, and by “too much” it really depends on the element your testing each have their own ranges.
Ideal numbers in my tank look like this
Alk 8.5. Salinity 1.25or1.26
Cal 440. Po4 .05-.09
Mag 1350. Nitrate 5-15ppm
Now I know my po4 is stabilized because it only swings .02 each day sometimes it doesn’t move at all
My nitrate is stable because it almost never changes unless I add something like a few fish
My alk will swing about .5 daily
Salinity should be rock solid everyday
Mag will change very slowly. I mention this because CORAL ARE SENSITIVE TO CHANGES.
I rarely test now but when I start a new tank I test some parameters daily some weekly some not at all unless I’ve added coral.
BRS has a YouTube channel where they go over a brand new tank set up week by week. 52 weeks of reefing it’s called. Go down that rabbit hole for a few hours and come back to us with questions not being answered there.
