Hello! New to R2R and the hobby.

[solereef50]

I have wanted a saltwater tank for years and in January I finally decided to dive in. I have a CAD Lights 50 gallon rimless (24" x 24" x 20") a CAD Lights pipe less protein skimmer, BRS reactor for carbon and GFO, 2 Koralia nano 425 gph power heads with Smart Wave controller and AI Hydras. I cured/cycled the 40 lbs of Pukani rock in a Rubbermaid container for about 5 weeks before I set the tank up. I went with 20 lbs of Figi Pink and 20 lbs of Ocean Direct Oolight sand.

Livestock:
1 Torch
1 Frogspawn
Red Monti Cap
Xenia
Green star polyps
Purple mushroom
1 pink Ricordia
Zoos: armor of god, radioactive and Rastas
2 Turbo snails, 2 Nassarius, 3 a stress (I think) 1 Fire shrimp, 1 emerald crab
2 Anthias

I have read quite a bit in the forums regarding the questions I do have, but I guess I will ask anyway...

Parameters are all good except my Calcium and Mag are through the roof. I am using Red Sea to test these. Alk is at 156ppm with Hanna checker and 10.5 dkh with Red Sea. Should I worry about this?

I have a brown algae on my sand bed and some of my rock that popped up a few days ago (see pics) what's is it?

The first fish I bought was a purple dottyback (my daughter pick out) it brought in Ich with it and it died. I got these 2 anthias to see what would happen and..... Ich happened. I have done some reading on here and I guess my questions is, if I keep them in the tank and they keep eating and all signs of it go away and I don't add any fish for say 10 weeks will it die off in the tank?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

[Eienna]

No, the ich will only die off if the tank remains fishless for that period. In the meantime, remove your anthias to quarantine and treat them.
Take a look at this pair of articles.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

From now on, I urge you to quarantine any new fish. Putting thrm straight in invites disaster, as some diseases spread very quickly and there are very very few "reef safe" cures that actually work. You should really research your adfitions better, too had that dottyback survived, it could easily have been the only fish you kept. They can be extremely mean.

Your alk is about where it should be. Some people will advocate lower, but you are not in the danger zone. That's about where the red sea mix puts everybody that uses it.

By cal and mag being through the roof, what exactly do you mean? What are the numbers?

 

[mike007]

Your alk level is fine. You say your calcium and magnesium are high what are they? I hope that you are testing for nitrates and phosphates that's were the algae gets its nutrients to grow. Make sure you are using rodi water and be stingy when you feed and do your routine water changes and it will all work out.

 

[solereef50]

I do not know what the levels are, the Red Sea charts do not go that high lol. I can tell you it took 1.7 ml of the Calcium reagent to reach the "end color" I don't recall the Mag but it was above the top of that chart as well.

I do use an RODI unit for my water.

Phosphates are at zero (Hanna)

Nitrates are around 5.0ppm (API) I have been feeding heavy though.

 

[Diamond1]

Hello and welcome to R2R!!!
The brown stuff on your sand is diatoms, a natural progression of a new tank set up.
Put the fish in a quarentine tank if you can and treat them for the Ich.

 

[Mike J.]

Welcome to Reef2Reef. Syphon the diatoms out during water changes. At this point, I wouldn't worry about it a lot. The ich will not go away on it's own. Are you sure you're doing the test correctly? On the Red Sea test kits Alk takes 10 ml of water, Cal 5 ml of water and Mag 2 ml of water. I've mixed that up before. Take the reading when the color first changes. Anthias are pretty tough, so it must be a good case of it in the tank. You'll have to treat the fish and leave the tank fishless. Sorry, it's one of those things.

 

[solereef50]

I tested last week with similar results. I did a 20% water change 2 days ago and tested this morning making sure I followed the instructions... I think I will take a water sample into a LFS and see what they say.

I guess I will set up a QT and treat these guys. I was hoping to avoid more equipment but it's not the end of the world.

Thank you all for your input.

 

[spspirate]

Welcome to REEF2REEF!!!!

 

[Davesgt]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[solereef50]

Thank you for the welcomes.

Well, I lost one of the Anthias last night.

Question: do copepods crawl on the glass or could that be free floating Ich?

Also, my calcium and magnesium issue. Is this unheard of or is there a cause for this? I am manually topping off once a day, could this cause it? Should I be worried?

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Welcome!
Your tank looks great!

 

[Eienna]

Are you topping with fresh or saltwater? A lot of newbies make the mistake of topping off with saltwater.

Close your salt bucket tightly and roll it around for a while. It's possible that the mix has settled, giving you a disproportionate amount of cal and mag on top.

I would take your water in to an lfs and have them test it to make sure your measurements are accurate.

 

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