Help for a new reefer!!

[Pricey89]

Hi all,
I’m about 4 weeks into my reefing journey and wanted to say how great I’ve found this forum whenever I’ve needed a bit of a helping hand!

I purchased a Red Sea Reefer 170 second hand, along with everything to go with it. My equipment includes;
- Echotech Radion XR15
- Vectra S1 pump
- Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer
- 2 x Jecod wave makers

The live rock, ceramic balls and sand was already well established (approx 2 years) and I literally dissembled everything, transported it and set it back up. I’ve had no major dramas, used ATM colony to prevent a major spike when I set it all back up.

The only issue I’m having is getting my ammonia down to absolute 0 and keeping it there. Also can’t seem to shift nitrates to 5 or below consistently. Im doing water changes (25L) once or twice a week at the moment and testing most parameters daily. Everything else is really steadyAny advice?

Params are as follows;
- Salinity 1.026
- Ammonia 0.1-0.2
- Nitrites 0
- Nitrates 5-10
- dKH 9.5
- pH 8.2
- Phosphates 0.03
- Magnesium 1400
- Calcium 450

My Livestock is as follows:
- Clown
- Cosmos Wrasse
- Yellow Wrasse (getting harassed by Cosmos and hides most of the time)
- Royal Gramma
- Red Banded Wasp Fish
- Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
- CUC - multiple hermits (5ish..), turbo snail, a number of other snails

Corals;
- GSP
- Aussie Duncan (2 heads)
- Fairy dust zoas, Rastas, Fruit Loops
- Frogspawn euphyllia
- 2 hammers
- Plating Montipora (helpful if you could identify what type for me)
- Green encrusting Montipora
- Favia (red and green)
- Goniestria (bright green and purplish)
- Goniopora
- Montipora Digitata (no idea what type - looks red/pinkish with light coloured polyps but not looking too healthy, has algae on tops, blackening in parts too... advice appreciated).

Could do with help with a few issues;

- Reducing nitrates / ammonia - should I add some new ceramic balls? I’m dosing LR nitrate remover daily along with filter bacteria.
- Slight problem with green algae on sand and on tips of digitata corals? Advice on the corals appreciated, I’ve included some photos.
- Placement of everything generally, would you say it’s ok?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

 

[Darsh]

Ammonia tests sometimes give a false positive.
Nitrates 5-10 are fine
How are the fish acting?

 

[ndrwater]

Welcome to R2R to start with.
Nice setup!.
As far as your questions and advice.. This is really simple. Leave it alone. Really.. Leave it alone.. No water changes, no new fish or corals, let it be..
Give it 2 weeks and all should be right with the world again.
I know you added bacteria in a bottle, but things just need time to catch up with themselves. Time is really the only cure.. You absolutely would have had a "Mini Cycle" when you disassembled and then reassembled. Bacteria in a bottle definitely helps, but time is the final piece of the puzzle.

 

[Pricey89]

Ammonia tests sometimes give a false positive.
How are the fish acting?

Fish seem absolutely fine... other than my new yellow wrasse who is getting bullied by my Cosmos Wrasse and a little by the Clown!

 

[Pricey89]

Welcome to R2R to start with.
Nice setup!.
As far as your questions and advice.. This is really simple. Leave it alone. Really.. Leave it alone.. No water changes, no new fish or corals, let it be..
Give it 2 weeks and all should be right with the world again.
I know you added bacteria in a bottle, but things just need time to catch up with themselves. Time is really the only cure.. You absolutely would have had a "Mini Cycle" when you disassembled and then reassembled. Bacteria in a bottle definitely helps, but time is the final piece of the puzzle.

Thank you, will do. Would you continue dosing the LR Nitrate remover and bacteria daily?

 

[Darsh]

Thank you, will do. Would you continue dosing the LR Nitrate remover and bacteria daily?

5-10 Nitrates is fine. I would stop.
Do you have a lfs or someone nearby who could test for ammonia?
API tests are notorious for false positives, not sure about Red Sea.

 

[Pricey89]

5-10 Nitrates is fine. I would stop.
Do you have a lfs or someone nearby who could test for ammonia?
API tests are notorious for false positives, not sure about Red Sea.

They won’t test at the moment because of Covid-19. I was getting 0 ammonia up until around a week ago but then started getting 0.2 again. I think I’ll just leave it there, carry on dosing the bacteria and monitor the rest. Hopefully everything will go the right way over the next couple of weeks.

Such an obsessive hobby.... I’m literally waking up thinking about nitrates haha

 

[Darsh]

They won’t test at the moment because of Covid-19. I was getting 0 ammonia up until around a week ago but then started getting 0.2 again. I think I’ll just leave it there, carry on dosing the bacteria and monitor the rest. Hopefully everything will go the right way over the next couple of weeks.

Such an obsessive hobby.... I’m literally waking up thinking about nitrates haha

Yea keep an eye on things, I think that if the fish are okay then theres probably no ammonia.
Ammonia should be undetectable, but it becomes problematic at 0.1 and dangerous at about 0.5.
Yea its hard to keep our hands out of the tank especially now when we’re all spending more time at home.
Patience is everything in this hobby
Good luck!!