How are my parameters looking?

[Reef Devils]

Tank is 3 months old. Wondering how my parameters are looking. Are they good enough to get some difficult/hard to keep corals?

Parameters:
Nitrate - 0.0ppm
Salinity - 1.023
Calcium - 434ppm
Alkalinity - 8.7dKH
Magnesium - 1280ppm

Fish:
2 clownfish
4 Kupang Damsels
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Corals:
1 Leather
1 Duncan
1Frogspawn

 

[Jekyl]

Nitrate being zero is an issue. That's basically food for coral. Salinity should be 35ppt and need a phosphate test.

 

[Jekyl]

Also your tank is coming up on the ugly phase. As a new reefer I wish I would have stuck to the easier things until after.

 

[Garf]

Tank is 3 months old. Wondering how my parameters are looking. Are they good enough to get some difficult/hard to keep corals?

Parameters:
Nitrate - 0.0ppm
Salinity - 1.023
Calcium - 434ppm
Alkalinity - 8.7dKH
Magnesium - 1280ppm

Fish:
2 clownfish
4 Kupang Damsels
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Corals:
1 Leather
1 Duncan
1Frogspawn

Does the tank look ok, post a pic, if you can.

 

[Reef Devils]

Also your tanknis coming up on the ugly phase. As a new reefer I wish I would have stuck to the harder things until after.

I think I am actually getting over the ugly stages all of the diatoms are starting to go away

 

[Jekyl]

I think I am actually getting over the ugly stages all of the diatoms are starting to go away

Nope, you're not lol. Mine didn't really kick in until month 6. Unless you used live rock instead of dry.

Best indicator is that the rocks go from green to growing coraline.

 

[Reef Devils]

Nope, you're not lol. Mine didn't really kick in until month 6. Unless you used live rock instead of dry.

Best indicator is that the rocks go from green to growing coraline.

I think I got live rock. It is the rock that goes live when it touches water.

 

[lil sumpin]

life rock?

 

[Reef Devils]

Does the tank look ok, post a pic, if you can.

 

[Hyphnx]

Where was the rock sourced from? And 35ppt salinity translates to ~1.026 on a refractometer. Do not use a hydrometer.

 

[Garf]

looks great. Just get a few cheap frags, it’s a bit of a game of attrition at this point. Some will make it, some will feed the bacterial diversity, ie die.

 

[CoralB]

Nice tank ! . You really need to get your nitrates up and make sure your phosphates aren’t zeroed out like the nitrates are as this will lead to Dino’s

 

[Reef Devils]

Nice tank ! . You really need to get your nitrates up and make sure your phosphates aren’t zeroed out like the nitrates are as this will lead to Dino’s

What should nitrates and phosphates be?

 

[Reef Devils]

looks great. Just get a few cheap frags, it’s a bit of a game of attrition at this point. Some will make it, some will feed the bacterial diversity, ie die.

Got it I will it’s some more frags this week.

 

[Reef Devils]

Where was the rock sourced from? And 35ppt salinity translates to ~1.026 on a refractometer. Do not use a hydrometer.

I use the Milwaukee refractometer. So off the rock was from the fish store that was live rock that was in water and some was dry rock that I got online. The pic is the stuff that is what makes up most of the rock in the tank.

 

[Reef Devils]

Where was the rock sourced from? And 35ppt salinity translates to ~1.026 on a refractometer. Do not use a hydrometer.

And what’s wrong with a salinity of 1.023

 

[Reef Devils]

Nice tank ! . You really need to get your nitrates up and make sure your phosphates aren’t zeroed out like the nitrates are as this will lead to Dino’s

How can I ease both nitrates and phosphate

 

[CoralB]

What should nitrates and phosphates be?

Phosphates between .05 and .1 , and nitrates between 10 ppm and 15 ppm

 

[Garf]

And what’s wrong with a salinity of 1.023

It’s 10% low, so everything is 10% low, alkalinity magnesium, calcium, trace elements,everything.

 

[Reef Devils]

It’s 10% low, so everything is 10% low, alkalinity magnesium, calcium, trace elements,everything.

So should I add some saltwater to the tank?