New 36gal reef... Help getting into sps.

[Jason_1990]

So a little background on this tank. I set it up a little over a month ago. Added 40lbs of live sand 25 lbs of live rock. Week later added a clown an going into week 3 added my 2nd clown. My cycle was relatively short lived an I probably won't add anymore live stock. Maybe cuc.
So on to my questions currently I have 3 frags in the tank. Green star polyp, mushrooms, an another soft coral. Forgot the name. I'll post pics. I'm test water try to tweak it in an I wanna dose kalk eventually because of ph problems.
So here is my water..
Salanity 1.025
Alkalinity 11
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Calcium idk
Ph varies. 7.6ish to 8.0

So I want to know how I can transition into hard corals from here. I'm gonna get calcium test kit today I'm gonna guess it's low because at one point I got bad advice used a ph buffer an it probably spiked my dkh which would lowered calcium. So I'll raise my calcium which will drop my dkh a tad then get into kalk an start dosing kalk to keep stable an add hard corals same time? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Jason_1990]

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

That Green Star Polyp will eventually spread covering too much space, you might want to mount it on a rock and place it away from the main rock scape as an island to contain it. Same with the mushrooms. You can add whatever LPS corals you want at this point but it is most likely too soon to add any SPS corals. Should probably let the tank mature for a few months before you try that. You can test the system later with some more hardy and inexpensive SPS like Montipora Cap and Bird's Nest then go to Acropora's once you confirm all is well. Once you get your Magnesium and Calcium test kits, just adjust things as needed to get to the desired parameters.

 

[kamike91]

Hello, glad to hear you're getting into sps. I love them. Anyways, first of all take your time. Your tank is young. Let it mature for a little more, then get your water tested (big ones are ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, magnesium, calcium, alk, and salinity. Once you have everything under control I'd suggest to tryout some of the easier sps. IME these are the pocillopora, stylophora, and montipora. Take everything slowly because sps can be very sensitive to change. And don't forget to at least dip every sps for pest prevention.

 

[Jason_1990]

Is it possible once I get my calcium in line to do small amount of kalk. 1/2 tsp per gallon that would keep my parameters stable mainly ph. An act as a top off. I would use gravity fed for now.

 

[BootyPup]

If you're going to get into SPS try and take it slow, I know that can be hard, I rarely follow a lot of the "rules" (If I believe my tank can handle something, after all it is my tank I know it best). My first SPS was a bleached out monti I got from reef event near me in mass maybe 5-6 months back. I got it for cheap as a small bleached out frag, and now its no longer bleached, its been growing over and out of my rock it's in and it's amazing. All with having too young of a tank for it. If you believe you can handle it, go for it. I'd suggest starting with a monti, maybe a birdsnest if you think you can handle it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Once calcium is on track, then yes, limewater (kalkwasser) is a fine way to go, unless and until it can no longer keep up with calcium and alkalinity demand.

 

[Jason_1990]

Any recommendations with kalk.... I want to take 5 gallon bucket an time out my drip for over a week. Which should do most of my top of maybe some rodi after 3 days.

 

[Tahoe61]

In a 36 gallon tank of that age I would just use water changes to adjust the values. Just me, but I would not mess around with kalk or dosing for awhile. If you feel the pH is too low consider other interventions to maintain a more stable pH.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Any recommendations with kalk.... I want to take 5 gallon bucket an time out my drip for over a week. Which should do most of my top of maybe some rodi after 3 days.

Be sure to monitor alkalinity and not let it get too high.

 

[Jason mack]

I would choose and easy sps maybe a montipora or a stylo .. keeping sps in such a young tank can be hard .. stability is everything .. I couldn’t keep sps until I’d added a few fish and built my bioload up and it had settled down and matured but that’s just my experience.. slow and steady is the way too go ..

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

I would choose and easy sps maybe a montipora or a stylo .. keeping sps in such a young tank can be hard .. stability is everything .. I couldn’t keep sps until I’d added a few fish and built my bioload up and it had settled down and matured but that’s just my experience.. slow and steady is the way too go ..

I'm wondering if people are confusing Stylophoras with Pocilloporas? I've never known Stylos to be a beginner SPS.

 

[Jason_1990]

So went an checked my water at LFS
An picked up calcium test kit
magnesium is 1030
Calcium 360
I start reading the magnesium dosing an using a calculator an I'm gonna need 461 ml to get it up to 1320. That's my entire bottle. Is this right?

 

[kamike91]

I'm wondering if people are confusing Stylophoras with Pocilloporas? I've never known Stylos to be a beginner SPS.

IME sylos can be very forgiving, just like pocillos, and montis. I'd put them in the beginner category. And I forgot to add the list to seriatopora too.

 

[kamike91]

So went an checked my water at LFS
An picked up calcium test kit
magnesium is 1030
Calcium 360
I start reading the magnesium dosing an using a calculator an I'm gonna need 461 ml to get it up to 1320. That's my entire bottle. Is this right?

I'm not sure what your dosage strength is for mag supplement, but don't raise it too fast. And I don't know why, and anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong... but if the mag is too low it'll be hard to raise calcium and alk.

 

[Jason_1990]

Yeah that's what I heard. But for now I'm dosing magnesium as the bottle recommends which is 20 ml daily. An same for calcium. When calcium hits my target number I'll retest magnesium at the store.

 

[Jason_1990]

 

[Jason_1990]

So after a few days of dosing calcium an magnesium. I decided to go grab a nyos mag test kit. An tested all my water parameters
mag 1350
calcium 460
nitrite 0
nitrate >10
ammonia 0
Alk 10
ph 7.9

An with all my water parameters doing great. I decided what the heck lets see how a small green birdsnest frag dose in my tank. So i adjusted my rock work I wanted him higher up in the tank.
I'll eventually add more rock to this tank but for now it suits my needs.

 

[kamike91]

So after a few days of dosing calcium an magnesium. I decided to go grab a nyos mag test kit. An tested all my water parameters
mag 1350
calcium 460
nitrite 0
nitrate >10
ammonia 0
Alk 10
ph 7.9

An with all my water parameters doing great. I decided what the heck lets see how a small green birdsnest frag dose in my tank. So i adjusted my rock work I wanted him higher up in the tank.
I'll eventually add more rock to this tank but for now it suits my needs.

Sounds good, I'm excited for you. Let us know how it does!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I expect the magnesium as fine all along, and the amount dosed likely didn't boost it much.

Magnesium testing is fraught with problems, and low results (less than 11oo ppm) are more likely, IMO, to be test error than real results, especially in a new tank.