NOOB anxiety

[Rikerbear]

I am suffering from NOOB anxiety this weekend.
My tank is 1 month old today, and I am fighting that sense of 'Doom is just around the corner'. I have tested and retested and everything is fine (if not a bit to high on calcium and alkalinity)
I even took some water in yesterday to have one of the best reef shops in the area to check it all for me. In case my tests were off...
I am just paranoid I guess.
Do others go through this? LOL

Temp: 79
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.3
Calcium: 500
Alk: 12.0
Amm: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Phos: 0.1
Mag: 1300
Iodine 0.05
Strom: 12

 

[alberthiel]

Are you using any additives as Strontium is high also ... and what salt are you using if I may ask

 

[Rikerbear]

Very small doses of Purple Up coraline algae booster 3 x a wk, and am using Instant Ocean with distilled water

 

[EpicWin]

The difference between when I first got into the hobby and killed almost everything I bought and now is that the experienced reefer realizes that most times less is more. What I mean is that testing a bunch is fine but lots of additives etc can be a death wish for the inexperienced reefer. Don't try and fix every little problem u find. More often than not it will lead u to disaster. Do ur 10% water changes weekly and keep things simple for a while until u get ur feet wet.

 

[E.intheC]

What leads you to believe the tank is going downhill?

Alk is a bit high and phosphates are high (if you meant .1) but nothing looks awful. Your tank is only one month old so there shouldn't be any difficult corals in there right now anyway.

 

[alberthiel]

Very small doses of Purple Up coraline algae booster 3 x a wk, and am using Instant Ocean with distilled water

Just give it some time to stabilize ... it probably only just finished cycling and has not built up a nice balance of all parameters yet ... You could do a water change as was suggested but that should be it and then "patience" is my suggestion ..

 

[NanaReefer]

Do you have anything in your tank using up calcium/alk? Personally I'd stop with the purple up. Waste of money.

 

[Zack]

Yep, less is more

Sent from my VS950 4G using Forum Runner

 

[alberthiel]

Do you have anything in your tank using up calcium/alk? Personally I'd stop with the purple up. Waste of money.

RikerBear ... all you really need is a piece of rock that has coralline algae on it and when you put that in they will start growing elsewhere after a while, actually I should everywhere not just elsewhere ... .. it may take a while but believe me once they start you will want to scrape a lot of them off, as they will grow on any power cord, filter, anything plastic and of course on your glass an on your powerheads and on your rock ... FWIW

 

[always reefin]

Alk at 12 is high, top of the range and gives no margin for error

 

[Rikerbear]

Thanks everyone.
My original post here was one of minor jest......was simply expressing thst feeling of impending doom when all is going well.
Thank you one and all for advise and opinions. I appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience. After so many years out of the hobby I feel a bit out of sorts yet. The knoledge I had back than dies seem to be surfacing slowly though. My biggest problem seems to be learning all the new tech and tech terms......and the million acrynms LOL

 

[alberthiel]

Thanks everyone.
My original post here was one of minor jest......was simply expressing thst feeling of impending doom when all is going well.
Thank you one and all for advise and opinions. I appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience. After so many years out of the hobby I feel a bit out of sorts yet. The knoledge I had back than dies seem to be surfacing slowly though. My biggest problem seems to be learning all the new tech and tech terms......and the million anachronims LOL

I can understand the feeling you are going though, and yes a lot has changed with all the additional knowledge we now have and should you have any questions feel free to post to the thread in my sig , including about all the acronyms now in use

 

[Rikerbear]

Thanks