Possibly getting sps

[leepink23]

I am considering getting the Mr Saltwater begginer sps pack offered by WWC when they become available again. I am wondering if I should try or wait. I have finally got all parameters under control and are currently phosphates 0.018 by hanna ulr, nitrates 0.75 red sea pro, alkalinity 8.6 salifert, salt 34.5-35 temp 78.2-78.6 and ph 7.9-8.06 on apex. I have radion xr30w gen3 pro x2 over a 4 foot 150 gallon. Filtration is skimz skimmer and diy algae turf scrubber. I add kalk to my ato. For flow I have 3 apex wavs. I have 6 fish - hippo, yellow tang, 2 clowns, 2 chromis. Just wondering should I just wait to add any sps or Start adding. I had alot of zoas and lps until my former foxface ate them. I do have a few new zoas growing currently. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Fraggin crazy]

I am considering getting the Mr Saltwater begginer sps pack offered by WWC when they become available again. I am wondering if I should try or wait. I have finally got all parameters under control and are currently phosphates 0.018 by hanna ulr, nitrates 0.75 red sea pro, alkalinity 8.6 salifert, salt 34.5-35 temp 78.2-78.6 and ph 7.9-8.06 on apex. I have radion xr30w gen3 pro x2 over a 4 foot 150 gallon. Filtration is skimz skimmer and diy algae turf scrubber. I add kalk to my ato. For flow I have 3 apex wavs. I have 6 fish - hippo, yellow tang, 2 clowns, 2 chromis. Just wondering should I just wait to add any sps or Start adding. I had alot of zoas and lps until my former foxface ate them. I do have a few new zoas growing currently. Any advice is appreciated.

I would personally lower the temp a bit to 74ish and try to stabilize your pH. Try adding kalk only at night with a slow drip. That should help night time pH drop. I would also personally raise up the alk a little bit to 10. Other than that, I think you're golden. Just place them a little low and see how they do.

 

[leepink23]

I would personally lower the temp a bit to 74ish and try to stabilize your pH. Try adding kalk only at night with a slow drip. That should help night time pH drop. I would also personally raise up the alk a little bit to 10. Other than that, I think you're golden. Just place them a little low and see how they do.

Good idea about adding kalk at night, I read temperature needs to be higher for corals, like 80-82?

 

[Fraggin crazy]

Good idea about adding kalk at night, I read temperature needs to be higher for corals, like 80-82?

I have 6 tanks full of corals. I have a 10 nuvo nano, standard 10, 29, 33, 55, and 90. I keep them all at 75-75 and I have everything from mushrooms to acros. The higher temps get my fish all riled up. Again, this is just my opinion and my experience.

 

[nervousmonkey]

IMO, a stable tank temp is more important than the absolute value. Your temp looks really good; temperature swings greater than 4 degrees is what causes harm. @Fraggin crazy is correct about tank temps, but you are too. Corals come from all kinds of ocean water temperatures, from 72 degrees to 92 degrees. An Indo-Pacific coral may get stressed by temps in the high 70's, as that is too cold, while subtropical corals get stressed by the same temp as that temp is in the upper limits of their tolerances.
Technically, the only real way to keep a tank without stressing corals due to temp variations is to maintain a tank with corals from geographically disparate areas.
The optimal temperature for tanks (like the ones we keep, with mixed corals from different geographical areas), is 79 degrees, as that provides the largest margin of safety for corals that can thrive on either side of this temperature.

 

[leepink23]

Thanks!!! I plan to add them to the rocks on the right, higher up eventually, figured I would start with them on the sandbed at first.

 

[BoomCorals]

Don't raise alk to 10 when nitrate and phosphate are that low. That can cause you to lose sps. Alk of 7-8 is ideal. Also agree 79 temp is right in the middle for a variety of coral. I'd start feeding the tank a bit more maybe to bring phosphate and nitrate up.

 

[nervousmonkey]

Good idea about adding kalk at night, I read temperature needs to be higher for corals, like 80-82?

This is true, but the reason is that metabolic functions typically work better at higher temps. That causes some other problems like @Fraggin crazy stated. E.g., dissolved oxygen levels decrease as temperature increases. Fish definitely get riled up at higher temperatures. Metabolic waste in a closed system increases as temperature increases. So there is a trade off, and trading a lesser degree of coral growth for less waste seems like a no-brainer to me. Other problems that come from increased temps are increased algae, risk of out of control algae and bacterial blooms, increase in growth of fish and coral diseases, greater risk of rapid growth leading to "alk burn" (which is simply skeletal growth without the accompanying tissue growth), bleaching, RTN, STN, less oxygen, and so on.
I personally keep my tanks at 79-80 and don't see a reason to purposefully keep my tanks above 80.
I would advise to think about how to keep your tank parameters as stable as you can, including the use of a doser to keep your alkalinity stable, also calcium and magnesium. How old is your tank? I don't like to add SPS to a tank less than 6 months old, and then only if I know the alkalinity consumption rate or I can figure it out. In terms of SPS, what will help the most is stability:
1. Keeping alkalinity super stable with a doser.
2. Same with calcium.
3. Keeping flow steady so corals can grow with the flow. LOL
4. Lighting stability. Set the schedule and leave it. Corals will adapt to your lights as long a they have enough and are not getting fried.
That's all I have. Long enough post...

 

[nervousmonkey]

+1 @BoomCorals. Perfect advice. I would start by getting alkalinity to 8 at the highest, but preferably 7-8. Then you don't have to worry as much about NO3 and PO4 levels, but keep in mind that nitrogen and phosphorus are required for tissue growth, as they make up amino acids that are used for proteins and tissues.

 

[Fraggin crazy]

I keep my alk higher up with a lower temp because I had a crazy hair algae and dino bloom when the temps were higher. Plus, I have a very high alk, calcium, and mag demand. Like I stated earlier, this was from my experiences. Best of luck!!

 

[leepink23]

Don't raise alk to 10 when nitrate and phosphate are that low. That can cause you to lose sps. Alk of 7-8 is ideal. Also agree 79 temp is right in the middle for a variety of coral. I'd start feeding the tank a bit more maybe to bring phosphate and nitrate up.

I was having hair algae problems when running phosphates higher, I stopped carbon dosing to let my nitrates go up some.

 

[leepink23]

T

This is true, but the reason is that metabolic functions typically work better at higher temps. That causes some other problems like @Fraggin crazy stated. E.g., dissolved oxygen levels decrease as temperature increases. Fish definitely get riled up at higher temperatures. Metabolic waste in a closed system increases as temperature increases. So there is a trade off, and trading a lesser degree of coral growth for less waste seems like a no-brainer to me. Other problems that come from increased temps are increased algae, risk of out of control algae and bacterial blooms, increase in growth of fish and coral diseases, greater risk of rapid growth leading to "alk burn" (which is simply skeletal growth without the accompanying tissue growth), bleaching, RTN, STN, less oxygen, and so on.
I personally keep my tanks at 79-80 and don't see a reason to purposefully keep my tanks above 80.
I would advise to think about how to keep your tank parameters as stable as you can, including the use of a doser to keep your alkalinity stable, also calcium and magnesium. How old is your tank? I don't like to add SPS to a tank less than 6 months old, and then only if I know the alkalinity consumption rate or I can figure it out. In terms of SPS, what will help the most is stability:
1. Keeping alkalinity super stable with a doser.
2. Same with calcium.
3. Keeping flow steady so corals can grow with the flow. LOL
4. Lighting stability. Set the schedule and leave it. Corals will adapt to your lights as long a they have enough and are not getting fried.
That's all I have. Long enough post...

The tank is about 2 years now. I have my heater set to come on at 78, I could lower it slightly. I have recently increased my lights but no future plans to increase. I plan to get a par meter to check it as well. I have good flow and currently dose kalk with my ato.

 

[leepink23]

I keep my alk higher up with a lower temp because I had a crazy hair algae and dino bloom when the temps were higher. Plus, I have a very high alk, calcium, and mag demand. Like I stated earlier, this was from my experiences. Best of luck!!

Thanks, I have had hair algae problems as well. I might slowly drop temperature.

 

[leepink23]

Looking at my heater log I doubt I can lower my temp because the heater is rarely on. I live in the south so it gets pretty hot. I will keep monitoring alk, maybe I should just dose kalk at night and not ato?

 

[Fraggin crazy]

Thanks, I have had hair algae problems as well. I might slowly drop temperature.

I've tried different fish, crabs, snails.. the usual. I raised up all my levels.. alk, mag, calcium. The higher magnesium really did the trick but I needed everything to be higher to stabilize.

 

[leepink23]

My magne

I've tried different fish, crabs, snails.. the usual. I raised up all my levels.. alk, mag, calcium. The higher magnesium really did the trick but I needed everything to be higher to stabilize.

My magnesium was 1500 when I checked it. Getting my phosphates down made my hair algae go away.

 

[nervousmonkey]

My magne

My magnesium was 1500 when I checked it. Getting my phosphates down made my hair algae go away.

Yeah, high phosphate levels aren't good, plus hight PO4 inhibits growth of stony corals. It is still needed for amino acids though, so stripping it out of the water is bad. High alkalinity should be accompanied by higher nutrient levels so tissue growth can accompany skeletal growth, but like anything, too much is a bad thing.

 

[leepink23]

Don't raise alk to 10 when nitrate and phosphate are that low. That can cause you to lose sps. Alk of 7-8 is ideal. Also agree 79 temp is right in the middle for a variety of coral. I'd start feeding the tank a bit more maybe to bring phosphate and nitrate up.

My alkalinity is 8.6 again today, it use to run over 10 and i switched from instant ocean reef crystal to the regular i/o. Should I stop adding kalkwasser to my water through ato, I use it because of a lower ph.

 

[leepink23]

Phosphate is 0 on hanna ulr, nitrates 0.5 red sea pro, mg 1500, alkalinity 8.6. I did feed extra today and going to recheck the phosphates tomorrow. I couldn’t find my calcium test. I am not going to make any changes other than feeding a little more and rechecking phosphate.

 

[leepink23]

Mg and alkalinity checked on salifert.