ready for coral??

[melonheadorion]

so, i am deciding that i am nearly ready to dive into coral, but want to get thoughts on my current parameters. i havent done anything with salinity. i will be slowly increasing salinity up to the 1.026 over time, so i will eventually get there over the next few weeks if everything else is good.
with that said, the tests that i am able to do right now are calcium, Ph, phosphate, KH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. i know there are more, but i dont know if others are mandatory or required. im going to try to stick to just a few different types of corals, and am not going to go insane with a tank full of them quite yet.

ammonia-0-.25
nitrite-0
nitrate 10-20 avg
phosphate-.25-.5
calcium-380
KH-9
Ph-8.1

 

[T-J]

How long has the tank been running?
Any livestock?
What is your salinity? Why is it low?
You want 0 ammonia, Nitrate around 5ish. Phosphate around .03-.05ish.
What do you have for lights? Tank size and shape?
Also, are you talking SPS, LPS or softies?

 

[melonheadorion]

How long has the tank been running?
Any livestock?
What is your salinity? Why is it low?
You want 0 ammonia, Nitrate around 5ish. Phosphate around .03-.05ish.
What do you have for lights? Tank size and shape?
Also, are you talking SPS, LPS or softies?

currently, its a fish only tank. 20g long with 5 fish. i keep my salinity low so that any evap doesnt increase my salinity too high. through the course of a week, i try to make it so my salinity is at about 1.023 by the time i do my water changes.
the tank is roughly 5 months old or so.
for ammonia, my ammonia has never been anything other than .2 or a little less, so there is nothing that can get that lower. trust me, ive tried, but since it isnt affecting the fish, i dont lose sleep over it since the toxic ammonia is well within parameters anyway.
lights, just for now, i have a marineland advanced led strip. a pretty basic light with white led and blue led. nothing special.
for coral, im leaning more toward LPS and/or softies

 

[Jekyl]

currently, its a fish only tank. 20g long with 5 fish. i keep my salinity low so that any evap doesnt increase my salinity too high. through the course of a week, i try to make it so my salinity is at about 1.023 by the time i do my water changes.
the tank is roughly 5 months old or so.
for ammonia, my ammonia has never been anything other than .2 or a little less, so there is nothing that can get that lower. trust me, ive tried, but since it isnt affecting the fish, i dont lose sleep over it since the toxic ammonia is well within parameters anyway.
lights, just for now, i have a marineland advanced led strip. a pretty basic light with white led and blue led. nothing special.
for coral, im leaning more toward LPS and/or softies

You should be topping off your water at least daily with rodi water to prevent salinity swings. Stable parameters are what keep coral healthy. You're going to have problems if allowing your parameters to swing like that.

 

[Jekyl]

You'll also need to upgrade your lighting.

 

[melonheadorion]

You should be topping off your water at least daily with rodi water to prevent salinity swings. Stable parameters are what keep coral healthy. You're going to have problems if allowing your parameters to swing like that.

i dont lose enough water daily to need to top off daily.
when i say that about my salinity, over the course of a full 7 or 8 days, it only goes from .021 to .023 at the most, and is usually just around .021 to .022 at the highest amount of evap

 

[T-J]

i keep my salinity low so that any evap doesnt increase my salinity too high.

It doesn't work like that. You need an ATO or manual daily topoffs. You need to keep it stable at 35ppt.

for ammonia, my ammonia has never been anything other than .2 or a little less, so there is nothing that can get that lower. trust me, ive tried, but since it isnt affecting the fish, i dont lose sleep over it since the toxic ammonia is well within parameters anyway.

Ammonia needs to be 0. Yes, it can be done. Ask anyone else here. You need more biological filtration. Might be since you have 5 fish in a 20g, and your bioload is too much for your bacteria.

i have a marineland advanced led strip. a pretty basic light with white led and blue led. nothing special.
for coral, im leaning more toward LPS and/or softies

You'll need a better light. That's basically a fish light.

 

[Jekyl]

i dont lose enough water daily to need to top off daily

This would put auto top off manufacturers out of business.

 

[T-J]

i dont lose enough water daily to need to top off daily.
when i say that about my salinity, over the course of a full 7 or 8 days, it only goes from .021 to .023 at the most, and is usually just around .021 to .022 at the highest amount of evap

Smaller tank = more work bud.

 

[melonheadorion]

Smaller tank = more work bud.

i am aware of that, and am not afraid of working for resuilts. i have a 65 as well, but for reasons i am on a 20 right now. all of this is in prep for the 65, so you can ignore the 20gal part for now. im more curious of how much dosing or other work i will need to get in to, to get the parameters to where they need to be when that time comes.

 

[Jekyl]

There's no way to figure out dosing if you're not keeping things stable.

 

[melonheadorion]

It doesn't work like that. You need an ATO or manual daily topoffs. You need to keep it stable at 35ppt.

Ammonia needs to be 0. Yes, it can be done. Ask anyone else here. You need more biological filtration. Might be since you have 5 fish in a 20g, and your bioload is too much for your bacteria.

You'll need a better light. That's basically a fish light.

even with 2 fish, my ammonia has been .20. i have asked here, and brandon, who was very helpful, acknowledges that it is not always possible to be at 0. such as this case. regardless of how much media, filtration, amount of fish, etc., its always been .2 or less. even at the point before i added any fish

 

[Jekyl]

even with 2 fish, my ammonia has been .20. i have asked here, and brandon, who was very helpful, acknowledges that it is not always possible to be at 0. such as this case. regardless of how much media, filtration, amount of fish, etc., its always been .2 or less

Sounds like an API test which others have had issues with

 

[T-J]

Simple answer: ATO, water changes, watch how much you feed. No need to dose anything without any coral. Even with a few new corals, water changes should cover it.

 

[melonheadorion]

Sounds like an API test which others have had issues with

nope. i happened to guess that you were going to assume that though, because thats the assumption that everyone comes up with. i get the .25 on an api, .20 on red sea, the LFS also gets .20 as well as a second LFS

 

[James_O]

The ammonia test on the API saltwater test kit is screwed up. I would take a sample of water to your LFS, and get them to test it on one of their test kits.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Stick with soft corals. Gorgonians. Feather dusters. Macro algae. U will kill lps coral. No offense.
D

 

[melonheadorion]

The ammonia test on the API saltwater test kit is screwed up. I would take a sample of water to your LFS, and get them to test it on one of their test kits.

already did, also already use anotehr kit other than API, and the second LFS also gets the same reading, so API cant be too far off if 4 sources have the same readings

 

[James_O]

nope. i happened to guess that you were going to assume that though, because thats the assumption that everyone comes up with. i get the .25 on an api, .20 on red sea, the LFS also gets .20 as well as a second LFS

I would get your parameters nailed down before you get corals. Most corals are highly sensitive to any ammonia in the water, even if it’s just trace amounts.

 

[Tcook]

What exactly are the 5 fish in this tank? Is it an AIO? Sump? If not, is there any type of filtration on this tank. IMO the first piece of equipment you need to purchase is an ATO.