Recommendations on setup for new tank

[FriedReef TV]

I currently am running a biocube 32 with some fish, soft corals, a couple lps, and shrimp crabs etc. I want to upgrade to a larger tank as my fish and corals are starting to crowd and I want to start from scratch because I want to do it the right way this time. Recommendations for equipment and what size tank I should get? Also I'm considering getting into dosing and more lps and sps corals. Id prefer to keep initial startup cost less than $2000 as well

 

[WIReefer]

First question I would ask is what size tank do you have room for? 4’ 5’ 6’? And you can always find really nice used setups for that price or under with everything included.

 

[FriedReef TV]

Everything has been crazy busy i forgot to reply, i set up a 60g running hob refugium and an aquaclear110 with fuge mod and chemipure blue and filter floss inside as well. I ended up just cleaning everything up really nice and moving it from the biocube to the 60g, got more rock and new sand as well. Everything seems to be doing much better, however I do have a few issues right now. About 2 months ago (before i swapped tanks) all of my lps would always eventually eject from its skeleton or shrink up and die. All of my soft corals and inverts are doing great, however even small easy lps frags always seem to be an issue for me they just dont survive. Ive been doing alot more research lately and im pretty sure its due to low alk and possibly calc and mag. I cant seem to keep my alk up with water changes its always wanting to drop but my ph stays pretty stable probably because of all the chaeto i have. Im using red sea coral pro salt and doing 10% water changes every sunday. I just picked up a bubble tip anemone and a duncan frag the other day to see how theyd do because my soft corals, fish, and cuc are thriving. The anemone is fully open most of the day but still looks kinda ticked off but the duncan looks pretty good. Also i have 3 hammers, one ejected from the skeleton about 6 weeks ago and is somehow still alive sitting at the bottom. another one lost a head and the remaining head looks very pale and shrunken, the third hammer lost a head and almost died but after moving tanks and getting back on a good water change schedule it has a single head left thats doing great now. Sorry for the paragraph and the untimely response, thanks for your help

 

[Dkmoo]

What are ur parameters? Softies are usually a lot more insensitive to water chemistry. Lps need both the right level and the stable level.

Also assuming your light is good enough but that would be the first two place I'd start to diagnose ur problem.

 

[FriedReef TV]

What are ur parameters? Softies are usually a lot more insensitive to water chemistry. Lps need both the right level and the stable level.

Also assuming your light is good enough but that would be the first two place I'd start to diagnose ur problem.

i have a jebao 2100gph wavemaker on pulse mode and a second small hydor wavemaker in the corner just to pick up extra detritus in the dead zones. Lighting im running viparspectra black box and 2 hipargero/aquaknight lights. Im pretty sure its not the lights or the flow im almost positive it has to do with the water chemistry. As of yesterday, salinity-1.026 no3- .2
po4- .1 ph- 8.3 kh- 8 it always wants to drop not sure why because i have pretty much all soft corals. i dont have a calcium or magnesium test kit im ordering one today and i will check those levels as well but im pretty sure my alkalinity is the issue... How can i keep it stable? im open to start dosing however i dont know what im doing when it comes to dosing and i dont want to kill my tank my expensive hammers already mostly died off i dont want to lose anything else i have leathers the size of a soccerball they mean something to me lol

 

[Dkmoo]

Alk decrease can be either normal consumption or inorganic precipitation with Calc bc u have low mag. Will have better idea after you run ur calc mg tests.

Ur ph is good. Alk to 9 is better but 8 isn't bad. Stability is more important so if u want to increase it, do it slowly

Figure out how much your tank change daily will determine how much and how frequent you need to dose to keep things stable.

Ur no3 is a bit low but phos is high. Something around 5 to 10 ppm no3 and is phos 0.03 ppm is better but that will be hard to fix. Usually the two comes into the system in a much higher no3 and lower po4 ratio so looks like your tank is either consuming it disproportionately or something is leaching po4. Both are common things I see in newer tanks that generally just point to tank not mature enough and lacking biodiversity.

 

[FriedReef TV]

Alk decrease can be either normal consumption or inorganic precipitation with Calc bc u have low mag. Will have better idea after you run ur calc mg tests.

Ur ph is good. Alk to 9 is better but 8 isn't bad. Stability is more important so if u want to increase it, do it slowly

Figure out how much your tank change daily will determine how much and how frequent you need to dose to keep things stable.

Ur no3 is a bit low but phos is high. Something around 5 to 10 ppm no3 and is phos 0.03 ppm is better but that will be hard to fix. Usually the two comes into the system in a much higher no3 and lower po4 ratio so looks like your tank is either consuming it disproportionately or something is leaching po4. Both are common things I see in newer tanks that generally just point to tank not mature enough and lacking biodiversity.

how do i raise nitrates and lower phosphates? also, im going to setup a gravity fed 10 gallon display refugium and trash the hang on backs, might throw a skimmer inside too... i have never run a skimmer because it made my nutrients too low but i also feel like theres maybe low oxygen and high c02 in my tank because i have a glass top? maybe this could be causing the alk to keep dropping. daily drop is about .2 dkh im going to run another test this week to make sure though, my tank is not completely new its been running for 2 years but has moved tanks multiple times i kept same live rock and stuff but maybe the bacteria are trying to catch up with the increased tank size?