Water Levels/fish advice! Need Advice

[Dcole12]

Hi Everyone,

I just went ahead and tested my waters. I use the red reef marine test kits. Here are a couple of my tests. I just would like to get suggestions on my levels as well as if they are high/low what can I do to help this?

Salinity - 1024
Ph - 8.2 - What should this beat? I do see it says online 7.2-8.6 is like where it should be at for the average reef tank.
Ammonia - 0 if anything maybe in between a 0 - .2,


I take it to my local fish store almost weekly on top of my tests and they say everything looks good. I have about 15-20 snails as well two hermit crabs. I have a clownfish as well as a yellow watchman goby. They all seem to being doing great. I am going to be slowly adding corals in I think the start of next week. I would like to add a Wrasse a dottyback. Some types of fish that are more active in the tank. I want to add another clownfish into the tank, but need suggestions. How should I acclimate it into the tank so the current clownfish doesn't get to aggressive and want to attack it? Anyone have suggestions on the best way to add them into the tank?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Is salinity and pH all you test for? Those numbers are OK.

Is the LFS testing for anything else? If so what for and with what results?

How old is the clownfish you have? A single clown in a tank becomes a female over a relatively short period of time (a few months). If you introduce another female all they will do is fight. You need a smaller, younger clown that is a juvenile and with the female in the tank, the new clown will become a male. But even in this best situation, female clowns do beat males into submission and sometime even to death. It's just the way nature has them designed to work.

 

[Dcole12]

Is salinity and pH all you test for? Those numbers are OK.

Is the LFS testing for anything else? If so what for and with what results?

How old is the clownfish you have? A single clown in a tank becomes a female over a relatively short period of time (a few months). If you introduce another female all they will do is fight. You need a smaller, younger clown that is a juvenile and with the female in the tank, the new clown will become a male. But even in this best situation, female clowns do beat males into submission and sometime even to death. It's just the way nature has them designed to work.

The clownfish that I have I have had for close to two months. I have a yellow watchman goby as well that seems to be losing some of the yellow. I have had him for about a week. I was reading that could be due to stress./maturing or the sex changing. My I can test for more parameters today as well. Any suggestions on what I should test for? I can report back to here with those answers. Can I

 

[Ron Reefman]

Nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, temperature...

 

[Dcole12]

Nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, temperature...

Sorry for the late response, but my

Salinity - 1024
Ph - 8.2 - What should this beat? I do see it says online 7.2-8.6 is like where it should be at for the average reef tank.
Ammonia - 0 if anything maybe in between a 0 - .2,
Alkalinity is 3.21.
Nitrate is at a 5.
Water Temp 75-76 degrees.

I do not have a calcium test kit and a phosphate kit.

thoughts suggestions?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Those numbers are fine. Congratulations.

As you start adding corals, especially lps and sps, you'll need to monitor calcium, alk and to a lesser extent, magnesium. The corals will pull it out of the water and use it to build skeleton.

I had a 40g tank that was mostly zoas and RFA's, but one big lps and a handful of smaller lps and sps corals. I needed to dose alk and Ca every 3 or 4 days to maintain semi stable levels.

 

[BeejReef]

Those are good parameters. PH of 8.2 is textbook.
Alkalinity is in a good range also. You'll find that most peeps on here tend to discuss it in terms of dkh (9dkh in your case, also textbook).

Your temp is in a safe range. I'm no expert at all, but 77-79 degrees is, again, more common. Unless you have a reason to keep it on the cool side, I'd just go with the crowd. If you have an issue you need help with later on, it's one less variable that will be up for discussion.

 

[Dcole12]

Those are good parameters. PH of 8.2 is textbook.
Alkalinity is in a good range also. You'll find that most peeps on here tend to discuss it in terms of dkh (9dkh in your case, also textbook).

Your temp is in a safe range. I'm no expert at all, but 77-79 degrees is, again, more common. Unless you have a reason to keep it on the cool side, I'd just go with the crowd. If you have an issue you need help with later on, it's one less variable that will be up for discussion.

Thank you! I really appreciate this information!

 

[Drdrew99]

BRS 52 weeks of reefing is a great online source of info. Good luck, this is a great hobby.

 

[mayday0237]

From experience wait on the Dotty until you are finished with other fish...they get obnoxious after about 2 weeks. As for wrasses the shyer ones need to go first. The semi aggressive later.
Your goby I would add a sinking pellet for. He prob isn't getting a good rounded amount of food and you will lose him if you can't get him all he needs. The sinking pellet(s) should be good quality for omnivores.

 

[mayday0237]

[How big is your tank?

QUOTE="mayday0237, post: 6941276, member: 131864"]
From experience wait on the Dotty until you are finished with other fish...they get obnoxious after about 2 weeks. As for wrasses the shyer ones need to go first. The semi aggressive later.
Your goby I would add a sinking pellet for. He prob isn't getting a good rounded amount of food and you will lose him if you can't get him all he needs. The sinking pellet(s) should be good quality for omnivores.

[/QUOTE]

 

[mayday0237]

Cirrhilabrus https://g.co/kgs/BcbtZX
Most of These wrasses are peaceful and reef safe. Go with the easy ones not the difficult or moderates. The McCoskers are shy and really beautiful they need to go in first if you want them. The Exquisites I have were shy at first but now they are out all the time. Do not get the blue streak cleaner until you have your tank up and successful for a year or more. And don't make the mistake of thinking he will eat just pests. He and other active wrasse needs to eat constantly and tiny bits of stuff like tigger pods and small roe. Also @eatbreakfast and others in the wrasse question forum are amazing. Go there and read up.

 

[mayday0237]

Wrasse questions

There is a plethora of info on this site on the subject, it's really too much for me to sort through. I have two questions, 1. Does the flame wrasse help with pest control? 2. Will a flame wrasse cohabitate with a yellow coris wrasse? Any info would be helpful, thanks for looking.

www.reef2reef.com