sharkbait925
New Member
Hey everyone.
I've been quiet on the forum for a while because I'm hard at work rebuilding the 75 gal I bought on craigslist. So without further adieu... Here's the latest.
I took any salvageable critters and corals and donated them to the lfs, drained the tank and scraped it clean as a whistle and thoroughly washed my sand, for about three days
then boiled all my rocks and started over from square one. Also bought a hob protein skimmer, wish I could put a sump in but I unfortunately don't have room for an overflow tank due to the location of my setup and I didn't want to venture into drilling the tank for fear of virtually destroying everything.
The tank cycled very well with the help of some fritzzyme and the basic parameters (ph, salinity, amm., trites/trates) have been stable for a few weeks now. As far as livestock goes I added 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 cleaner shrimp, 4 turbo snails and last week I found an AWESOME Tomini tang at the lfs and he has been doing very well. I'm slowly starting to add some soft corals, so far I have a green polyp leather and a little toadstool. The leather is doing awesome and seems to be very happy. The toadstool was happy for a few days but I had a RIDICULOUS Diacoms outbreak that got to him for a little bit but it finally died off and since then he has shed a layer and his polyps are coming back out now.
Anyway.... I picked up a Red Sea reef foundation test kit yesterday (the pro kit that test Mg, Kh and Ca). I just tested the water and I think my parameters are off. It's still a new tank so I was expecting that but I want to get things to where they should be and slowly build this bad boy up to its potential.
So, my parameters are as follows:
Temp: 79 F
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.4
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
Nitrates: 0.0
Mg: 1700 ppm
KH: 9.5
Ca: 470 ppm
Equipment: Rena Filstar XP3 filter, Eshopps psk-100H skimmer, 2 koralia powerheads (don't know what type but their not super strong, the flow in the tank is still pretty good though), nova extreme pro t5 6 bulb ho light.
Livestock: 2 Ocellaris Clowns, 1 Tomini Tang, 1 Cleaner shrimp, 4 turbo snails (not big)
Corals: 1 green polyp leather, 1 Toadstool
My questions are:
1.) what do I need to do or what supplements do i need in order to get the (for lack of a better word) "reef" parameters under control?
2.) should i beef up the CUC?
3.) If (in the long run) I add a foxface and a flame angel, would that be over-stocking or is that right around the threshold?
If anything else stands out to you please let me know what I'm doing wrong
Sorry for the long post but these are the things that have been brewing in my head the last few weeks.
And as always, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the great information. It keeps a new hobbyist like myself from going insane
I've been quiet on the forum for a while because I'm hard at work rebuilding the 75 gal I bought on craigslist. So without further adieu... Here's the latest.
I took any salvageable critters and corals and donated them to the lfs, drained the tank and scraped it clean as a whistle and thoroughly washed my sand, for about three days
then boiled all my rocks and started over from square one. Also bought a hob protein skimmer, wish I could put a sump in but I unfortunately don't have room for an overflow tank due to the location of my setup and I didn't want to venture into drilling the tank for fear of virtually destroying everything. The tank cycled very well with the help of some fritzzyme and the basic parameters (ph, salinity, amm., trites/trates) have been stable for a few weeks now. As far as livestock goes I added 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 cleaner shrimp, 4 turbo snails and last week I found an AWESOME Tomini tang at the lfs and he has been doing very well. I'm slowly starting to add some soft corals, so far I have a green polyp leather and a little toadstool. The leather is doing awesome and seems to be very happy. The toadstool was happy for a few days but I had a RIDICULOUS Diacoms outbreak that got to him for a little bit but it finally died off and since then he has shed a layer and his polyps are coming back out now.
Anyway.... I picked up a Red Sea reef foundation test kit yesterday (the pro kit that test Mg, Kh and Ca). I just tested the water and I think my parameters are off. It's still a new tank so I was expecting that but I want to get things to where they should be and slowly build this bad boy up to its potential.
So, my parameters are as follows:
Temp: 79 F
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.4
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
Nitrates: 0.0
Mg: 1700 ppm
KH: 9.5
Ca: 470 ppm
Equipment: Rena Filstar XP3 filter, Eshopps psk-100H skimmer, 2 koralia powerheads (don't know what type but their not super strong, the flow in the tank is still pretty good though), nova extreme pro t5 6 bulb ho light.
Livestock: 2 Ocellaris Clowns, 1 Tomini Tang, 1 Cleaner shrimp, 4 turbo snails (not big)
Corals: 1 green polyp leather, 1 Toadstool
My questions are:
1.) what do I need to do or what supplements do i need in order to get the (for lack of a better word) "reef" parameters under control?
2.) should i beef up the CUC?
3.) If (in the long run) I add a foxface and a flame angel, would that be over-stocking or is that right around the threshold?
If anything else stands out to you please let me know what I'm doing wrong
Sorry for the long post but these are the things that have been brewing in my head the last few weeks.
And as always, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the great information. It keeps a new hobbyist like myself from going insane
