Are my parameters okay for coral?

pakora

pakora

Member
Finished testing my water just now, I was wondering if my parameters were okay for adding corals to my tank.
Date: 8/27/2007
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Hydrometer: 1.024
Calcium(ppm): 300 (15 drops)
Kh(ppm): 250 (16 drops)
10 gallon Tank
6 Green Chromis
4 Emerald Crabs
1 Goby
1 Starfish
1 Porcelein Crab
Handful of Blue Legged Hermits
Handful of Astrea Snails
3 Pieces of Live Rock
2 Penguin Filters (Each filter is made for 20 gallon load and has biowheel and bioballs in both)
40 Watt Smartpaq (10,000K/460NM Actinic) Lighting System
Thanks as always for the great help I find in this forum!
 
mx#28

mx#28

Active Member
Originally Posted by pakora
10 gallon Tank
6 Green Chromis
4 Emerald Crabs
1 Goby
1 Starfish
1 Porcelein Crab
Handful of Blue Legged Hermits
Handful of Astrea Snails

6 Chromis in 10 gallons?!?
 
mx#28

mx#28

Active Member
In my opinion, you are quite overstocked for such a small tank. Especially as these fish grow larger, you will find that they will put more and more of a strain on your water quality and 1.) increase your nitrates to an uncontrollable level that will kill corals and 2.) create enough ammonia to be detrimental to the chromis themselves.
This is especially a problem with fish like chromis that have a very high metabolism. They will need to be fed often (4 or more times a day is optimal) or they will slowly starve to death. The waste they create from this much food will make you regret your current stock list.
I can tell that you are very confident and probably unrelentless as to your choice of fish, but I suspect you will find that you've invited trouble over time.
At any rate, SPS will need nitrates less than 10 ppm (prefferably undetectable), lps might take 20 ppm, and softies 30 ppm. This is generalized, but a decent reference.
 
pakora

pakora

Member
Thank you for your wise advice.
Its not that im being overly confident. I have had this tank for about seven months and nothing has happened to the fish as of yet. I started with nine chromis and unfortunately they died (probably because im overstocked, i know i am) but as of the six they have been fine.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Something is wrong with this post. You asked if your parameters are OK for coral then you list almost optimum params. Except for the calcium.
Now the first thing mentioned was the stock list. 6 fish in a 10 gallon. Now, you'll hafta forgive me, but I do not believe that your nitrate test kit is accurate.
What brand of test kit is it? How often do you feed? How much LR do you have?
If your trates really are at 0, they won't be for long. How much and how often are your water changes?
 
pakora

pakora

Member
I never said my nitrates were at 0, my nitrites are at 0. my nitrates are at 10, they were at 20 which is the most theyve been, but a water change always fixes that.
I use the API saltwater master test kit...
What numbers should my calcium be at?
Thank you for all your help!
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
I don't mean any offense here, and I'm sure you're starting to get the picture that your tank is overstocked. But I do want to point out that losing a fish on average every two months (three chromis dead over seven months) doesn't bode well. It's really only a matter of time before you are down to one or two fish. So I might suggest that you take matters into your own hands, and remove all but one or two fish from the tank. Take them back to the fish store where you bought them. Then they'll have a chance of surviving.
On corals, if you get yourself down to one or two fish MAXIMUM, you might be able to have a few mushroom corals and/or zoanthids in that tank.
 
pakora

pakora

Member
I realize im overstocked, I'll do what needs to be done.
Can you explain the correlation between a set amount of fish and a set amount of coral? How come I cant have a ton of coral and a ton of fish? Just curious!
 
peef

peef

Active Member
I was told the "Bioload" of fish is exponentially higher than corals. You can have about 5 coral to 1 fish in a tank to fit it in perspective. If you stick to this you won't overstock of fish and can have coral. I know people with a ten gallon that has like 1 clown, 1 chromis, and 1 blenny. then a TON of coral stacked in, and it has been like that for 2+ years with no problems and coral growth like CRAZY.
Your starfish will die though eventually. Not enough overhead of food to keep it a steady supply.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Originally Posted by pakora
I realize im overstocked, I'll do what needs to be done.
Can you explain the correlation between a set amount of fish and a set amount of coral? How come I cant have a ton of coral and a ton of fish? Just curious!
Not sure i'm reading the question right. Do you wanna know why, since you have so many fish, that you shouldn't get corals yet?? Or are you asking why all those fish are bad to begin with??
Both answers can be pretty detailed, so I'll wait for your response.
Sorry, I misread the trates. what kind of water changes are you doing?? How many gallons, how often?
Your calcium is fine for fish and soft corals, but a reading of 300 can be an indicator of low magnesium. If you are using IO salt, then that's pretty much always low in mag, thus causing low calcium.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
The simple answer is that fish are far more tolerant of poor water quality than corals are. So you can pack in fish, but tanks that have good coral growth are often lightly stocked when it comes to fish in order to keep water quality in check.
Remember that we test only a tiny fraction of the actual parameters of water.
Basically this is "you can't have your cake and eat it too" sort of scenario.
 
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