Established 55g Going reef......

[lbzkid15]

Here are my level's: :notsure:
Alk 3.0
ph 8.4
Amo 0
Trites 0
Trates 25
Temp 80
The tank has been up and running for over a year

with regular lights, I jus bought pc 265w, and want to start adding coral, i already have 1 green ric polyp, i have added some buffer for the ph and Alk, and i will do some water changes to bring down the trates....Is there any thing else i am missing and any thing else i can be testing for???? :help:

 

[lbzkid15]

Bump :help:

 

[dperna]

if your doing a reef your going to have to start doing calcium for the corals. thats all i know off hand though, because i have a fowlr

 

[ashley123hot]

yes your trates are a little high but it will eventually flow itself out. i wouldnt add any kind of chemical to the tank.i have pc lights also for a 72 gal. and i have a lot of corals in mine and everything has been doin great. i never do water changes!! i have a protein skimmer,a canister filter i never change and a little filter on top i change the filters on that one tho.just get those trates out before adding anything.everything else seems fine.make sure you have phtoplankton for corals. good luck

 

[wangotango]

besides starting to test for calcium you're pretty much set with what to test. doing frequent small water changes will help bring down the trates, but dont worry if you cant get them at zero, a little bit of nitrate wont hurt much. with that lighting you'll be pretty good for most of the large-polyp stony corals and softies. good luck and have fun

-Justin

 

[lbzkid15]

Thanx folks,
Seems like i am on the right track

:jumping:

 

[allyric]

What are pc lights? and about how much did they cost? I alosi have a 55gal. and Bought some T5 with 4 bulbs, but thet are on backorder. How frustrating,

 

[lbzkid15]

I bought the light used with a bad ballast for 100 and i bought the ballast for 35

 

[wangotango]

Originally Posted by allyric
What are pc lights? and about how much did they cost? I alosi have a 55gal. and Bought some T5 with 4 bulbs, but thet are on backorder. How frustrating,

PC stands for power compact, which are a type of flourescent lights. id wait for the T5 as they're a lot more powerful and intense than PC's. price wise they usually arent too bad.
-Justin