Originally Posted by
Nuz
http:///forum/post/2544931
We are going to invest in a master test kit soon. We have a liquid test kit for ammonia. Scanning through the posts - I have already come to the conclusion that our salinity is slightly low so we will be fixing that.
Tank has been cycling for about 4 months now (2 with critters in it) and we have done one 10% water change. We have planned to do this every 3-4 weeks if necessary. If our water quality is still good then we skip the change - why change water if the quality is still good? Don't want to remove any of the beneficial bacteria we have been creating!
We'll stop dosing iodine until we can find a test for it. And yes we still need to find a test for the calcium as well.
We have a hydrometer for measuring salinity.
The polyps are doing very well on the phytoplankton IMO, after only a few weeks in the tank they have already begun budding and spreading.
Ok to further explain, first about water changes, just because your underware dont look dirty doesnt mean they are not. Its the same theory there are only a few elements you test for but lots more that are used, stronium, magnesium to name a couple. In a small aquarium weekly water changes are a must. Water quality issues although may look good, in small systems go bad very quickly. FYI you can take out 75% of your water and replace it with new SW and not remove 10% of the benificial bacteria in your tank. While some of it floats around your water column most of it resides in your LR, sand bed and filter media. Looking at a SW tank as a self sufficient biotope is where a lot of mistakes are made. We must look at them as land fills and we try not to let the waste get to toxic levels.
Most all soft corals, mushrooms, polyps of all types propogate very very quickly and this is facilitated by your trace elements in your tank. However dosing phyto isnt going to hurt them, the only thing it may do is contribute to poor water quality.
Lastly something I didnt touch on regarding your anemones. You have 2 anemones in a small tank. Both are different species, both have never or will never see or meet eachother in the wild. Although it is done it is not recomended to have more than one in such a small space, even for one your tank is small and eventually it will out grow it. Having said that, anemones can sense eachothers presence in tanks. This can result in 2 things either they remain passive and things go well, or they seek eachother out and battle it out. The one thing we cant be sure of and seems to follow issues with them, is they are capable of chemical warfare. Releasing toxins we cannot test for to harm eachother. They can also release their stinging cells, in hopes to harm the other inhabitant. Just another idea to throw out there.. if things dont improve. Running carbon can help.
