Too soon for hard corals?

wen tom

wen tom

Member
Hello, wondering if it's too soon to start getting hard corals in my 6 mo. old reef tank. Soft corals are doing fine. I did loose my lettuce nudibranch, thought the coral banded got it but I scooped out a black thing the other day that sure looked like it could have been it. Also, anemone seems good though it does shrink and get big alot. Thank you
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by wen tom http:///t/395802/too-soon-for-hard-corals#post_3524730
Also, anemone seems good though it does shrink and get big alot.
It is normal for anemones to change their size. Does it change it's position in the tank frequently?
It is hard to tell if you are ready for hard corals with the information you have given. What kind of hard corals are you considering? What kind of flow and lighting do you have in your tank? What are your water parameters and are they stable? I'm assuming that you don't have anything in the tank that will make a meal of these corals?
 
wen tom

wen tom

Member
I'm not sure, just wanted more color, the soft are all a brownish and white, besides the button, kinda a green brown. Had to cut back on pumps because they sucked up my small tang and sweetlips. So. . 2 pumps. 40 gal sump with skimmer. Good lighting set up by reef guy (I'll look it up) He was going to get me another pump because I was concerned about flow. My parameters are spot on except my Ph is 8.0. Been careful to not get any reef unfriendly fish. Thanks
 
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eric b 125

Guest
What size is your tank? It has been my experience that healthy fish do not usually get stuck to powerheads. A stable pH is important for more sensitive corals, like SPS. pH can and will fluctuate during lighting cycles so it might be a good idea to check it a few times throughout the day, at different times of your light cycle.
"As with all water parameters, pH in a marine aquarium should remain generally stable, to within three-tenths of a point (i.e. between 8.1 and 8.4) at all times". From CR Brightwell's "Marine Chemistry".
What kind of anemone do you have and how long have you had it? An anemone that is on the move is an unhappy anemone and an anemone that is moving around the tank like that can sting other corals.
 
wen tom

wen tom

Member
75 gal. They were VERY small.
Yeah, my pH is 8.0. always has been.
He said it is a bubble anemone but it has long tentacles. Not too sticky. I have had to move other corals due to it's moving in on it. I wondered also if my very large shrimp bothers it. No one can get away from it. But now that I see my parameters are not perfect?. . . Thanks a lot by the way
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Well you can get rid of your nitrates with water changes.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by wen tom http:///t/395802/too-soon-for-hard-corals#post_3524744
It just says "dimmable led lighting". Is the higher nitrates too much food or waste?
Try and find out what the lighting fixture is. The kind and power of LED's will make a huge difference in what you're able to keep. The nitrates are the end result of the nitrogen cycle. If this is something you are unfamiliar with, there are great threads at the top of the new hobbyist forum
Quote:
Originally Posted by wen tom http:///t/395802/too-soon-for-hard-corals#post_3524745
O.K. for reef though?
Yeah, it's okay. I wouldn't let it get much higher, though. Again, check out those threads in the new hobbyist forum; there's a lot of good information there.
 
wen tom

wen tom

Member
Yeah, the cycling, I'm a little confused. It's been up 6 mo's and hasn't ever been this high. The waste and food makes sense. Thanks for your time. Will read more. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
The nitrogen cycle never stops. As food and fish waste break down it causes a spike in Ammonia in the fish tank. The beneficial bacteria that live in the LR and sand bed (not in the water column) convert the ammonia into nitrite. The nitrite then gets converted to nitrate. High levels of ammonia can be very harmful to your livestock. Nitrite can also be toxic. Nitrate, too, can be harmful, but to a lesser degree than ammonia and nitrite.
Two of the most common ways of ridding the water column of nitrate is through regular water changes and also through harvesting macro algae (commonly grown in refugiums.)
Corals like nitrate in the water. Soft corals, like Xenia for example, can handle higher concentrations of nitrate than, say, SPS corals. While SPS corals can tolerate levels of nitrate, often times the levels that they are healthiest with are not within the limits of our tests.
 
wen tom

wen tom

Member
Wow, thank you so much, you summed that up so nicely. I stopped gravel vac.ing because I thought my clean up crew was doing such a good job. (doesn't seem to be much sand. less than 1 inch) Pretty algae and feather dusters. Guess I'd best do it.
I wonder why I don't have any algae in my refugium.
From my supplier- "I had the tank set up for 2 years before you had it. The LEDs are the same as the aqua illumination sols. A mix of white blue and royal blue 3watt Cree LEDs. The cleanup crew was the 55 gallon algae attack pack from live aquaria. They were out of the scarlet hermits so they substituted them for other crabs and snails and gave me a little price break."
Thanks again, so appreciate the help, I'm learning so much, (too bad I did it backwards!)
 
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eric b 125

Guest
What kind of sand do you have? Is is coarse or fine grained?
 
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