waiting for a reef tank
- Thread starter adamz
- Start date
a&m aggie 04'
Active Member
I believe it really depends on the type of corals you want to add. I wouldnt add any SPS or hard to keep corals for 4-6 months...but you can add hardy mushrooms or polyps after a your water parameters are somewhat stable.
For the most part you just want to make sure you have no ammonia or nitrites that your PH is stable and the proper lighting is available.
What kind of lighting do you have, what kind of corals are you planning to add??
HTH,
Mark
For the most part you just want to make sure you have no ammonia or nitrites that your PH is stable and the proper lighting is available.
What kind of lighting do you have, what kind of corals are you planning to add??
HTH,
Mark
leopard_babe
Active Member
Are corals like marine plants, in the way, that they lower and eat nitrates? I don't have any nitrates, but I was wondering if corals will lower nitrates. Also do coral keep your water parameters good like marine plants or no? I was just wondering.
thanks
Leopard
thanks
Leopard
krishj39
Active Member
Leopard, I'm not an expert on the specifics, but corals do purify the water some by consuming some minerals. Xenia in particular is sometimes used in a refugium for nutrient export. However, unless you are adding a xenia refugium, I think it would be a bad idea to have the mindset that adding more corals is going to help keep the tank cleaner. The amount of purifying they will do is pretty small. So, for example, if you have excess nutrients such as nitrates or phosphates, adding more corals to the tank would NOT solve the problem but just mean you'd have more corals in the tank that aren't happy.
Adam, as for the time line for adding corals, I agree that it depends on the type. I added my first mushroom corals in about 3 months. I didn't add any LPS until about 6 months, and at about 8 months I added a few SPS (montipora) and an anenome. However, I wouldn't rely on time as the determining factor to when you can add things. It really has much more to do with how stable your tank is. In my case I had been extremely fortunate to have an incredibly stable tank from pretty early on. HTH
Kris
Adam, as for the time line for adding corals, I agree that it depends on the type. I added my first mushroom corals in about 3 months. I didn't add any LPS until about 6 months, and at about 8 months I added a few SPS (montipora) and an anenome. However, I wouldn't rely on time as the determining factor to when you can add things. It really has much more to do with how stable your tank is. In my case I had been extremely fortunate to have an incredibly stable tank from pretty early on. HTH
Kris
adamz
Member
the reef tank isnt going into my 75 im setting up a 20 gallon tank that i have and i am gettin powercompact lights. would i still have to wait all this time if the 20 gallons of water are commmin out of my 75 which has been up for a long time and the sand bed will come out of there 2 and im gettin a single bak bak soon and im goin to run that on my tank to get a bacteria bed set up for when i put it on the 20
krishj39
Active Member
Yup, NONE of the cycling is carried over in the water. Once the water has been aged a few days, it's all the same. Adding the same sand as from your 75 will help, but not enough, IMO. If you will also fill it with the same well established LR from your 75 then there is a good chance you won't have to wait that long. This whole thing is basically just a "wait and see." Maybe things will be good enough to add earlier, maybe they won't. Basically, you'll have to hope and wait.
leopard_babe
Active Member
Thanks Kris,
I was just wondering if they were like marine plants. Now I know. I like to know little useless things like that.
I was just wondering if they were like marine plants. Now I know. I like to know little useless things like that.
krishj39
Active Member
Well alright Adam, but just be careful, it sounds kinda like you are trying to justify pushing things more than you should be. There is no point in wording things here so that everyone here will just say what you want them to say. I'm not trying to give you a hard time, just want to remind you to have patience and remember that no matter how much you talk about it and get people to say it, what really matters is the state of the tank when you add things. If you just want someone to say it's ok to put stuff into your tank then talk to the LFS.
theplowking
Member
Adam-
You need to take it slow. I had my tank FOWLR running for a year before I started adding Corals. This was after I upgraded the lighting system .
You need to determine the following:
1 What type of Corals would you like to keep
2. Are all your fish and critters reef safe?
3 How much sand and LR are you going to need?
4. Need proper test kits for Calcium and DK.These are important.
Etc.
I have had great success with my 55 gallon reef. It has been running for about 19 months. I currently have about 15 species of Coral in my tank.
Check out
http://reefcentral.com/
and
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/
These are a great source of information
You need to take it slow. I had my tank FOWLR running for a year before I started adding Corals. This was after I upgraded the lighting system .
You need to determine the following:
1 What type of Corals would you like to keep
2. Are all your fish and critters reef safe?
3 How much sand and LR are you going to need?
4. Need proper test kits for Calcium and DK.These are important.
Etc.
I have had great success with my 55 gallon reef. It has been running for about 19 months. I currently have about 15 species of Coral in my tank.
Check out
http://reefcentral.com/
and
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/
These are a great source of information
