would just love some input from experienced coral keepers

[seecrabrun]

Just looking for any advice on making sure I'm on the right track.

I have an about 9 month old 20g tall with 10g refugium. It has one kessil a160we and one MP10es for light and flow. I have the spectral controller for the kessil and run it on a dawn to dusk with the peak being about 50% for I believe 4 hours. The MP10 is on reef crest at about 50% or lagoon at about 40%. I vary it day and night usually.

The livestock are a scooter blenny- been in about a month, tailspot blenny- just added last night, scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp- about 2 months, coco worm 3 weeks, and the CUC varies in age and is made up of blue dwarf hermits, florida cerith, astrea, dwarf cerith, nassarius, planaxis, and periwinkle snails.

The coral includes a duncan and acan lord that I've had 3 weeks.
Yesterday I brought home a small fungia, favia frag, and blastomussa. They are in a coral QT for the moment.

I've researched care for all of the creatures in my tank, but just want any tips you can give.

From what I read the care of all of the corals should be the same. Low to moderate light and flow, photosynthetic but can eat some meaty foods.

I currently feed my Duncan and Acan one piece of mysis for each head, one time a week.

The Duncan is easiest for me to read. I can tell if he needs more light, flow, or food by what he does with his tentacles. The others I believe will be a little harder to read.

 

[bang guy]

Sounds good so far. Are you monitoring Alkalinity?

 

[seecrabrun]

I am. I've been worried about it being low. It's at 8. I need to test today though.
Last test prior to weekly water change was salinity 1.025, pH 8.1, calc 440, alk 8, mag 1400.

 

[pegasus]

Your Calcium and Magnesium levels are good, but a good Alkalinity level is equally as important, as it takes both Alk and Cal for corals to build their skeletons. You may need to use an Alkalinity additive to (slowly) raise the level.

 

[novahobbies]

One other piece of advice.....don't go chasing numbers. All aquariums are different, and an Alk of 8 isn't necessarily low. If YOUR corals are gowing, don't mess with it. Alk is important, but just FYI....I have seen a number of tanks crash (mine included, sadly) because of Alkalinity swings that were too drastic. As Pegasus said...if you feel you must raise your Alk, do it SLOWLY.

 

[seecrabrun]

Thanks. I'm hoping to avoid dosing and what I'd do is try more frequent water changes first. I do 10% every weekend currently. This brings up the levels by almost 5% which are then depleted over the week. My water tests always reflect the "old water" values and not the freshly changed water's values.