How do I know when to add corals ??

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RMA110731

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
10
Location
Massachusetts
My ph is 8.2 - amonia 0 - calcium 360 - 400, nitrate between 10-20 on color chart , nitrite 0
-- it has been up and running since February - I do 10% water changes once a week --and nitrates still aren't zero -- I feed once a night - a few flakes ,a small 2 inch square of red seaweed , and shrimp pellets for the shrimp -- How will I know when the tank is ready for corals? I have no problem waiting longer if I need to -- Di I have to wait till my nitrates are zero?
Let me know if you need any more information -- Thanks for your help -- this site has been so much help
 
If your nitrites are not gone yet you arent ready for corals or fish or anything...


Nitrates will not go to 0 for a long long time, and only then MAYBE if you have lots of LR and a deep sand bed.

The good thing is you dont have to wait for nitrates (although I would wait a couple months before adding hard to keep corals)
 
It would be a good idea to do a few water changes to see about getting the nitrates down some. Below 10 ppm is a decent goal for a new tank, zero being ideal but not necessary. Fish and mobile inverts will tolerate the nitrates for the most part without issue.

As far as corals are concerned, most softies are quite tolerable of nitrates to a certain degree. You should be safe to start adding hardier leathers, colts and shrooms, mabye even some less exspensive zoo's.

General rule of thumb is once the tank is stable, softies at about 3 months, LPS at about 6-8 months and SPS and clams after about a year.

What type of lights do you have?

Cheers
Steve
 
According to your listing you only have 45 lbs of LR in a 72 gal tank. Should have at least 1-2 lbs per gallons. Remember LR and sand are your biofilter. You probably don't have enough LR to handle your bioload. Before you get corals, I would get more rock (base or live). BR will become LR in the tank.
 
Thanks for all the help. I will keep doing water changes and will add more live rock before I add anything else to the tank. I am not sure what the lights are called I have one blue and one white flourescent. The lights came with the tank. How do I find out what kind they are? Thanks again.
 
RMA110731 said:
How do I find out what kind they are?
If they came with the tank, they are most likely NO fluorescents unless you bought second hand. In that case the wattage and type will not really be suitable for corals.

Look on the bulb itself near where it insets into the hood. It should give the the wattage, type and bulb model printed at one end of the bulb.

Cheers
Steve
 
I have a Power Glo 48" / 119.94 cm 40 watt and
a Marine Glo 48" / 119.94 cm 40 watt bulb.

Are these good for corals?

Thanks again for all your help :)
 
Nope... those are Normal Output lights. Corals need a lot of light... that would only make about 1.1 WPG. Depending on the types of corals you want to keep, consider investing in PC/VHO/MH lighting to bring up the WPG ratio. What corals do you want?

Those lights you have would be fine for a FO or FOWLR... but corals live off of sunlight and are very demanding. What is your budget for new lights? Let us know, HTH
 
I hadn't decided on what types of corals or anenomes -- I had bought the whole tank setup lights and all for $500.00 -- What do good lights roughly cost?
 
for this setup, most economical would probably be power compacts 4 times 65 watt per bulb 50 50 ratio.

run you about $225.00 and give you 260 watts just under 4 watts per gallon.

you could keep shrooms, softies like colt and leather, star polyps macro and coralline algae etc low to mid lighting requirement animals
 
You should decide on the types of corals you wish to keep before deciding on what light to get.

Cheers
Steve
 
Thanks Steve --

I will look into that and let you know --

as for Saltydawgy - it is not a question on the money, thanks for your concern :) -- I am trying to make sure I do it right the first time -- I dont want to buy something and then have it die because I made an error
 
well my advice is make up your mind on the coral first, because depending on wat type of coral u will have is going to affect your lights.As my experiences, make sure u buy the correct lighting the first time or u will waste insane amount of money.
here is an Eg.
for soft coral and some LPS that doesn't require intense lighting go forcheaper PC or VHO that has lower watts
(make sure you have both day light and atinic.)
for LPS , or anemone which need some wat intense lighting go for higher Watt lighting (this maybe not the best for anemone but it is enough to keep it alive)
If you are going for SPS or clame or even anemones need very intense lighting such as ritteri go for MH

depending on where you buy those lighting, PC can be range from $100-$400+ depending on the power and length.
VHO is a bit expensive than PC over all but the bulbs is cheaper than PC
MH is the most expensive one can range from $300-1k+
again depending on the watts and length and the number of light bulbs in it.
choose wisely, so u won't need to rebuy all your lighting later which might waste u way more money . HTH
 
If you have nitrates all the time have you tested you top off water and new salt water for nitrates?
Are you using filtered water?? Or tap... this could be the cause of the NO3.
 
Thanks for all the help and information on the lights -- I will research on the corals and anenomes -- and get back to you --

Regarding the nitrates -- I used distilled water -- I haven't hooked up my RO system yet -- I tested it with and without the salt and the nitrates were zero.

I am doing another water change tomorrow -- I started 2 weeks ago to change 10 gallons every tuesday, so I will be changing my water again tomorrow :)
 
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