I need help with where to go from here

[Bonessurf]

I have a 58 gallon reef system with a marineland protein skimmer rated for 100 gallons, 100+ pounds of liverock, bioballs and some liverock in the sump with chemipure and a bag to help with nitrates. All my levels are at zero except nitrates which are hovering around 40ppm and pH at 8.2. I also have a marineland reef capable LED and a coralife 750 powerhead. I want to go full reef and I'm wondering what I need to do next. I'm supplementing mostly with this liquid reef. Any help and direction I can get would be great. Thanks.

 

[carey]

Are those all supplement bottles I see? Typically corals get all the food they need from the water column and no added chemicals are needed. As a rule you should never add something you can't test for,

I think you have good hardware and the jump to reef shouldn't be too tough. Not sure how or what corals you can keep with those LED;s, but you should be able to keep beginner stuff for sure I'd think.

The only thing I can think of adding is another powerhead for the other side, I run two on most of my tanks and it keeps the water from pooling in dead spots.

Hope that helped a bit.

Good luck!

 

[Bonessurf]

They are supplements that I dont use. I've only put the liquid reef in there and I've hardly used the reef snow, that's it. I'm told at the lfs that the LED's work great for soft corals, but I think I might ditch them and move to t5's in the future. I have time cause my girlfriend and I are looking for a house together, and the first purchase we are making as at least a 125 gallon tank. But that may take a few years.

 

[carey]

Oh ok, I saw all those bottles and thought oh my! LOL

yep, i would look at some zooa's and leather corals to start. maybe even some candycanes, love them! Until you upgrade your lighting I wouldnt get into SPS or anenomes. But you can have a super tank even without those.

 

[Bonessurf]

Also, somebody at my lfs offered the advice that it'll be better to remove the bioballs a little bit at a time. Saying that I have plenty of lr for a natural filter and I can do without. Is this good advice to take?

 

[carey]

Yes, it's preferable to get rid of the bio balls, but not all at once of course. :_)

 

[Gregcoyote]

The LEDs should work fine. I grow stag horn coral under mine. All depends on their total wattage. Should be a mix of 2/3 white and 1/3 blue. Your skimmer and consistent water changes should be all that is required. Use good makeup water.

 

[Bonessurf]

The light is 1/3 blue and 2/3 white. I don't really use it as a moonlight, I only use it on a timer for 6 hours a day. I had a breakout of cyano so I cut the light down, and I think I'm still getting it again. Just not as bad yet. I might have to treat my tank again, which sucks because it took me forever to get the protein skimmer working properly after I turned it off for a few days.

 

[Sarcothelia]

I would invest in another powerhead to circulate the water, if you are noticing there isn't enough circulation in spots. Dead spots are a favorite of cyano, diatoms and so on. Most people with a tank that large tend to have 2 power heads anyways. Try to get a powerhead flowing water through the rock work. If the water is stagnant there it will breed anaerobic bacterium.

 

[Hinds04]

The first thing you need to do is get your nitrates below 20. preferrably 0. Like the rock btw

 

[yetee]

The bio balls are most likely why your nitrates are at 40. Bio balls are a bit too efficiant when it comes to nitrification and tend to be nitrate factories. It would be good to remove them over time like you were thinking and i am pretty sure your nitrates will drop down below 20 from removing them. You could also add some lr rubble to your sump to add to filtration. You could add some more flow too depending on what corals you want to keep.

 

[Bonessurf]

Alright. So my next purchase is another power head. I'm going to do that as soon as possible. I just got a little frogspawn. We'll see how that turns out. I know they don't like much water flow. So I may have to do some rockscaping for him. Although I do love rockscaping.

 

[Gregcoyote]

If you can afford them, I like the Korellia units better than power heads. Much more flow for the size.

 

[carey]

If you can afford them, I like the Korellia units better than power heads. Much more flow for the size.

I also vote for the koralia's. I use them on all my tanks.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I cant spell.

 

[Bonessurf]

I can't afford the wavemake controller. That's why I went with the coralife. I mean I did all the research on them, and the technology is awesome. I just can't dish out the 250 or whatever it is before I get any extra water flow in my tank.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I had a controller a long time ago, but it is burned out. I ordered power strip on eBay for $50 that had two timed outlets, allowing alternate pumps to turn on and off. Pretty simple, but I don't think that complexity always yields better results.

 

[Sarcothelia]

If you have a lot of live rock you could go with a maxijet and hide it in amongst the rocks. They are real strong for the cost, but definitely not compact. Only disappointment was the lack of a holding magnet.

 

[Gregcoyote]

They have to be cleaned periodically, so they should be in a location that is also serviceable. All of them require periodic maintenance.

 

[Bonessurf]

I've heard stories of cyano growing in front of powerheads, meaning that has nothing to do with water flow or lack there of. And isn't too much flow bad for some softer corals, like my frogspawn for example?