bill0298 said:
Might want to augment that with another powerhead or two. The 660
GPH rating for the two combined is without media so your tanks water rotation is a bit low.
What do you recommend the
GPH rating should be?
10-15x
GPH per tank size for a reef set up. Which with 260w
PC lights you will be able to have a soft/
LPS tank as said. I would actually add at least 2x900 Maxi-jets, preferabley the 2x1200's. The amount of flow you have now will lead to alot of problems in short time. Especially with
ph and nuisance algaes.
A little quick at 5 weeks. I would hold off on any more additions for a while to allow for the tanks biofilter to catch up.
Ammonia and nitrite were 0.0 before I added the last batch of
LR. I'm guessing that a piece or two of the
LR was not fully cured. The Tang was the last fish added approx 1 1/2 weeks ago.
If you still have nitrite readings by the end of the week, I would remove the new rock and cure it seperately. With the fish load and age of the tank, I would be concerned about it's health.
The
SG is a little low. 1.024-25 would be better at 80°, 35
ppt if using a refractometer. What time of day was the
ph tested?
I tested the water around 10:00 pm. However, my
PH was 8.3 prior to my last water change.. I didn't add any buffer to the water. My
LFS scolded me for that. I'm adding buffer to get my levels (
KH &
PH) up...
The
ph is a bit low for that time of day but the lower
GPH might be part of the problem. If you have the tank covered with a glass lid, that will also contribute to the lower
ph due to improper gas exchange. Adding buffer is okay to correct imbalances between
alk/
Ca but you are better off with balanced product additions for both
Alk and
CA like water changes, two part liquids or kalkwasser. If
alk is low, it should be fixed no question, it's just deciding which works best. In the initial stages of most tanks, water changes would often be the easiest route.
Cheers
Steve