Start of another reef tank - 55g

[Duddits]

Nope your nitrates are fine. In a perfect world they would be undetectable but below 5 is absolutely fantastic! Instant ocean reef crystals is the salt I use.. and with weekly water changes I don't have to supplement anything. I'm just wondering how your dKH got up so high and your calcium got so low, lol. IME, reef crystals tests about 420 calcium out of the box and about 10 dKH.

I would do a PWC to try bring these number into check a little bit before adding coral frags.

Roger that! Thanks for the help.

 

[Ingy]

Although I do agree with that your Alk is high, it will have no adverse affect on coral or invertebrate growth. The only thing you may notice would be a faster build up on your pumps etc.
Lab tests have shown that corals will grow faster with calc up to about the 420 range. Higher levels show no better growth.
Alk (representing carbonates) have shown faster growth even beyond 12. Higher is faster. The downside was the faster carb buildup on equipment hence the max 12 number.

 

[Duddits]

How often do you guys dose calcium? I'm doing it twice a week

 

[Animal-Chin]

I have a 50 gallon reef and use instant ocean salt. I have a tank full of coral that use the calcium in the water and with weekly water changes i dont have to dose calcium so i would assume you wouldnt either.

 

[scottayy]

Yeah I've got a 55 gallon with a fair amount of corals and I don't supplement. The weekly water changes pretty much replenish the levels.

 

[Duddits]

Tank is coming out good. Coraline is starting to grow and spread on my live rock and back glass

 

[Bearchumjs]

Tank is coming out good. Coraline is starting to grow and spread on my live rock and back glass

Very awesome! I'm glad everything is going well!

 

[Duddits]

Any clue why my snail turned green? Really weird but cool looking

 

[Beengirl]

Any clue why my snail turned green? Really weird but cool looking

The snail shells sometimes get algae on them. Once in a while you'll see another snail cleaning a snail's shell

 

[Sniperhank]

Yeah, my snails are cleaning each others shells all the time. What is neat is when you have snails in your tank for a long time, you can watch them grow and get covered in coraline.

 

[Duddits]

I can understand the shell turning green but my actual snail turned green too

 

[Duddits]

Well hopefully picking out a few frags tomorrow. Water tested good. Will probably introduce some mushrooms, a leather and maybe some zoas or polyps.

 

[Duddits]

Bought my first corals today. Frogspawn and a clam. Will post pics later. More corals coming this weekend

 

[scottayy]

What kind of clam?

 

[Duddits]

Clam and frogspawn. Came from a nice looking tank under T5 lighting too

 

[Duddits]

Corals have adapted well already. Just picked up a pair of red mushrooms and some bright green mushrooms. Currently on a drip.

 

[Duddits]

Mushrooms

 

[Duddits]

Ok so everyone seems to have different success with mushrooms so I'm leaning to y'all for advice. I have 4 mushrooms. 2 green and 2 reds on one piece of frag rock. Since I've brought them home they've stayed shriveled up. Not sure where the best placement is. I have 2 phs. One on each side of the tank plus the return in the middle of the tank. They are set right about the middle of the tank under 4 T-5 lights. Good water quality and flow. What am I doing wrong?

Below is a pic of them tonight.

 

[Duddits]

So I swapped out one of my actinic bulbs that looked a little dim and WOW what a difference. I replaced with a German Fiji purple bulb and the corals look great. The frogspawn has really opened up as well as the mushrooms. I'll post pics later. Just cleaned the glass and did a water change

 

[Duddits]

Finally starting to open up.