Quote:
Originally Posted by Mysaltlife
I did do a 10 gallon water change after the first two weeks, my water levels yesterday were ammonia-0.0 nitrite-0.0 nitrate-5.0 KH- 10 salinity- 1.023 didn't test ph calcium or phosphate. I am going to get a home test kit as soon as my budget is right, they are pretty expensive. I'm pretty positive I was running my main light too long and as of yesterday my clean up crew took good care of that algae. Today I got a pair of percula clowns, one torch coral, yellow zoa, and a mushroom coral. I'm going to wal-mart later to get a timer for my lights. I plan on doing another water change next week... Here is a pic I took today. |
Two things here.... first, you want to get that salinity up a
little bit, I personally run 1.026, but 1.024 - 1.026 is generally accepted.
IMO, 1.023 will probably be OK, but.....
Second, you want to get those nitrates down. 5 would be great if you were just running a
FOWLR, but nitrates aren't good for corals. A lot of the softies will tolerate, and even thrive, with nitrates of 0.5 to 1.0, but 5 is too high. And remember, the more fish you have, the more nitrates will be generated, so you will likely need to do a few back-to-back water changes to get those down, and a little larger weekly water change to keep them in check.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mysaltlife
At the store the clowns were called perculas, and they were 9$ each... Not sure if they are true ones or not I read the links you posted....they are pretty lively though, swimming all over the place they seem to like their new home  what should I get next? I was thinking of a bangai cardinal or a watchman goby, and I def wanna get a cleaner shrimp. What are the real green flows coral at the bottom of your tank? |
At $9 each, I can about guarantee those are tank raised Ocellaris
I like them too, but I would rule out the cardinals (I had to)... they need to be in schools of roughly 3 or more, and that is going to seriously start to overload your system. A cleaner shrimp is a definite in my book.... love mine. As far as more fish go, I'd let your system settle out for a while and see just how much nitrates you're generating weekly and what size water changes have to be done to compensate. Remember, those clowns are small now, but they get quite large, and are poop factories, so that needs to be considered for future bioload.
The green flowy looking coral in my tank is neon-green star polyps. They are a very easy to keep, fast growing coral, and
IMO very beautiful in the currents. The two pictures below show the difference in just two months worth of growth. One big word of caution with these.... if you note in my picture, it's on it's own rock out in the sand bed. You can't see the back, but it's nowhere near any other rock. If allowed, this stuff will grow out of control to the point of overtaking your tank, and other corals with it. It's technically not an "encrusting" coral, but grows like one. It will encroach on & overgrow other corals, especially zoas. The reason I keep it on it's own rock is so that when it starts to grow off of that rock, I can take it out & trim it without having to worry about tearing my tank apart.
And I like that blue mushroom, btw.... beautiful color & really stands out.
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