is it to soon to add coral??

[mattt6511]

hello i wanted to add some basic corals to my 29 gallon tank,i willl have 130 watt powercompact lighting and my tank has been running for almost 3 months now my parameters are ammonia 0.0 nitrite 0.0 nitrate 20ppm i have 25 lbs of cured fiji live rock and 40 lbs or argu live sand, one maxijet 1200, a prism delux skimmer, penguin 350 biowheel and a 125 wat ebo jager heater... does this all sound oky.. also any ideas on good basic corals

 

[Brenden]

Nitrates are to high for coral. Need to be <1ppm

 

[fishrfreinds]

do have a low range trate kit

if not buy one.

 

[theatrus]

I'd work on the nitrate issue first. Drop it to around 5ppm. I've found many soft corals tolerate these conditions very well.

Either reduce feedings, reduce bioload on the tank, or do more PWC.

 

[MT79]

Adding about 15-20lbs. more LR will help immensely. Ideally you want 1.5-2 lbs. LR per gallon of aquarium water for good biological filtration. A few large PWC's of about 25% along w/ good husbandry will get those nitrates down. Some of the more hearty corals, ie. softies, can tolerate higher nitrate levels but it is best to keep them <15 and ideally 0. You also want a minimum of 10x per hour tank turnover for coral. So all your pumps/filters totalled should be moving atleast 290 gallons of water per hour. HTH

 

[oyf709]

i belive bio wheel made nitrate high ( maybe i am wrong),I am just wondering with 3 mo. tank, ur nitrate should drop to normal rate already.Do u have fish in the tank? and do u feed them a lot?If not then do a 50% water change every week for 2 weeks, the nitrate should drop below 5.If u have life stock in there, then do 20% water change for every 2nd day. Water change is the fast solution for high nitrate, however , sometime it might stress ur life stock if u do have them in the tank. ( sainity and nitrate change ripidly)