From FOWLR to Reef

So....
My tank is ~6mos old (Late February dob). Been doing absolutely great. Tank, damsel, clown, couple hermits and snails.

I'm ready to start looking at some SPS corals (since I have my new T5 HO lights now!!! woohoo!) but need to know where to start with the water.

My budget is fairly tight, so I can only buy a test kit or two per month. SO... and understanding that the parameters are all so closely related....

What do I start testing/what are the most important params to check and get right before I add coral?

As always - 3reef rocks!!!

 

Salinity (refractometer), PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Calc, Mg, and Alkalinity are the tests to have

Go slow on SPS' it can get really expensive really fast with them, also post what type of T5 light you have and the bulbs if you can please, you need to make sure you have the right acintic/daylight config as SPS can be a big challenge to keep in any tank even with very experienced people

 

Just bought the Current Nova Extreme T5 HO.
https://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12772&prodid=25122&catid=3

Slimpaq 460nm Actinic and 10000°K T-5 HO lamps
Oh- its the 36" - 4 bulbs, two white, two blue and three white moon leds

Its a 40 gallon bowfront, approx 20" of water

36" wide, 12" at the sides, 14" at the bow, 20" tall

Dont have a refractometer yet, just the little plastic gauge with the needle..., have pH, Nitrate, Nitrate and Ammonia tests, all those numbers are doing really well. Temp stays between 79-81

 

Cool, pickup the other tests and a refractometer and you should be fine, the refracto is alot more accurate than the hydrometer (the plastic thing with the needle) with SPS as with pretty much everything in this hobby you want to minimize variances in chemical levels and balances so being accurate in tests is very important

Also I'd want to put SPS and other high light need corals higher in the tank, IMO the top 10" or so even under a good T5 array just to make sure their getting everything they need, can do softies/shrooms and LPS lower in the tank np

 

Oh jeez, I prolly just stuck my foot in my mouth, I think I meant soft coral, like some polyps and xenia and such.

Great info on the tests tho, I'm already adding to the wish list for Drs Foster & Smith.

Woohoo

 

oh haha yeah, SPS = Short Polyp Stoney corals usually

T5's will keep any soft coral, shroom, and most any LPS and quite a few different SPS' though, still recommend having all the test kits though, it's nice to know if your having an issue before adding corals to the mix
Also one i forgot was phosphate tests, it's pretty important as well

 

You can keep alot of different kinds of lps's......

 

Cool, I just bought a Fluval 305 today (rated up to 70 gallons) so I could drop the dang hang on bio filter (nitrate factory) that has been on my tank.

Was going to buy Calc, Alk and Phosphate tests today too but the filter kinda used up the budget for this round of purchases. I didn't realize those tests were quite that expensive.

I have a friend that has some corals (of some type - soft I guess?) that he is going to give me. I have an LR in his tank right next to his pulsating xenias - we hope they just grow onto it. He also has a huge torch coral with like 6 heads. I read that they aren't to hard to frag as long as the shaft is long enough, the one we want to frag is probably 3" long from where we would cut it.

 

for starters, mushrooms are quite hardy, they probably survive a nuke attack j/k bubble corals are fairly easy, and zoas