Help getting started into keeping corals?

Hi everyone!

I've been keeping a fish-only tank for several years now, with fair to decent luck. I'm looking to start getting into corals & inverts. I decided to start of by just trying to get coralline algae to grow in the tank. Just this past friday, I did a 10 gallon water change, added 13 pounds live rock with a good amount of coralline on it on top of my existing base rock, and over the course of the next 2 days have added 2 to 3 teaspoons of reef builder, reef advantage calcium, and 5 teaspoons of reef advantage magneseum in the top-off water ( not at the same time, mind you. a different buffer with each water addition). I need some advice on exactly how I should go about this process. It appears that a good portion of the coralline on one rock near a powerhead has turned white already. I bought a seachem alk & ph test kit, and a calcium test kit, and to be honest, I'm not sure how to read the results. I know that on the alk test it took me 20 drops to change from bue to yellow, and you divide the # of drops by 2, but what does that tell you? the calcium test took about the same amount of drops to complete. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. The tank is a 55 gallon with a 10 gal wet/dry sump and an Excalibur hang-on skimmer and a Customsealife powercompact light fixture with 4 65-watt bulbs( 2 white, 2 actinic) and 4 moon lights.Thanks!!

Kenny

 

You can go ahead and add a coral if you like. I would suggest some mushrooms or maybe a colt coral. I would assume you know all about specific gravity, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrite from keeping fish only. Before you add any coral let me know how old your tank is. Also do you have plenty of water flow? Do you have a good fish store in your area to supply you with corals? The reef advantage stuff is good, but I would suggest you pick up some ESV B-ionic http://www.captivereefs.com sells it and you'll get a 6% discount from him using coupon code 3 reef. I'm not sure about your test kits. The only Seachem test kit I have used is a calcium. Here are the correct levels:

KH/Alk 8-12 DKH
Calcium 380-420 meg/l
Magnesium 1250-1350 PPM
PH 8.2- 8.5

Welcome to 3reef if you have anymore question just ask.

 

HIya reefman and thanks for the reply

Yes, I'm almost painfully aware of the SG, ammonia, nities/trates, eect. I'm just new to watching the levels of alk & calc & magneium in my tank, and I don;t understand how to read the test results. What my goal is, is to get the tank nice and covered with coralliine algae, that way I'll feel more confident that I'm monitoring and maintaining the calc/alk/mag correctly before I go buying corals & other inverts. The tank has ben up for almost 2 years, including 5 days without electricity during the hurricane last year. However, we just recently moved on july the 6th of this year, and I did about a 90 % water change at that time. I have 1 blue-spotted puffer, a yellow boxfish, several small crabs, and 2 rather large snails. I have a 300 gph power head on one side of the tank, and a 2500 gph on the other, with a rio 3500 in the sump for return. water flolw is good! My main concern is reading these test kits. It took me 20 drops to change colors on my alk test, and it said to divide that nukber by 2 and there's your answer..... but I don;t understand what the 10 stands for, is it high, is it low? what should I do in either case? Thanks again!

Kenny

 

I would assume the 10 mean 10 DKH which is good if I'm rite. Does it tell you if it's measuring DKH or meg/l?

 

Meg/l I think

The instructions say "Each drop is equal to 5 meg/l. The # of drops to get from blue to yellow is the total alkalinity"

 

oopps . sorry It says the amount of drops divided by 2 equals the total alkalinity.

As a side note, when should I expect to see coralline spreading? a month? 2 weeks?

 

I think your Alk is good it sound to me like it's reading DKH so your good on Alk. You should start seeing spots when your calcium is up. I'm not sure exact time, but it should be pretty quick sice you added rock with coralline on it already. Your Alk is good. Do you have any more questions about the calcium or PH kits?

 

Well, here's my theory & plan for going about getting the tank ready for corals:

I add about a quart of fresh RO/DI every day to 2 days as top-off water when I come home and the sump's sputtering due to evaporation. My plan is to alternate, as I mentioned in my original post, adding alk one day, calc the next, and magnesium the next, in that cycle. I generally use twice the factory recommended dose. I had planned on doing this on a daily basis as fresh topoff water is required..... do you think I may end up overdoing it and haviong a PH crash or a calcium precipitation " snowstorm" if I go that route?

 

I think you will be overdoing it a bit. You will want to add the supplements as needed. When you see the calcium has dropped a bit add some calcium supplement etc. etc.

 

Kenny,

I think Reefmans advice is good,  just add a little each day

Do the Magnessium first as this doesn't deplete much over a period, try to get it into the 1300-1400ppm range.

Then alternate between the Alk and Calc on a daily basis until you get close to the levels you want to achieve.

Once you get to those levels then stop adding but keep testing, by doing this you should be able to figure out the depletion rates and set up a supplemention regime.

John