Ready to order?

Hey guys,

So I've finally convinced myself to go into the next part of the saltwater hobby- reefing! Right now I have a candy cane coral and a colony of zoas in my live aquaria shopping cart. For my tank, I have 4 bulb t5 fixtures, but 10-20 nitrates, which I can get down to 5-10 soon. Even if they stay at 10, will the nitrates be a problem?

Also, could someone outline what I need/procedure for dipping corals?

Thanks!!

 

Nitrates arent the best to have for corals. But most tanks have some version of it regardless if its being consumed by other factors such as algae. For those corals I would say you are in acceptable ranges of having them. I know some people keep their tanks with a bit of nitrate for various reasons.

As for the dipping of corals. I would just buy a good brand and follow the instructions. Some are different in how they have you do it.

 

Ok, thanks! I have an intank refugium too. What's a good brand for this stuff?

 

For the Dip?

This is what I use.

Reef Aquarium Supplements: Brightwell Aquatics Lugol's at Foster & Smith Aquatics

Won some of this at a club meeting... so gonna give this a shot and see if I like it better or not.

Coral Cleaner for Reef Aquariums: Julian Sprung's Two Little Fishies ReVive Coral Cleaner

 

You aren't ordering anything that requires "pristine" water, so I wouldn't worry. When I got my first corals, which were softies, I had between 10-20 nitrates and they did fine. I actually noticed once I got my nitrates to 0, my zoa growth slowed down. Once your macro algae in your refugium starts taking off, you should see them drop fairly quickly.

As far as a dip, there are a bunch out there. RedGambit listed two popular ones, there is also CoralRx which I use. Liked it so far, but never tried anything else.

As far as dipping, I acclimate my corals usually between a half hour to an hour with a drip method. Once that is done, dip them in the solution made from my tank water, and then rinse them off in fresh tankwater and in they go.

 

take a look at coral dip rx

 

Sounds good, I've never done drip method is it really hard?

 

Way easy and different ways to do it. Just start a siphon as if you were doing a water change. Just clip the end where the water comes out so only a few drops can come out every second or so and then let it drip into whatever you are acclimating your coral in. Once you hit about 2 to 3 times the original water volume, you should be good. Some dump out half of the water and then drip some more.

If you don't have a siphon or want to do it a different way, can also drop in a bit from your turkey baster every couple of minutes.

 

Ahaha ok, will do. Side note, can a mantis shrimp live in a reef? Thinking about converting my fw 10 g to a mantis tank

 

No idea on that one, I would do a 3Reef search though because I've seen threads about it before.

From what I've read, Mantis eat the inverts that are a common part of our CUCs.