water chem. newb!!!

ok, i'm SO confused... i guess the good thing, is i've reached "the next level" in my aquarium... i recently bought a piece of liverock that has a bunch of mushrooms, sponges, and new inverts (at least 2 serpent seastars, realy small right now, another starfish of some sort, and those weird looking tubeworm looking things that has either 2 or 4 long white tentacles sticking out)... up until i got this rock, i thought all i needed to worry about was pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates... but since i'm beginning the "coral" stages, i suppose i have to look at all the others; iodine, calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, this and that... i decided to try the mushrooms because i had the choice between them and a new fish.... and when i tested the water, everything was in good range... IMO, the most important (what i've been concerned about the most for the past couple of months), NITRATES! and they were ZERO!!!!! so i was jumping for joy and singing praise! anyway, end of day 3 and the mushrooms are looking great! i've been told that because they're photosynthetic, i don't need any additives, but i should just keep up with water changes and they'll be fine... but what additives will i need when i get into keeping other corals, other shrooms, polyps, zoas, zoos (is there a difference between those two or are they the same?) and LPS.. i won't be getting into SPS or anything like that... another thing, i'm not expecting my liverock to be completely covered by corals, like some full-blown reefs i've seen... it may happen eventually, but basically, i plan on getting what i have listed above, letting them grow, and fight each other for space... or propagating for trade/sale... yeah, i figure in a few years i'll have my own little shop running... anyway, back to the here and now...

considering what i've said so far, what should i be preparing for in the next couple of months?

 

re: "...i figure in a few years i'll have my own little shop running... "

Nice plan dude! --- would be my plan also, but I would have to move. I am lucky enough to live right around the corner from the best LFS in a 100 mile radius...could never compete with him, or gain as much knowledge as he has in this lifetime...

My theory on additives & water components...is do frequent water changes, and not worry about about all those minerals, etc...

I just keep an eye on Ca and dose with iodine once in a while...and let Instant Ocean take care of the rest.

 

If you're keeping mushrooms, I'm afraid that you won't have much choice ;D They breed like rabbits.

Heed Omar's advice regarding supplements.

"Zoo" and "Zoa" mean the same thing. Zoanthids.

 

just watch the big three Ca, Alk and Mg. iodine and other trace elements will be replenished by water changes and feeding your fish so save your money and dont buy or worry about testing anything but Ca, Alk and Mg

 

well, i don't really have to worry much about competition, there's only 2 stores around here that deal with fish, one doesn't sell corals, and the other has a very small selection (now its even smaller since i took all his mushrooms! lol)... so now pretty much all he has is GSP, some rather unattractive zoas, and another kind of polyp... i'm sure he could order more, but he doesn't really order anything special unless someone requests it and pays for it first... and the sames goes for his fish... in his personal display tank, he has a blue hippo, cowfish, a big (looks pregnant or something) blue damsel, 6 line wrasse, yellow-headed goby, and a coral banded shrimp... in his other tanks, he has a purple firefish, some fish that has a burrow under a piece of LR, a mandarin, and probably a thousand mollies of all sizes... he sells them as a "test" for a cycled tank... he has a lot of freshwater fish though... oh yeah, sometimes he has a few clowns for sale...

wow... back to subject... so am i stressing over nothing? as far as the new set of parameters?

 

What new set of parameters? You mean the coral additions? If so, then yes, you are stressing over nothing ;D

 

well then heck far! why do so many people (including myself) end up almost quitting the reef hobby? after the initial setup (dealing with algea, constant water changes, fish deaths, etc.) everything else seems simple! some of you may know about me, a month ago, i was ready to throw everything out of the window and never think about it again! i still have algea but don't worry about it as much as i used to, and i don't do near as many water changes! and none of my fish have died since that first crash (when i broke my foot and couldn't tend to the aquarium for a whole month or longer, i don't remember)... and what's more relieving to me, is that i don't have all the goodies that makes the maintenence easier (dosers, sump, refuge, etc.)... and its still way easier than i expected... everyone told me i had to do daily maintenence, cleaning the glass, checking parameters, stirring sand around, feeding, and all that good stuff.... but i do a water change probably every other week, clean algae off the glass as needed (when i notice some blocking my view), feed every other day, top off about once a week (even though its usually 2 or 3 gallons when i do).. turn the lights on (manually) when i wake up, turn them off when it either gets dark or i start to get ready for bed... that little bit of work, and it leaves me satisfied! sure, if i had the aquarium in the living room, or somewhere that people came by to see it everyday, then i'd be a little more strict on myself about "going by the book"... and with my nitrates, i was thinking about getting a denitrator or something, because i didn't think my nitrates would EVER go down, and the last test i did, nitrates showed zero.. hadn't done a test in about 2 weeks or longer... so to sum it all up, in my experience, people make it seem a lot harder than it actually is!

 

I find that most people get frustrated because the initial setup is not properly done, especially the use of tap water to fill the tank. That's the biggest problem causer for new hobbiests IME.

 

ive been there;D i used to test everything all the time and fuss with stuff i quite doing all that stuff a few years ago now i only test Alk every two weeks just to make sure my Ca reactor is keeping up and top off 5g every day and thats it.

messing with stuff just causes problems. keep your hand out of the tank people;D

 

ThAT IS A PROFOUND TRUTH.