Am I on the right track?

[larrysaltisfun]

Just started adding some Frags to my 210 gallon system. The system is eight weeks old. There are five small medium size fish

I have two frags ones an LPS trumpet and a very small colony of zoanthids these colonies look good all are open and the trumpet is “fluffy looking“ and I can see it swaying in the low flow.

Started with ARF knowing that at some point, I’ll have to switch to a more complex dosing system and adding 20 ML per day.

Calcium has been consistently at 430 magnesium is 1360 to 1400 and DKA is 9.5 Ph 8.1- 8.2.

I’m not dosing any other supplements. Having to suck out diatoms and hair algae weekly . This is clearing the mess for about a week and it has to be repeated. I’ve been doing 10% water changes per week at the same time clearing out the diatoms and hair algae

Ammonia zero nitrates 2.5 phosphate less than .25

On the right track? Happy to take suggestions thank you very much.

 

[rishma]

Seems really good. If it were my tank I’d dose to raise nitrate a little bit.

 

[jabberwock]

I would slow waaaaayyyy down.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Yes, I’ve been told that before on reef to reef by adding ammonium . the LFS guy said don’t do that unless you wanna kill your fish (lol) I’ve seen Miami reefs chart on how to do ammonium dosing but it still makes me a little bit nervous what do you think? Should I try over feeding a little bit first? this is the first time in testing in eight weeks that I had any nitrates appear at all.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

I would slow waaaaayyyy down.

You mean dont add anything for quite a while? If so, can you give me some guidelines you would follow?

 

[rishma]

Yes, I’ve been told that before on reef to reef by adding ammonium . the LFS guy said don’t do that unless you wanna kill your fish (lol) I’ve seen Miami reefs chart on how to do ammonium dosing but it still makes me a little bit nervous what do you think? Should I try over feeding a little bit first? this is the first time in testing in eight weeks that I had any nitrates appear at all.

I dose ammonium bicarbonate daily. You can also use sodium/calcium nitrate.

Feeding more will also raise phosphate, which I don’t think you need. Since you seem to be trending toward more nitrate, it’s good to watch it for a while and see what is does. It might rise on its own without dosing anything.

 

[rishma]

And the advice to slow down is good. 8’weeks a very young tank, which I didn’t catch when I first read it. It’s not going to be stable yet. Changing nothing and just monitoring for a while is good advice.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Yes, I’ve been told that before on reef to reef by adding ammonium . the LFS guy said don’t do that unless you wanna kill your fish (lol) I’ve seen Miami reefs chart on how to do ammonium dosing but it still makes me a little bit nervous what do you think? Should I try over feeding a little bit first? this is the first time in testing in eight weeks that I had any nitrates appear at all.

I dose ammonium bicarbonate daily. You can also use sodium/calcium nitrate.

Feeding more will also raise phosphate, which I don’t think you need. Since you seem to be trending toward more nitrate, it’s good to watch it for a while and see what is does. It might rise on its own without dosing anything.

Thanks appreciate the recommendation!

Do you ever get an ammonia spike?

 

[rishma]

Yes, I’ve been told that before on reef to reef by adding ammonium . the LFS guy said don’t do that unless you wanna kill your fish (lol) I’ve seen Miami reefs chart on how to do ammonium dosing but it still makes me a little bit nervous what do you think? Should I try over feeding a little bit first? this is the first time in testing in eight weeks that I had any nitrates appear at all.

I dose ammonium bicarbonate daily. You can also use sodium/calcium nitrate.

Feeding more will also raise phosphate, which I don’t think you need. Since you seem to be trending toward more nitrate, it’s good to watch it for a while and see what is does. It might rise on its own without dosing anything.

Thanks appreciate the recommendation!

Do you ever get an ammonia spike?

No, that won’t happen if you follow Miami’s thread.

Again, I didn’t notice how new your tank is. I’d suggest not changing anything for a while. You are doing great. Just observe.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Yes, I’ve been told that before on reef to reef by adding ammonium . the LFS guy said don’t do that unless you wanna kill your fish (lol) I’ve seen Miami reefs chart on how to do ammonium dosing but it still makes me a little bit nervous what do you think? Should I try over feeding a little bit first? this is the first time in testing in eight weeks that I had any nitrates appear at all.

I dose ammonium bicarbonate daily. You can also use sodium/calcium nitrate.

Feeding more will also raise phosphate, which I don’t think you need. Since you seem to be trending toward more nitrate, it’s good to watch it for a while and see what is does. It might rise on its own without dosing anything.

Thanks appreciate the recommendation!

Do you ever get an ammonia spike?

No, that won’t happen if you follow Miami’s thread.

Again, I didn’t notice how new your tank is. I’d suggest not changing anything for a while. You are doing great. Just observe.

So don’t dose anything for now and as long as calcium and mag and DKA are in line just watch, or do you mean just don’t add any new coral ?

 

[kingranch2003]

So don’t dose anything for now and as long as calcium and mag and DKA are in line just watch, or do you mean just don’t add any new coral ?

If your tests aren't showing a consumption of alk and calc theres no reason to dose it. I dose a 2 part system in my tank now, but my water changes kept my levels were they needed to be for months before I started dosing anything. A caulastrea frag and zoanthid colony arent going to be consuming much of anything right now at this stage.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

So can you please tell me what an “ideal “DKA/mag/calcium level is
For my micro mixed reef?
And when you would go ahead and dose ? Thanks a lot.

 

[rishma]

You are dosing all-for-reef? If so, just keep dosing what’s needed to keep alkalinity stable. It will provide enough magnesium. Magnesium test kits are so prone to error that many of us do not even own magnesium test kits anymore. Focus on alkalinity and you’ll be fine if dosing an additive like all-for-reef.

I’d suggest you just feed like have been and monitor nutrients to see where they trend before deciding if you need to dose anything for nutrients. They may be trending up already.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Thanks you

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just started adding some Frags to my 210 gallon system. The system is eight weeks old. There are five small medium size fish

I have two frags ones an LPS trumpet and a very small colony of zoanthids these colonies look good all are open and the trumpet is “fluffy looking“ and I can see it swaying in the low flow.

Started with ARF knowing that at some point, I’ll have to switch to a more complex dosing system and adding 20 ML per day.

Calcium has been consistently at 430 magnesium is 1360 to 1400 and DKA is 9.5 Ph 8.1- 8.2.

I’m not dosing any other supplements. Having to suck out diatoms and hair algae weekly . This is clearing the mess for about a week and it has to be repeated. I’ve been doing 10% water changes per week at the same time clearing out the diatoms and hair algae

Ammonia zero nitrates 2.5 phosphate less than .25

On the right track? Happy to take suggestions thank you very much.

Thats a lot of fish in a short span of time. Hold off with any new fish for at least 6 weeks and are you quarantining any of the fish?
You want to stock very slowly to allow denitrifying bacteria to keep up with new bioload as tank matures

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Just started adding some Frags to my 210 gallon system. The system is eight weeks old. There are five small medium size fish

I have two frags ones an LPS trumpet and a very small colony of zoanthids these colonies look good all are open and the trumpet is “fluffy looking“ and I can see it swaying in the low flow.

Started with ARF knowing that at some point, I’ll have to switch to a more complex dosing system and adding 20 ML per day.

Calcium has been consistently at 430 magnesium is 1360 to 1400 and DKA is 9.5 Ph 8.1- 8.2.

I’m not dosing any other supplements. Having to suck out diatoms and hair algae weekly . This is clearing the mess for about a week and it has to be repeated. I’ve been doing 10% water changes per week at the same time clearing out the diatoms and hair algae

Ammonia zero nitrates 2.5 phosphate less than .25

On the right track? Happy to take suggestions thank you very much.

Thats a lot of fish in a short span of time. Hold off with any new fish for at least 6 weeks and are you quarantining any of the fish?
You want to stock very slowly to allow denitrifying bacteria to keep up with new bioload as tank matures

Yes, sir everyone is quarantined in accordance with yours and Jay’s recommendations , copper followed by prazi pro I have some older posts where you helped me out with a very stressed out scopas tang (being stressed out in a 50 gallon quarantine tank by a blue hippo tang) the Scopas was added to this new tank at one week after cycling to get him out of the stressed out quarters of the quarantine tank ,and everybody else was added at weeks 5 6 7 and eight respectively

thank you for your help. I have stopped stocking for quite a while

 

[CHSUB]

No reason to concern yourself with nutrients at this point and more than likely never, unless of course they get to high. If you’re dealing with algae why would you add more algae food like ammonia? At eight weeks I would add a few hardy leather corals that I find very attractive.

 

[jabberwock]

You mean dont add anything for quite a while? If so, can you give me some guidelines you would follow?

I mean, you already have a lot going on. Let stability set in. You ask a lot of questions about what you should add, what you should do. My answer to both is nothing. Enjoy the tank and let it mature.

My guidelines would be:
1. Test once a month unless you have a specific issue.
2. Focus on water quality/water changes
3. If issues pop up, look for physical solutions (flow, filtration, husbandry)

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

No reason to concern yourself with nutrients at this point and more than likely never, unless of course they get to high. If you’re dealing with algae why would you add more algae food like ammonia? At eight weeks I would add a few hardy leather corals that I find very attractive.

Makes sense……. if I could get rid of the allergy, it would be a major improvement. It’s slowing down, but it’s still nasty.

 

[CHSUB]

Makes sense……. if I could get rid of the allergy, it would be a major improvement. It’s slowing down, but it’s still nasty.

It likely will be until corals take up all the real estate. “The only place algae doesn’t grow is where it can’t”….hopefully that makes sense to you.