Fluval 13.5 Tank (4 month old)

[thetonygee]

Hi Reef2Reef team,

Can't tell you how excited I am to have found this community. I've had this fluval 13.5 running now for 4 months. I'm going to be honest ChatGPT has gotten me this far throughout the hobby. I was wondering if you guys could take a look at my current fluval set up and give me the best guidance or tips for upgrades etc. I only measure ammonia, nitrate, nitrite I just do not have the funds right now to buy into crazy measuring devices. Regardless all I dose right now or started yesterday is all for reef but at a very low manual rate of 1 droplet per day (chat gpt) I started to dose because I notice (pictured below) one of my corals started to recede tissue. I buy a lot from bulk reef supply/amazon so please let me know if I start building a wishlist

My current set up has the following...

Water: RODI

Mechanical - Filter Floss, Poly Filter Pad, Chemi Pure Elite all in a basket in chamber 1..

Chamber 2: Amazon Nano Protein Skimmer (skim is very liquid and almost clear)

Chamber 3: heater, return pump, and water bottle ATO where I will use to keep salinity stable

Bio Filter: Reef Rock, Media underneath the basket, live sand

Amazon Hygger Reef Light (Just bought another one that will be arriving today)!

Salt: Reef Crystals

Current livestock: Hardy SPS,Hardy LPS, Hammer Corals, Soft Coral, 2 clown fish, 1 yellow damsel

Coral Food/Dosing: Reef Energy 2-3x a week, Reef Roids 1x a week and All for Reef 1 drop per day

 

[smitten with ocean life]

very nice! have you looked into the salifert test kits? they arent too expensive

 

[thetonygee]

very nice! have you looked into the salifert test kits? they arent too expensive

What specific tests are most important you think are important for me to purchase.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

you can probably quit testing the ammonia and nitrite. make sure you have a way to test your salinity, phos, nitrate and alk. later on you can add mag and cal testing