How To Have a Stable, Healthy Reef?

[ollysaquariums]

Hey everyone,
I have a 4ft long 303 litre mixed reef aquarium with a few corals, but with it being still very young (around 5 months), there are still heaps of things to be done. I was wondering if anyone has advice on how I can have healthy corals as I’ve had a few die before such as torches, acans and a jack o lantern, as well as my goniopora that sulked mostly closed up for quite a while.

Basically I want to know if anyone has ways to get the tank stable so my corals are happy and also if there is anything that needs to be done such as adding microscopic things like zooplankton or copepods. I want a healthy system so I can start to add more corals again without the risk of them dying and being unhealthy and/or sulky.

Thanks in advance!

 

[reefpanda]

Would be good to have your parameters and photos of the tank for the good folks to help out

 

[Moe K]

Keep it simple.

The way I recommend to keep stable parameters is to get in the habit of testing calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, nitrate and phosphate at least twice a week until you get an understanding of how fast or slow each of those parameters get used up in your system.

At first a weekly water change is sufficient to keep most softy and lps corals happy with calcium, alk, and mag. When the demand increases you should look into getting dosing pumps and choosing a good 2 part system.

It is very important to not let nitrate and phosphate get to zero. That will starve corals. Also no need to dose anything extra like bottled bacteria, coral foods, etc until you get a good education of what your tank needs and how to run it stable.

 

[19Mateo83]

Keep it simple and don’t “kill them with love”. A tank will mature in time and from my experience, let it do its thing and let nature run its course. In time it will find its own rhythm as long as you can keep it stable. Stability is the key.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

For me, prevention and pro activity are the most important. If you slack off of husbandry because everything is going well, thats when a problem starts building up.

 

[CHSUB]

Keep it clean, remove detritus, keep all equipment functioning properly, manually remove algae, feed only what fish eat in a few seconds….it is simply and don’t get into myths and hype. For example: a couple of feed fish with medium stocking of corals is all the nutrients your tank needs. I wouldn’t even test nutrients for the first year or so.

 

[sgdnycct]

Huge variety of microfauna. IMO that’s key

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How was the tank started?