Lorekeeper's 10 Gallon Mixed Reef

Lorekeeper · May 13, 2018

Yesterday was this tank's first WC, and I did a full 5 gallons. Water parameters were pretty nice, even after a week and a half, so I may cut down to around 3-4 gallons weekly in the future.

Parameters right before the water change were as follows:

Ammonia/Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 12 PPM
Phosphate: 0.1 PPM (staying pretty stable around here!)
SG: 1.024
Alk: 8.9
Calc: 410
PH: 8.2

So I'm going to assume nitrate to be around 10 at a full week, or possibly a bit higher as I add more corals and change stuff around. Phosphate is as low as it's been so far, so I'm pretty happy with that number!

I moved the Rhodactis onto a rock, to keep the snails from pushing it around the glass floor. It seems pretty happy where I put it (low flow, relatively low light) and has opened up bigger than it has in my tank before.

The War Coral got moved from the back wall onto a rock as well, since it just wasn't really doing it for me. I couldn't see it back there, and the green of it's eyes were getting lost with the shadow. It seems to be happy where I put it, and I'm much happier being able to discern it's color!

xiholdtruex · May 13, 2018

Do you think weekly water changes can negatively affect the live stock and corals vs having big weekly?

Had someone at the local fish store, say I was changing to much at 20% weekly ecs, and they recommended I do 10% biweekly or 20% monthly.

Lorekeeper · May 13, 2018

xiholdtruex said:
Do you think weekly water changes can negatively affect the live stock and corals vs having big weekly?

Had someone at the local fish store, say I was changing to much at 20% weekly ecs, and they recommended I do 10% biweekly or 20% monthly.

You'd be hurting your tank by not doing weekly WCs, imo. That guy at your store is just plain wrong, unless he has a very light bioload and doses his tank.

Lorekeeper · May 13, 2018

xiholdtruex said:
Do you think weekly water changes can negatively affect the live stock and corals vs having big weekly?

Had someone at the local fish store, say I was changing to much at 20% weekly ecs, and they recommended I do 10% biweekly or 20% monthly.

You'd be hurting your tank by not doing weekly WCs, imo. That guy at your store is just plain wrong, unless he has a very light bioload and doses his tank.

xiholdtruex · May 13, 2018

Lorekeeper said:
You'd be hurting your tank by not doing weekly WCs, imo. That guy at your store is just plain wrong, unless he has a very light bioload and doses his tank.

Why would doing his tank make a difference?

Lorekeeper · May 13, 2018

Well, you do water changes for two reasons:

To get nitrate and Phosphate out of your tank, or to replenish minerals in the water for your corals.

Now, if you have an extremely light bioload, nitrate and phosphate wouldn't be too big of an issue. You'd still need WC's, but not as often.

If you have corals in your tank, then you'll NEED a way of getting minerals into the tank. Water changes are a great way of doing that, but you can also dose your tank with those minerals to replenish those levels in the water.

So if that guy has a very light bioload, AND he doses his tank consistently enough, he could go a while between WC's. But, there is absolutely no reason that weekly WC's would hurt a tank, if you're doing your water changes correctly.

xiholdtruex · May 13, 2018

Lorekeeper said:
Well, you do water changes for two reasons:

To get nitrate and Phosphate out of your tank, or to replenish minerals in the water for your corals.

Now, if you have an extremely light bioload, nitrate and phosphate wouldn't be too big of an issue. You'd still need WC's, but not as often.

If you have corals in your tank, then you'll NEED a way of getting minerals into the tank. Water changes are a great way of doing that, but you can also dose your tank with those minerals to replenish those levels in the water.

So if that guy has a very light bioload, AND he doses his tank consistently enough, he could go a while between WC's. But, there is absolutely no reason that weekly WC's would hurt a tank, if you're doing your water changes correctly.

Lol yep thats what I believe as well wcs are essential , and can fix problems in a tank when all else fails.

Lorekeeper · Jul 5, 2018

So it's been a long while since I've updated here, so here's a gist of what's gone down:

I had to leave the state for a month due to a family emergency, and came back to an algae-ridden tank and a dead clown. The larger of the two died, even though they had been fed and topped off. Still not sure what happened to the little guy, since there were no signs of disease on the body. I did a few large water changes, waited a while, and then introduced a Blackline Fangblenny to the tank. The remaining clown and the fangblenny have been great together with minimal aggression. They do their own thing, but do occasionally interact, and it's a very interesting relationship. I highly recommend Fangblennies!

The same day that I got the fangblenny, I was also given an extremely bleached LTA by my LFS to try and save. They had ordered it for a customer, and hadn't been able to take care of it due to them being a fish-only store. They handed it over to me, and it went well for a while. My clown started hosting it within a week of it being in the tank, and it accepted food and started to regain it's color. Then, I left for a weekend to go on vacation. I came back to a cloudy white tank and a dead anemone. Somehow, I didn't lose anything else, but the tank was a mess. Huge bacterial bloom, algae everywhere, angry corals, the works. After about a week of waiting for it to get better, I decided (with advice from someone on this forum) to completely break down the tank, give it a deep cleaning, and it ended up working like a charm. The tank is back to being crystal clear, corals are happier, and algae is being held at bay.

Here's what the tank looks like today: