loseing new sps coral

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hallawell

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By no mean I am an expert but I remember I had a birdsnest maybe when the tank was about a year old and sure enough died within a couple of months. Now after two years, most of my sps are doing ok but still a few are dying. It’s not an easy hobby lol.
yes now i get it, ive long way to go.
 

Fishbird

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would this be the nh3 reading, and useing ro water,

Alkalinity is often written as dKH. It sounds like you have a test kit that includes tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If so, you'll need a test for phosphates, and if you want to keep hard corals (so called LPS and SPS) you'll need tests for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. You'll want to monitor those last three because as corals (and coralline algae) grow, they use up those elements to build their skeletons so while water changes will likely keep up in the beginning (salt mixes contain all three), you may have to start dosing those elements at some point if your tank uses a lot. Keeping those numbers stable is part of what people mean when they mean stability.

I'm only a few months into this myself and haven't tried any SPS but I've seen conflicting advice about how early you are likely to be successful with corals. If you want to try corals now you could try a soft coral or two (Ricordea mushrooms, toadstool leathers, etc) or maaaybe some LPS. If you want to keep stony corals I really recommend looking up the 5 minute reefing videos from Bulk Reef Supply and listening to the ones about water chemistry and coral.

The only other thing I noticed about the parameters you mentioned was that your salinity is lower than most people recommend for coral. I don't know what their lower limit is but I would (slowly, over the course of a few days/a week) raise yours to 1.025 or 1.026.

Good luck!
 

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