My First Coral and Fish in my 180Gallon Tank

Canan · Jan 2, 2018

Hi everyone,
After running my tank for 1 month with live rock and sand (after having the cycle completed), I decided to add the below live stock (as per to the suggestion of my LFS who had built my tank)

1. Cinnamon Clown x2
2. Toadstool leather
3. Waving hand anthelia
4. Hermit x5
5. Snails x15

It had been 1 week since I have them. The anthelia started to open its polyps just today, the toadstool is not happy so far. I couldn't see any improvement with the toadstool yet. I would require some support on how I can make him feel happy.
Also, the cinnamon clowns look to be too shy to show themselves. Though the tank is 180 gallon (such a huge area for them), they are alway hiding behind the rocks and don't swim at all. They become active once I feed them only. Is this normal for a cinnamon clown or do I need to be concerned with them?
Below is the chemistry of my water;

pH 8.0
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 80ppm
Calcium 140ppm
KH 125.3ppm (7dKH)
Phosphate 0ppm
Salinity 1.028

Since the last week, I am changing 5 gallons of water every day with direct RODI water (my initial salinity was 1.036 and trying to reduce to 1.026 via this practice, hope this is right).

I would appreciate all the input so that I can make my fellows happy and start to add more neighbors and friends

Below are some pictures from them;

mcarroll · Jan 2, 2018

The toadstool will stay covered up until he sheds ...not uncommon...pretty likely when switching tanks. It's self-cleaning. Make sure he's getting a lot of flow and just have patience.

If you're doing anything to "force" that zero PO4 reading, stop doing it.

If you're seeing that NO3 number continue to climb, then you know there really is zero phosphate in your water.

Phosphates are crucial for many things in a reef. So having none availble is not good in a brand new tank as it can lead some critters to starvation – critters such as dinoflagellates, which have all kinds of bad behavior to get into when they think they're starving. On top of that, the good microbes and algae that you're trying to encourage really are starving. And their strategy is pretty much just to die.

For now, just make sure you are feeding the tank regularly so there's at least a regular input of food-based nutrients. (It's not going to help the issue immediately.)

But if the days keep rolling by without you seeing any PO4 in your tests (or at least some nice green algae!!!) and NO3 is still high, I'd very strongly consider dosing the tank with a little bit of phosphate fertilizer to try and balance things sooner than later. (Dissolved nutrients will help immediately with the issue.)

If you end up doing this fertilizer, you won't have to dose very much or for very long. So don't worry too much about it.

Canan · Jan 3, 2018

mcarroll said:
The toadstool will stay covered up until he sheds ...not uncommon...pretty likely when switching tanks. It's self-cleaning. Make sure he's getting a lot of flow and just have patience.

If you're doing anything to "force" that zero PO4 reading, stop doing it.

If you're seeing that NO3 number continue to climb, then you know there really is zero phosphate in your water.

Phosphates are crucial for many things in a reef. So having none availble is not good in a brand new tank as it can lead some critters to starvation – critters such as dinoflagellates, which have all kinds of bad behavior to get into when they think they're starving. On top of that, the good microbes and algae that you're trying to encourage really are starving. And their strategy is pretty much just to die.

For now, just make sure you are feeding the tank regularly so there's at least a regular input of food-based nutrients. (It's not going to help the issue immediately.)

But if the days keep rolling by without you seeing any PO4 in your tests (or at least some nice green algae!!!) and NO3 is still high, I'd very strongly consider dosing the tank with a little bit of phosphate fertilizer to try and balance things sooner than later. (Dissolved nutrients will help immediately with the issue.)

If you end up doing this fertilizer, you won't have to dose very much or for very long. So don't worry too much about it.

Hi there,
Thank you so much for your response.
Well, I am not doing anything besides changing the water 5 gallons everyday to reduce the salinity.
However, I was always having the concern that I am removing the salty water along with the nutritions inside (especially the calcium and the phosphate) and adding fresh water only. I think the calcium level is also low (as per to what I read on different threads here).
What do you think about the clowns behavior?

mcarroll · Jan 3, 2018

Normal for the clowns....they fiercely guard a small territory once they are established. And watch out – they have teeth!

Blizzahjh · Jan 3, 2018

Just a heads up, when i first got into the hobby about 2 years ago i bought 2 clowns (still have and love the buggers) however what they dont tell you about clowns are 2 things. 1) they bite... 2)they tend to pick a spot "host it" and hang out there forever.

Good Luck and remember do lots of reading and asking questions, best way to learn!

Canan · Jan 7, 2018

OK, here is further update.
After making further water changes to reduce the salinity, I have noticed that both toadstool and anthelia are happier now.
Here is the new condition of my tank, (running for 2 months only).

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Calcium 360ppm
KH 125.3ppm (7dKH)
Phosphate 0.25ppm
Salinity 1.027

There is big decrease on nitrate level (80ppm to 20ppm) and increase on calcium (140ppm to 360ppm) and phosphate level (0ppm to 0.25ppm).

I would appreciate all your views, comments and suggestion on the current situation and what I need to do further for increasing live stock in my tank.

Thanks

Canan · Jan 8, 2018

Bumper
(I really need some expert view please)...

HexaReef · Jan 8, 2018

Canan said:
OK, here is further update.
After making further water changes to reduce the salinity, I have noticed that both toadstool and anthelia are happier now.
Here is the new condition of my tank, (running for 2 months only).

pH 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Calcium 360ppm
KH 125.3ppm (7dKH)
Phosphate 0.25ppm
Salinity 1.027

There is big decrease on nitrate level (80ppm to 20ppm) and increase on calcium (140ppm to 360ppm) and phosphate level (0ppm to 0.25ppm).

I would appreciate all your views, comments and suggestion on the current situation and what I need to do further for increasing live stock in my tank.

Thanks

Water parameters look about perfect now.. One thing. You shouldn't be doing 5 gallon water changes every day to get salinity down. If your Salinity is too high, then you should be taking saltwater out and replacing with freshwater. If you change too much water too soon you'll remove a lot of the tanks newly established bio-filter and your tank can re-cycle. I'd keep checking your water parameters for the next couple weeks and make sure you don't get any spikes.

HexaReef · Jan 8, 2018

Just noticed your tank is 180 gallon so 5 gallon water changes shouldn't really hurt it depending on how many you did :]

Canan · Jan 8, 2018

HexaReef said:
Water parameters look about perfect now.. One thing. You shouldn't be doing 5 gallon water changes every day to get salinity down. If your Salinity is too high, then you should be taking saltwater out and replacing with freshwater. If you change too much water too soon you'll remove a lot of the tanks newly established bio-filter and your tank can re-cycle. I'd keep checking your water parameters for the next couple weeks and make sure you don't get any spikes.

Thanks HexaReef,
I was doing exactly the same way you described - taking out saltwater from the tank and replacing with fresh RODI water, but 5 gallons a day (considering the tank is 180gallons, around 3% a day).
I also don`t want to go too fast on increasing the population inside the tank, so will continue testing once a week. What shall be the trend on the test results that I need to be looking for so that I can increase the livestock?

NY_Caveman · Jan 8, 2018

Rather than a specific target, I would suggest confirming that the numbers are stable for a week. Stable within acceptable ranges which yours seem to be. Calcium may be a hair low, but probably not much demand in that young of an aquarium.

Once the system is stable it can handle small additions. Then wait again until stability resumes to add more.

Canan · Jan 8, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
Rather than a specific target, I would suggest confirming that the numbers are stable for a week. Stable within acceptable ranges which yours seem to be. Calcium may be a hair low, but probably not much demand in that young of an aquarium.

Once the system is stable it can handle small additions. Then wait again until stability resumes to add more.

OK!!!
I will run 1 or 2 tests within next 1 week to see the trend and hopefully they will be stable.
What is your view on the salinity, shall i target for 1.025?

HexaReef · Jan 8, 2018

1.025 - 1.027.. Corals like it a little higher, but i'd say that's a good range. Just keep it consistant

NY_Caveman · Jan 8, 2018

I find most, myself included, target for around there. 1.026 is natural seawater. Stability is more important than an exact number.

Check this out from Randy Holmes-Farley for good info:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/index.php