My tank is 1! Help me get to the next level...

[SicZ06]

FYI my goal is a lower maintenance tank. Would appreciate any advice to help me get this tank going....I feel like I am just doing OK and need advice to help get to the next, "level," Any advice would be much appreciated.

My first year sadly has been more setbacks than anything. But I feel that is due to thinking I could plug and play someone else's system after being out of the hobby for about 3 years. 6 months in, sadly all my livestock (except for one shrimp) and corals (except for about 5 Zoa's ) died...(That was Sept 2019) I didn't think I had enough live rock and sand, so I doubled what I had, and here we are today.(I also have bio blocks in sump) Fast forward to now, I have 2 Clowns, a damsel, blenny and my shrimp who is a trooper....I want to start adding more corals, my goal is for euphyllia / zoas / duncans / easier corals. I set up a Kamoer X1 pump a few weeks ago and started dosing All for reef. Due to not having many coals, I dose 3 ML a day.....I feel the fish and zoas every other day. I picked that number based on the website and not having much coals.

My LFS has been helping me with water testing. My water info below. I should have written down what my LFS said my #'s were but I did not, they did say my numbers all looked good. Below is a test that I did same day.

What live stock should I add? I need more fish poo...
What should I work on next? I feel I have watched every video out there on BRS TV / love learning but I have a hard time how to apply what I learn to my tank when every tank is so different.
Help me #reefsquad
Advice with dosing? I continue to check my levels but don't feel I am doing enough...
I made my own dose container out of the all for reef bottle. I dont think I did a great job, any pre made plastic caps I could buy to make it work better? or easy to use fittings? Hard to find them online.
When I get the guts to buy a hammer / duncan again, how often should I feed?

I do weekly WC of 5 gallons and weekly add a cap of Aquavitro eight.four to the ATO water and a weekly cap of Aquavitro Fuel in addition to dosing 3ml a day of All for reef.

Info:
78 degrees
1.025
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
PH 8.4
PHOSPHATE ulp ppm .03
alk 8.3
cal 365
salt: red sea pro

Tank - RS Reefer 250 / 65 gal
Hydra 26 HD LED. Lights run 1145-845
XF230 Gyre
Omega 130 Protein Skimmer
BRS 5" Mini Reactor running carbon. I turn off when adding fuel / run for about a week or two a month.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Firefish goby, flame or coral beauty angel, tailspot blenny (good algae eater), orange spot goby for bottom and even a small school of chromis
You have some green algae going on in your tank and should add a clean up crew of astrea, turbo and trocus snails.

 

[Jase4224]

Hi, I just wanna say that I respect your honesty here about your misshaps and that you are being cautious about adding livestock.

It looks like you have some algae there, perhaps you could add a yellow tang or smaller bristle tooth tang to help keep on top of things. I would also add a fuge as they simplify stability of water quality and nutrient uptake. Filter socks, fuge and skimming works great together and easy maintenance. BRS has great fuge videos.

I’m not sure you need to be dosing without having corals just yet, especially since you are doing weekly water changes. Speaking of water changes, you should definitely utilise water changes to vacuum your sand to prevent detritus building up. See your LFS for a gravel vac.

Lastly, keep your gyre pumps clean

Concentrate on these things first before corals and take it nice and slow.

 

[SPR1968]

There are so many ways to run a reef tank but my thoughts are add more fish and feed them and that will bring your nitrates levels up. A good target is 5-10ppm. Fish choice is up to you really depending on what you like Your phosphate is very good at 0.03 and should be kept very low.

Your calcium is a little low and you haven’t got a magnesium test and this is important due to the interaction with the other elements

Here’s a good guide on parameters

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

if you want to start adding more corals you need to keep the water parameters stable so you will need to be doing weekly tests of the main parameters and ideally be replenishing elements as there used up with a doser. But only add things after testing that there needed and if not don’t add them

As far as coral feeding, it depends on your nutrient levels but at the moment your water is very clean so when you have corals feed them as per the instructions with whatever your using, reef energy, reef roids etc

All you need to do is think of yourself as a ‘water keeper’ and if you can keep it stable and within normal parameters you should do well.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Sorry your having issues. Your tank is still very young and will take some time to mature.

With my experience with dead, Dry rock is totally different than back when I used mature, live rock. My current tank started out with all dry rock. It struggled for quite sometime until I added some mature live rock. The bacterial strains that came with the live rock helped seed the system and helped my starter corals. Plus added needed microfauna, copepods, and amphipods. Bottled bacteria helps, but it's limited.

As others have stated, there is no need to be dosing at this stage.

 

[SicZ06]

thank you everyone. I'll turn off the doser for now, get CUC and work on livestock and a healthy system before going further. Keep the advice coming

 

[SicZ06]

There are so many ways to run a reef tank but my thoughts are add more fish and feed them and that will bring your nitrates levels up. A good target is 5-10ppm. Fish choice is up to you really depending on what you like Your phosphate is very good at 0.03 and should be kept very low.

Your calcium is a little low and you haven’t got a magnesium test and this is important due to the interaction with the other elements

Here’s a good guide on parameters

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

if you want to start adding more corals you need to keep the water parameters stable so you will need to be doing weekly tests of the main parameters and ideally be replenishing elements as there used up with a doser. But only add things after testing that there needed and if not don’t add them

As far as coral feeding, it depends on your nutrient levels but at the moment your water is very clean so when you have corals feed them as per the instructions with whatever your using, reef energy, reef roids etc

All you need to do is think of yourself as a ‘water keeper’ and if you can keep it stable and within normal parameters you should do well.

Thank you, ill order a magnesium test kit, anything else you recommend? thank you

 

[SPR1968]

Thank you, ill order a magnesium test kit, anything else you recommend? thank you

Just do the weekly tests and try and keep the water parameters stable. Once you get the hang of it, try some easy corals.

But don’t chase numbers, just try and keep them within the normal range as per the article in my previous post

PS. if you can get the NYOS magnesium test kit it’s very simple (not like the red sea) and also accurate.