My tank water parameters- am I ready for coral?

[yourmom]

I started a 40 gallon AIO on October 27. Water from LFS. Live sand and bottle bac as instructed, and a couple of cap fulls every 4-5 days until gone. Tested water yesterday before my first (5 gal) water change. Tank looks great and I want to add a few corals if we are ready. Used API tests and also Salifert. Here are my numbers:

Calcium: ~21 drops/420ppm
KH: 10-11 drops/179-196ppm
Phosphate: ~0.25ppm (high?)
Nitrate: 20ppm (API test. Repeated below)
pH: 8.0-8.2
Salifert Ammonia: ~0.15, maybe less
Salifert Nitrate: between 5-10ppm (so ~7.5)

How do these numbers look?

 

[Doctorgori]

you gonna do LPS I take it? Gotta start somewhere ... hopefully more will chime in...good luck!

 

[BlennyTime]

Did you test for nitrite? If so, what was the level? You want both that and ammonia to be 0, to say the cycle is complete.

 

[yourmom]

Did you test for nitrite? If so, what was the level? You want both that and ammonia to be 0, to say the cycle is complete.

No, I don’t have a nitrite test. These Salifert ammonia strips have never given me readings at zero, even when I tried them on new water from my LFS a year and a half ago. I stopped using them on my old tank because they were making me anxious and I didn’t trust the results.

 

[Don_Jorge]

Im in this boat at the moment, Exact same parameters, but i got a diatom bloom so now im not sure if i should get coral,how are they doing?

 

[yourmom]

Im in this boat at the moment, Exact same parameters, but i got a diatom bloom so now im not sure if i should get coral,how are they doing?

I’ll tell you where I tested on Sunday: Calcium @ 18/360, kH at 11/196.9, phosphate at 0.25, Nitrate at zero, pH at 8, ammonia pretty much zero. I was worried about zero Nitrates, LFS says to lay off the water changes. I’ve been doing weekly 5 gallon changes for about 7-8 weeks.

Just added my first corals and I am starting small and inexpensive in case I blow it. First two were Pipe Organ and Recordia mushroom, they’ve been in about two weeks and are doing great. Sunday I added a Zoanthid and I think a War Coral, I need someone to ID it. So far so good!

 

[yourmom]

Im in this boat at the moment, Exact same parameters, but i got a diatom bloom so now im not sure if i should get coral,how are they doing?

For what it's worth, I'm still dealing with Diatoms. Nothing unmanageable but it's not beautiful!

 

[yourmom]

Im in this boat at the moment, Exact same parameters, but i got a diatom bloom so now im not sure if i should get coral,how are they doing?

I added two new corals this past weekend, a frogspawn and a candy cane. They are both doing well. My pipe organ has retreated a bit over the past 24 hours, but I just did a water change yesterday so it could have been a little overwhelming, not sure... I'm going to keep an eye on it. Everything else looks great!

 

[Don_Jorge]

I added two new corals this past weekend, a frogspawn and a candy cane. They are both doing well. My pipe organ has retreated a bit over the past 24 hours, but I just did a water change yesterday so it could have been a little overwhelming, not sure... I'm going to keep an eye on it. Everything else looks great!

Dope, I ordered a red purple people eater or what ever its called, a hammer and a grape coral, should get here tomorrow. My diatoms are about gone already

 

[A2dahlberg]

I see we are discussing our test numbers. I just received my red sea test kit yesterday and have been cycling my Evo 13.5 for 2 wks now. My numbers are:
salinity 34.1
Temp 78.62
PH 8.1-8.2
Ammonia .8
NO3 5-10 (7)
NO2 1
KH 8.25 17 drops turned yellow

Should I hold of on Zoas and fish till my ammonia zeros out?

 

[yourmom]

I see we are discussing our test numbers. I just received my red sea test kit yesterday and have been cycling my Evo 13.5 for 2 wks now. My numbers are:
salinity 34.1
Temp 78.62
PH 8.1-8.2
Ammonia .8
NO3 5-10 (7)
NO2 1
KH 8.25 17 drops turned yellow

Should I hold of on Zoas and fish till my ammonia zeros out?

Disclaimer- I’m not a pro, just started my journey. I kept a 10 gallon FOWLR for about a 15 months or so before getting my 40 gallon tank I intend to use for reefing. I added my fist from my 10 during my cycle and kept the lights off for the first 6 or 8 weeks. I only had a clown and a bicolor blenny plus a cleaner shrimp, some snails and a tiger sand conch. My clean-up crew didn’t have enough food. No algae was present so I had to start back up my 10 gal and move them back. I lost one of two snails in the process. The rest of the crew handled the transition well. I didn’t change water or even test until after about 5 weeks, and at that point I started doing weekly water changes and testing. I played with lights a little but in low doses for shorter times. My Ammonia test was a Salifert which is supposed to be reliable but I honestly hated even using it on my old 10 gal because it would stress me out. I never got my Ammonia to zero and I eventually decided weekly water changes would have to work. In the 40, I started doing weekly 5 gal changes and I got a little over-jealous because I took my nitrates down to zero. I started testing calcium and magnesium, both of which are a little low. My fish are still fine but when I added my corals around 10 weeks in, I have had some do very well and others struggle. I am buying a couple of cheap frags at a time to see how they do because I don’t want to overdo it and screw up. I’m about 14 or so weeks in now and still learning a lot. Not testing my ammonia anymore but added magnesium tests in the last week or so, and still figuring out which test kits I prefer. It’s so scary! Start with a cheap fish, and have a back-up plan if it doesn’t do well. I would wait as long as you can stand it to add corals. Maybe start with a simple coral like green star polyp or a mushroom when you are ready.

 

[A2dahlberg]

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I want in this tank. Zoas, Pollys, Mushrooms, easy corals GSP (maybe) I'm want a clown or 2 and a goby with a shrimp, crabs and snails. But coral wise I want mostly Zoas and Pollys

 

[Alexopora]

Thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I want in this tank. Zoas, Pollys, Mushrooms, easy corals GSP (maybe) I'm want a clown or 2 and a goby with a shrimp, crabs and snails. But coral wise I want mostly Zoas and Pollys

Start of with gsp or some cheap mushrooms. Make sure you isolate them on a rock surrounded by sand..This will help you alot in the future in managing their spread. Be patient and gradually add your desired corals once you start seeing good colouration and growth on your starter corals. Gsp generally adapt quickly but mushrooms might take a while. Once the mushrooms are happy and stable, be warned THEY WILL absolutely start moving and leaving their foot behind sprouting new mushrooms. My mushrooms took about 2-3 months before they became unstoppable.

This is purely anecdotal, based on my observation mushrooms tend to grow big when in lower lighting but spread babies under higher lighting.

 

[Alexopora]

I added two new corals this past weekend, a frogspawn and a candy cane. They are both doing well. My pipe organ has retreated a bit over the past 24 hours, but I just did a water change yesterday so it could have been a little overwhelming, not sure... I'm going to keep an eye on it. Everything else looks great!

The thing about pipe organ corals is that they need stronger flow, you might want to either increase your powerheads or move the coral to a location that has stronger flow. That should improve its condition.
I believe this is due to its hard reddish skeleton that have grooves that may collect detritus. You could also get a turkey baster to give its skeleton a clean. Also, check for any burrowing crabs or inverts that might be hiding in its skeleton.

 

[A2dahlberg]

My tank is showing signs of life. Started kinking off after I put in the cycled rock.
I placed an order with AquaSD and it comes in on Thursday it will be:
GSP
Queen of Harts Cyphastrea
Toxic Rhodacits
Dragon Eye Zoas
ASD Gator Eye Zoas
Emerald Crab

 

[mdb_talon]

Ammonia should always be undetectable. As soon as produced it shoupld be consumed. Same with Nitrite. Not really a point of doing water changes until those numbers have went up and then back down to zero. I would also say do not use the api "strips" for testing. Take it up to the lfs if you dont want the buy a good ammonia/nitrite kit. Once truly established those are not parameters you reallyy need to test regularly.

Personally i dont consider my cycle complete until ammonia/nitrite hit zero..then i add a couple fish....wait a few weeks and add more fish. Also by that time probably have algae growing so then get snails. Then wait a couple weeks and make sure ammonia/nitrite zero. Then start weekly water changes and add coral a couple months later. The point is if you have no bioload on the system it is easy to get parameters to zero...but you have not built up the bacteria needed to prevent nitrite/ammonia spikes yet