Need help with AI Hydra 26 15 gallon reef tank

TrevisSpease · Jan 14, 2021

Hello novice reefers! i am fairly new to the whole saltwater tank thing, as much as i like to think i am, i’m not educated on this much at all. i have had the tank for a year now and had so many nice corals in the beginning. had a hard coral, bubble tip anemone, frogspon, so many mushrooms, and even a plate. they have all died. but i still have my 2 clowns, my valentine puffer, and my watchman goby and pistol shrimp (and urchin). i would really appreciate anything and everything that you advanced reefers have to say. mostly need help with getting my light settings correct for my coral that i have now (which are a brand new tentacle anenome that i got today, two green mushrooms, and one purple mushroom and a cluster of eagle eye polloups that are also new from today) and getting my water parameters right, along with getting rid of this brown and red algae that is growing. blessings to all and thank you for taking the time to read/respond!

KSReefing · Jan 14, 2021

It would help people out if you posted your water parameters.

A small 15 gallon nano tank is a tough challenge. If you just slightly slack on maintenance things can turn south quick.

KSReefing · Jan 14, 2021

Edited for an accidental double post.

TrevisSpease · Jan 14, 2021

KSReefing said:
It would help people out if you posted your water parameters.

A small 15 gallon nano tank is a tough challenge. If you just slightly slack on maintenance things can turn south quick.

how would i go about getting those exact parameters brother?? thanks for the response!

saltcats · Jan 14, 2021

You'd need to get some test kits to figure out your parameters. At a minimum I think you need pH, alkalinity, nitrate, and phosphate - with hard corals you might also need calcium and magnesium kits. You'll also need a thermometer for temperature, and a refractometer to measure your salinity.

TrevisSpease · Jan 14, 2021

saltcats said:
You'd need to get some test kits to figure out your parameters. At a minimum I think you need pH, alkalinity, nitrate, and phosphate - with hard corals you might also need calcium and magnesium kits. You'll also need a thermometer for temperature, and a refractometer to measure your salinity.

i will do that as soon as i wake up, thanks so much for the info. any idea as to what parameters should be looking like?

TrevisSpease · Jan 14, 2021

also should

saltcats said:
You'd need to get some test kits to figure out your parameters. At a minimum I think you need pH, alkalinity, nitrate, and phosphate - with hard corals you might also need calcium and magnesium kits. You'll also need a thermometer for temperature, and a refractometer to measure your salinity.

also any idea as to what my AI Hydra 26HD should be set to spectrum wise brother? thanks so much for the help

KSReefing · Jan 15, 2021

TrevisSpease said:
also should

also any idea as to what my AI Hydra 26HD should be set to spectrum wise brother? thanks so much for the help

If I had to guess your light spectrum is the bottom of your priorities.
Not knowing your parameters in a 15 gallon tank is something that needs to be addressed.

TrevisSpease · Jan 15, 2021

i got all of this today! where do i start?! thanks for all the support! this is so much nicer than watching youtube videos! love interacting with real people that share the same interests i do, that do it better!

TrevisSpease · Jan 15, 2021

saltcats said:
You'd need to get some test kits to figure out your parameters. At a minimum I think you need pH, alkalinity, nitrate, and phosphate - with hard corals you might also need calcium and magnesium kits. You'll also need a thermometer for temperature, and a refractometer to measure your salinity.

hey! just preformed my first water test! waiting on ammonia and calcium now! anything look out of place? not sure what pptgs means but i would love any help!

saltcats · Jan 15, 2021

TrevisSpease said:
hey! just preformed my first water test! waiting on ammonia and calcium now! anything look out of place? not sure what pptgs means but i would love any help!

Very new to reefing myself so I'll defer if anyone more experienced replies but off the top of my head, your salinity looks a bit high (it should be between 1.024 and 1.026) - I'd verify the refractometer is calibrated correctly before making any changes though! PPT S.G is "parts per thousand" and "specific gravity" - 1.028 is the specific gravity of your water, whereas PPT would be a number like 35ppt (for ideal seawater).

Nitrate looks good to me, and phosphate as well - you generally want phosphate to be very low (less than 1) but not 0 because that'll cause issues.

Nitrite I think should be 0 but I know it's not very toxic in saltwater so that might be okay. I'm surprised you have any though, that's usually a sign the tank isn't fully cycled yet. Will be curious to see the results of the ammonia test!

pH is a little low but not terrible (the goal is around 8) but it seems common to have low pH given the amount of CO2 indoors. People generally recommend not "chasing" pH (not trying to mess with it) so I think you don't need to worry.

TrevisSpease · Jan 24, 2021

saltcats said:
Very new to reefing myself so I'll defer if anyone more experienced replies but off the top of my head, your salinity looks a bit high (it should be between 1.024 and 1.026) - I'd verify the refractometer is calibrated correctly before making any changes though! PPT S.G is "parts per thousand" and "specific gravity" - 1.028 is the specific gravity of your water, whereas PPT would be a number like 35ppt (for ideal seawater).

Nitrate looks good to me, and phosphate as well - you generally want phosphate to be very low (less than 1) but not 0 because that'll cause issues.

Nitrite I think should be 0 but I know it's not very toxic in saltwater so that might be okay. I'm surprised you have any though, that's usually a sign the tank isn't fully cycled yet. Will be curious to see the results of the ammonia test!

pH is a little low but not terrible (the goal is around 8) but it seems common to have low pH given the amount of CO2 indoors. People generally recommend not "chasing" pH (not trying to mess with it) so I think you don't need to worry.

got a real refractometer and just did a cyanobacteria treatment after a 20% water change i will test and post my parameters again! also got a little medusa invasion going on and trying to deal with that! also for some reason i did not get the notification for this reply???