New here

[theracenut]

Hello to all,
New to the forum but not new to the hobby. I have been keeping an aquarium in one form or another for many years. I have grown to prefer saltwater over fresh. I have a few questions. My terminology may be off so hopefully I can get my point across. Ohh and one other thing I have finally learned... put it in and hope for a miracle just is not working.

A little about my tank... it is a non drilled 75 gal with a 20 gal refugium down below I built the refuge and it has four sections. A protein skimmer, a small section with bio balls, a section with live sand and plants and 50/50 compact flourescent, then the pump section to send it all back up. I also have a 10 gal topoff tank. I am using a compact flourescent fixture on top with two 10000k and two actinic and moonlight LEDs. I just ordered a new T5HO fixture to replace this one as one of the ballast have failed.

I Have live sand, live rocks, 2 Damsels, a couple of small Joshua trees, some green button polyps, frogspawn, some small hermit crabs, a few snails, a pink pin sea urchin, a starfish, a sea cucumber

One question I have is light cycles How much time for each type of light in a 24 hour period and what kind of overlap should there be? The LED's currecntly stay on all the time. I want to add corals.

The things I can measure are
PH 7.8
CA 400
KH 7 .... not sure if this 7 is the correct unit of measure but thats what the test kit said
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Salinity 1.022

Should I be checking anything else?

Should I be trying to raise or lower anything?

Thanks in advance for any attemp at answering my questions.

 

[_Alex_]

im not familier with joshua trees?? do you meen kenya trees? i woudlnt stress on ph to much and just watch you dkh and try and keep it around 8-10. stability is key if it stays stable at 7 or 8 that is fine. calcium could be a little higher becuase depending on coral and inverts you add they will slowly use it up. but reg water changes should help get it up. only other thing to test for would be magnesium you want it to be over 1350, i shoot for around 1500. also might get your salinity up to 1.024-1.026 if your planning to keep coral.

as far as lights i run my leds at night when my main lights are out. i run the main lighting from 3pm-1030pm, i am runnign t5ho's. light cycle i would start around 8-9 hours and thenas long as you dont have algae problems leave them and if you do slowly cut them down a little but evrryone does it different. i run mine late in the day becuase that is when i am home from work and can see the tank.

 

[Saltgator]

I might raise the salinity to 1.025 and the Ph to around 8.4 slowly over a week so you don't shock the livestock. Just my .02
Also, welcome to R2R.

 

[theracenut]

Yes I meant Kenya trees, I told you my terminology would be off...lol. Thanks for the info. So on the lights I should run both for 8 -9 hours? I was thinking that I should run the leds to represent night...then add the actinic for morning....then the 10000 for day time and back to the actinic for evening and back to led for night....maybe this is all wrong and if so what should I be shooting for.....and should any of the "light on" time overlap?

And raising salinity? What is the best practice for that? Dump it in the refuge? or?

 

[Momma_Fish]

Theracenut, sounds like you have a really good start. And your KH is actually a German measure of the general hardness of your water (dGH). To help you figure out exactly what it is, you would take the 7 and multiply it by 17.9 and you would get 125.3 Parts per million. I'll give you a little information about KH, because I know it can be a real pain in the behind. Carbonate hardness helps stabilize pH in the aquarium. An aquarium with a low KH level (50 ppm or less) will tend to be acidic. Aquariums with very low KH are subject to rapid pH shifts, if not monitored carefully. Water with a high KH leve (=200 ppm) usually has a high pH. General Hardness is the measure of calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) ion concentrations dissolved in water. These minerals are present in municipal, well and bottled spring water. The level of general hardness in tap and bottled water depends on the source of the water and the treatment processes it has undergone. Hard Water (=200ppm) is high in calcium and magnesium, while soft water (50 to 100 ppm) is low in these minerals. I have my own book of how to measure just about anything in a saltwater tank, I have made it myself through a lot of study and research throughout the internet and library's. If it helps you any, your KH is actually a little low. I mean it's still good, don't get me wrong, but I know my husband and I try to keep our KH at around 143.2. We do this because of our corals. Corals need a high level of calcium, but you have to be careful too, and whatever you do, don't try to bring up your KH to fast otherwise it will spike your PH and kill everything in your tank. Take it slow, do a little research and then go from there. It's about the best you can do when it comes to saltwater aquariums, research, research research. The internet is a wonderful place and I promise you, there isn't much you can find on there. Try to keep your PH around 7.8-8.0. But also try to keep your calcium (or KH levels) around the 400 mark. That way when you do put corals into your tank your all set.

As far as your lighting goes, seems like you are doing the right thing so far, and get rid of the bio balls, their really kind of pointless at the moment. If you have live sand and live rock, you don't need the bio balls. The only place that we run bio balls in any of our saltwater tank is in our 29 gallon tank, and that is only temporary also. Eventually those will come out and an actual filter will go in, we are just using the bio balls to help start producing the nutrients that the saltwater tanks need. When your using live sand and live rock that there should do you wonderful for filtration, you don't need the bio balls to help you get anything started, plus their a pain in the butt to clean! LOL

From what I can tell though, you are starting off really good. How are the few pieces of coral doing in your tank? Are they growing well? or are they growing really slow? If they aren't growing to well and very slow like (espically your frogspawn and green button polyps) then your calicum (and KH) is way to low. You need to get them higher. Just make sure you do it slowly and keep a VERY close eye on your PH.

Also, I did a bit of surfer to see what I could find and I found this website that might help a little bit more than I can about all your chemicals in your saltwater tank: Calcium, KH, GH, pH, Electrolytes & Magnesium in Aquariums; Mineral Ions, Cations Hopefully that will be able to help too. Another place you can learn a lot about your saltwater tank is Mr. Saltwater Tank ? Taking the Confusion out of Keeping a Saltwater Aquarium He has some wonderful videos that can really help you understand your tanks. Plus there are some awesome videos on just tanks that will make you drool!

I hope that I have helped you and welcome to Reef2Reef. Of course if you have anymore questions, feel free to ask. Someone will eventually answer you

Momma_Fish

 

[theracenut]

Thanks for the response Momma_Fish that cleared up the KH reading for me. Bio balls are now gone.

I got another question about the Pink Pin Cushion Urchin in my tank....it picks up everything and moves it. I had a couple of frags a while back it moved them daily and finally moved them some where and I never have found them. Every time I see it it is moving around with something or a number of things. Should it be removed if I'm going to start adding frags again? Could it live in the one sections of the sump there is live sand and plants in one section and a 50/50 light.