New tank day 3

[Reefer87]

Ok so I have received a lot of nagging from a couple people (not on here). I went to my lfs got my stuff to make saltwater etc. he gave me bio spira to use in addition to my atm colony. So I did that. He also gave me 3 green chromis as they are hardy. My levels have been pretty good, not perfect yet but good. I will list them below. But I am getting nagged because I added fish. Which I have done the research and I know it’s ok. So I need someone to tell me that I’m not wrong or only a little wrong.
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 1 -2
Phosphate .2
Gravity 1.023
Calcium 400
Kh 12
Temp 78
Lights are off. I only turned them on for a minute to take some pictures.

 

[lapin]

.........
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 1 -2
Phosphate .2
Gravity 1.023
Calcium 400
Kh 12
Temp 78
Lights are off. I only turned them on for a minute to take some pictures.

What you need to watch for is ammonia. DOnt worry about Nitrate or Nitrite right now. Ammonia will happen as the fish poop and you feed them. You can do a water change to bring it down if it gets high enough to measure. The bottle of bio spira should help a lot in holding it in check. If you cant do the water change, then the the other last option is Prime. It will bind ammonia for 48 hours so you can then have time to figure out how to get rid of ammonia before it harms the fish.

You KH is pretty high for a salinity of 1.023
What salt mix are you using?

 

[tehmadreefer]

Using fish to cycle is the way we did it back in the old days. Ya some will give ya grief but in all reality what can they do? Nothing...

They are already in tank so either catch em and taken em back or continue on.

 

[Reefer87]

What you need to watch for is ammonia. DOnt worry about Nitrate or Nitrite right now. Ammonia will happen as the fish poop and you feed them. You can do a water change to bring it down if it gets high enough to measure. The bottle of bio spira should help a lot in holding it in check. If you cant do the water change, then the the other last option is Prime. It will bind ammonia for 48 hours so you can then have time to figure out how to get rid of ammonia before it harms the fish.

You KH is pretty high for a salinity of 1.023
What salt mix are you using?

Instant ocean reef crystals. it’s possible I did the test wrong I’ll try again today.

 

[Reefer87]

They are swimming around and they

Using fish to cycle is the way we did it back in the old days. Ya some will give ya grief but in all reality what can they do? Nothing...

They are already in tank so either catch em and taken em back or continue on.

they are swimming good, exploring and eating great. I’ve been feeding lightly but when I do they get all excited and dart around after it.

 

[lapin]

Instant ocean reef crystals. it’s possible I did the test wrong I’ll try again today.

Its prob the salt.
For a fish only tank 1.023 salinity is fine.
The Reef Crystals is made for a hard coral dominated tank. (SPS). You should switch to Instant Ocean. It has lower levels of things. Your tank will not need them in such high doses for the first year. If you dont there is a possiblity that those unused things will build up and you will have issues over time

 

[45ZoaGarden]

The fish should be fine. +1 alk is a bit high. You might want to test that again and add a bit of salt to get the salinity up.

 

[Reefer87]

I do plan o

Its prob the salt.
For a fish only tank 1.023 salinity is fine.
The Reef Crystals is made for a hard coral dominated tank. (SPS). You should switch to Instant Ocean. It has lower levels of things. Your tank will not need them in such high doses for the first year. If you dont there is a possiblity that those unused things will build up and you will have issues over time

i do plan on putting corals In there eventually. In the next couple months once I get some good coraline growth. But I’ve also heard I don’t need coraline. I’ve heard both lol.

 

[lapin]

I do plan o
i do plan on putting corals In there eventually. In the next couple months once I get some good coraline growth. But I’ve also heard I don’t need coraline. I’ve heard both lol.

Coralline will come. You dont need it. Everyone wants it until they have to scrape the glass. It does keep other algaes from growing on the rocks.
I would still avoid the Reef Crystal for now. With a few corals, the regular IO salt will be just fine for a long time.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Coralline will come. You dont need it. Everyone wants it until they have to scrape the glass. It does keep other algaes from growing on the rocks.
I would still avoid the Reef Crystal for now. With a few corals, the regular IO salt will be just fine for a long time.

Lol it is a major pain. I just spent an hour and a half scraping all the coralline off the back of my tank.