new to saltwater...no idea what I am doing

FloatinBy · Oct 16, 2017

I guess I can now learn/practice fragging. lol

Tautog · Oct 16, 2017

Sounds like you scored on a tank. Trimming out the mushrooms was the best idea. Try selling, trading, or just give away some of the rock. Try to put rocks with mushrooms together away, not attached, to clean rocks. This usually keeps the mushrooms isolated.
I've purchased rock, Dry/Live, from BRS, follow the curing instructions, 6 weeks in a dark circulated garbage pail, I used my old WC water. This rock was covered with Coraline algae within a month after entering the tank. But cure the rock first, don't just throw it in your DT.

FloatinBy · Oct 16, 2017

any good posts to rid/look at to learn how to trim/frag the mushrooms?

FloatinBy · Oct 24, 2017

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated at this point. I really want to start adding fish but i don't want to until I have my parameters under better control. So ive had the tank roughly 7-8weeks and have done four (4) 30 gallon water changes plus the 30 or so gallons I had to replace in the move. (Moved water and rocks in trash cans and surprisingly only lost 30g of water in a 1.5hr drive). So lets call it five roughly 25% water changes (its a 100gal DT with only a 25 gal sump) the last 2 WC i did 3 days apart. And this last WC i took everything out of sump and wet/vac it to get all the crud out of it. I started a Chaeto reactor 5 days ago and it has more than doubled in size in that time. My algea is under control but just noticed some GHA today on the glass and I pulled it out of the DT. My green/blue chromie and my blennie are doing great and are the most active I have ever seen them since bringing tank home. The chromie "strikes" the turkey baster when I put it into tank to feed frozen mysis shrimp. So you'd think everything is good right? Well I cannot get my dang nitrates under control. I have the API salt water master kit and still reads that drkish red (160 ppm) granted today it took a lot longr to turn that color, whereas before it was almost instantly, they are still through the roof. Now I tested my source water. TDS meter reads 0ppm. Ph a 6.8 so I added Buffer to reach a Ph of 8.3. ammonia =0ppm NitrITE=0PPM and nitRATe=0ppm. (Obviously ammonia, nitrite and nitrate should be zero from my source RO/DI water, but just verify accuracy of my test kit to make sure it isn't just always reading HIGH for nitrates. I did have to put a new main return pump as old one died. I took out my protein skimmer and all other pumps/lines (GFO reactor and pump etc) and did an over night vinegar bath. Air drying now then will return all of it. DT water readings are as follows now (18hrs after last WC and removing all equipment and cleaning sump) ammonia=0.25ppm nitrITE=0ppm and nitRATE 160ppm (or more idk test kits highest number is 160). Now everything looks happy and my algae growth in display tank is extremely diminished compared to the dang algae bloom I had a couple weeks ago or so. I did dose PRIME per instructions after seeing these results. Have not retested yet as I just dosed prior to typing this. Should I not worry about nitRATEs being off the charts and go ahead and get some fish? Should I do weekly WC or more frequently to get levels down? I'm at a loss here. IMO this tank is an established tank, not a new tank. I saved at least 75% of the water in the tank and all the live rock and crushed coral in it. But I feel like its acting like a new tank. Ill keep riding it out sort of speak, but I do want to add some fish but not if its dangerous or unsafe for them. A) they arent cheap so I don't want them to die and B) they are pets, and I don't want to cause undue stress/harm to a critter if I can avoid it.