Newbie here with frag/aquarium questions!

[pixie.hallows]

Hello all!

I inherited a cycled 10 gallon tank from my daughter who upgraded to a larger tank. So, there was a pretty significant water change to physically move the tank. The sand and filter stayed the same. I added a new live rock and some fragments last weekend after levels were consistently testing well. Salinity is hovering around 1.027 and I put a photo of my test strip levels below.

I feel like I probably jumped the gun when I got my frags because I really didn’t research before I got them and don’t even know what types they are. I got them from a chain store and probably should have gone to the local fish store instead. Because my daughter is still here and helping me, I probably am ahead of my knowledge level and am now scrambling for my learning to catch up.

I’m worried that the corals aren’t looking great but honestly aren’t sure what they should look like at this point. Im leaving the blue light on them all day I’m going to put some pictures of them below. Any advice/input would be welcome.

We did move one of her cardinals into the tank yesterday to see how he would do and he appears fine. I don’t want to move him back to her tank too soon because I don’t want to stress him out but it’s not my plan to have him long term. In sure he misses his buddies. I’m considering adding a skunk cleaner shrimp and maybe a turbo snail to the tank in the next day or so but would also welcome thoughts on that.

 

[LiLinka]

Hey, so I'm gonna give some general information, first thing I would say is to invest in some better testing gear. sorry to be a pain but test strips aren't always the most accurate. If you want the most success I would invest in some proper testing equipment with brands like Seifert, aqua forest, red sea, etc for your Alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. then I would personally invest in 2 Hanna checkers for your nitrate and Phosphates, they are very simple to use and I find them to be quite accurate compared to other test kits. now right now your 3 most important parameters are alkalinity, Nitrate, and phosphate. below I will list recommended levels for all 3. Your salt is also slightly high. I like using a refractometer to test it's easy and accurate. it should be 1.025-1.026 SG. another recommendation is to stick to soft corals until you get a better understanding of things. hope this helps!

Alkalinity: 8-11 DKH

nitrate: (5-15) PPM

phosphate: 0.03-0.08

 

[pixie.hallows]

I would invest in some proper testing equipment with brands like Seifert, aqua forest, red sea, etc for your Alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium.

Thank you! Something like this? AMAZON LINK HERE

 

[LiLinka]

Yes that works perfectly!