NITRITES NOT GOING DOWN.

[Fish Fan]

Yeah ill stop testing it from now on. I did check with other salifert test kits to confrim mine wasnt a fault and it did give the same results but moving on from that now im nit going to stress about that! Time to look into coral. Any tips for my first coral ?

Puzzling results, but definitely time to stock coral

What are you interested in? Most soft corals, mushrooms and Zoas are quite forgiving and often where many start, and what I would suggest. You can have a beautiful soft coral display tank, and it doesn't tank a lot of knowledge about water chemistry and dosing, etc. Simply doing regular, partial water changes with a decent salt mix (Instant Ocean, etc. is fine; don't spend big money on salt until you *need* to) is all that needed for most softy tanks.

There are easy stoney corals too, both LPS and even some SPS. It might sound silly at first, but I would let a price tag guide you to some degree. In general, if it's cheap, it's easy to keep and grow. There's certainly exceptions to that, like when a fancy name gets assigned to an animal, but generally, if a shop is willing to sell it inexpensively, it's likely an easy to grow coral

Here's an older video from Mad Hatter's Reef that I think is good place to start:


I am a big fan of Than Thien from Tidal Gardens, a well known coral farm:

 

[a123h]

Yeah ill stop testing it from now on. I did check with other salifert test kits to confrim mine wasnt a fault and it did give the same results but moving on from that now im nit going to stress about that! Time to look into coral. Any tips for my first coral ?

Puzzling results, but definitely time to stock coral

What are you interested in? Most soft corals, mushrooms and Zoas are quite forgiving and often where many start, and what I would suggest. You can have a beautiful soft coral display tank, and it doesn't tank a lot of knowledge about water chemistry and dosing, etc. Simply doing regular, partial water changes is all that needed for most softy tanks.

There are easy stoney corals too, both LPS and even some SPS. It might sound silly at first, but I would let a price tag guide you to some degree. In general, if it's cheap, it's easy to keep and grow. There's certainly exceptions to that, like when a fancy name gets assigned to an animal, but generally, if a shop is willing to sell it inexpensively, it's likely an easy to grow coral

Here's an older video from Mad Hatter's Reef that I think is good place to start:


I am a big fan of Than Thien from Tidal Gardens, a well known coral farm:

I was thinking starting with soft corals like zoanthids, mushrooms even some lps like candy cane and then try sps after some time and experince. Ill check out links you posted thanks! And i saw Randy has some article links to that stuff ill check out too. I know ill need to get more test kits specifc to coral eventually as now i only have an Alkalinity test kit.

 

[Fish Fan]

I was thinking starting with soft corals like zoanthids, mushrooms even some lps like candy cane and then try sps after some time and experince.

This is an excellent plan

And i saw Randy has some article links to that stuff ill check out too.

Don't believe me blindly, but put your trust in Randy, you can't go wrong

I know ill need to get more test kits specifc to coral eventually as now i only have an Alkalinity test kit.

Don't go Crazy with the test kits. The #1 most important thing is salinity. You want to make sure that your salinity remains stable (using an Auto Top Off (ATO) system is the best way to go), but you really want to make sure that whatever you're using to test salinity is both accurate and precise. Once again, Randy has an article for this. Whatever you're using to test salinity, I would make a DIY calibration solution to ensure that device is working as it should be. It's not difficult, you just need Morton's kitchen salt and a decent kitchen scale or even kitchen measuring spoons. The reason this is so important is that when your salinity is wrong, every other parameter is also out of whack. Best bet is to first start with a calibrated salinity tool:

Reef Aquarium Salinity: DIY Calibration Standards

Reef Aquarium Salinity: DIY Calibration Standards By Randy Holmes-Farley One of the most important issues facing marine aquarists is providing a suitable environment for their aquaria's inhabitants. Among the important properties for a marine...

www.reef2reef.com

Then, if you measure anything at all (and you might not have to for a softy tank), measure alkalinity, which to me is the next biggest parameter.

That is likely all you need for a healthy softy/shroom/Zoa tank. Regular, partial water changes from even a halfway decent salt mix will keep everything else in line.

If/when you get into stoney corals, it's a good idea to check calcium levels, but many of us here at R2R ignore testing for magnesium as it's notoriously difficult to test for, per Randy Holmes-Farley

I hope that helps!

 

[a123h]

I was thinking starting with soft corals like zoanthids, mushrooms even some lps like candy cane and then try sps after some time and experince.

This is an excellent plan

And i saw Randy has some article links to that stuff ill check out too.

Don't believe me blindly, but put your trust in Randy, you can't go wrong

I know ill need to get more test kits specifc to coral eventually as now i only have an Alkalinity test kit.

Don't go Crazy with the test kits. The #1 most important thing is salinity. You want to make sure that your salinity remains stable (using an Auto Top Off (ATO) system is the best way to go), but you really want to make sure that whatever you're using to test salinity is both accurate and precise. Once again, Randy has an article for this. Whatever you're using to test salinity, I would make a DIY calibration solution to ensure that device is working as it should be. It's not difficult, you just need Morton's kitchen salt and a decent kitchen scale or even kitchen measuring spoons. The reason this is so important is that when your salinity is wrong, every other parameter is also out of whack. Best bet is to first start with a calibrated salinity tool:

Reef Aquarium Salinity: DIY Calibration Standards

Reef Aquarium Salinity: DIY Calibration Standards By Randy Holmes-Farley One of the most important issues facing marine aquarists is providing a suitable environment for their aquaria's inhabitants. Among the important properties for a marine...

www.reef2reef.com

Then, if you measure anything at all (and you might not have to for a softy tank), measure alkalinity, which to me is the next biggest parameter.

That is likely all you need for a healthy softy/shroom/Zoa tank. Regular, partial water changes from even a halfway decent salt mix will keep everything else in line.

If/when you get into stoney corals, it's a good idea to check calcium levels, but many of us here at R2R ignore testing for magnesium as it's notoriously difficult to test for, per Randy Holmes-Farley

I hope that helps!

Thanks ill look into the articles more and try not to go to crazy with testing i know stabilty is key.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the link ill check it out ive been stressing about it thinking my cycle is messed up stalled or something is wrong, local fish stores and other online rearach telling me high nitrites means something is wrong and toxic. So even if my nitrote id at 1-2 like now i shouldnt worry and test anymore?

That is correct. It is critical to note that it is the salts in seawater that prevent nitrite from being toxic at any level you will experience.

 

[KrisReef]

Thanks haha definitely less stressfull now. Going to now put in my first piece of coral hope it goes well was waiting because i was told and believed nitrite is harmful.

The irony, is that nitrite is harmful to fresh water fish.

Coral tanks don't need to be "cycled" at all. Coral eat Ammonia, and prefer ammonia to nitrite. Coral should be happier in an uncycled tank, without having to compete with nitrifying bacteria for their favorite food source, ammonia right out of the fishes system!

Marine fish don't like ammonia, but coral eat it for breakfast. They like having fish in their tank to make ammonia for their breakfast, served all day!