The next steps in my aquarium Journey

blalaw87

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Good Morning,

I am new the reefing and have posted some questions here before but I want to take the next steps and start adding some Corals to my tank but I do have some questions before I go that route. Right now I have a CUC in there and a couple of clown fish that seem to be doing fine with no issues.

Current Parameters after measuring this morning and planning on a water change next weekend
SW - 1.020 (I need to bring this up)
Nitrate - 12 ppm
pH - 8.1
Calcium - 370 pp,
Phosphate - .3 ppm

I have had my 425 xl tank for about 4 - 5 months now and have been taking it slow. I started out with live rock and have my aqua scape set up but it is harder to set it up when live rock is not as as easy to manipulate and I am not the most artistic person. I tried to make some islands for when I add some corals so they dont take over etc but I was wondering if it would be worth it now to add some dry rock to kind of complete it out or should I just leave it as is? Would that give me more real estate for some corals in the future. I would think making big changes later when everything is established would be a bigger headache. If I do add more dry rock would I have to go through kind of a mini cycle or everything should be fine and it just might look a little weird till the dry rock gets some coralline and starts to fit in?

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I was having algae problems and I think it was because my lights were on to long and too high so I adjusted the scheduled and I still have algae but mainly just on the glass and some on the sand and the CUC seems to take care of the rocks right now. I was thinking about getting a UV to take care of that in the long term but have not seen any issues lately that warrant it too much. My concern is if I started adding corals and other fish and the algae gets bad again it would be harder to take care of.

I want to state with adding some Zoas and some GSP and nothing crazy since I have never taken care of any corals before and don't want to get something big and expensive and kill it. Since I have never cared for corals or anything like that will I be fine without dosing since my tank is fairly empty at the moment and the items in the water will be able to provide what is needed? Or should I just go ahead and start so I get used to it?

Any other advice or suggestions are appreciated as well! Thanks!
 

blaxsun

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Speaking from my own experience, it’s going to be easier getting all your rock together in the tank before you start adding and glueing down stuff and adding fish. You don’t need to go through an additional cycle with any new dry rock you add - just make sure you rinse it off good prior to placement in the tank (and yes, it will lag behind in terms of the nice purple coraline - but it’ll catch-up eventually).

Algae (including coraline) on the glass is normal and unavoidable to some extent (even with a UV). I use and do recommend a UV for a variety of reasons, including clearer water and disease mitigation. You’ll want 3-5x tank turnover/hourly @90,000 UV exposure to effectively deal with parasites. A UV is something you can add at any time, although it’s more work once you have a tank up and running if you want it plumbed into your main returns.

If you’re keeping up with semi-weekly water changes, this should replenish any small amount of elements that your corals may slowly utilize when starting out. Water testing every 1-2 weeks is important so you can gauge when you reach a certain amount of corals that are depleting things like alkalinity, calcium and magnesium faster than the water changes replenish it.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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