Tri2Spike's first saltwater tank - 75 g setup from friend...

[Tri2Spike]

Hi all, I've had freshwater tanks (cichlids) for about 10 years, now taking the dive into saltwater. I had been considering changing to saltwater for the last 6 months or so ... but was hesitant to pull the trigger. Then about 2 months ago, a friend mentioned that he was moving, and was looking to sell his tank ... seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I took the plunge. I purchased the tank, corals, fish, and all of his equipment, and moved them to my house.

It is a 75 gallon, with a bunch of soft corals, 2 clown fish, a yellow tang and a copper banded butterfly. Additionally he had many (more than 2 dozen) asterina starfish, and an unknown number of fancy starfish. I *think* the asterina are reef safe, as I haven't seen them bothering the corals at all.
Oh, and he also had several big colonies of bubble algae.

We moved the tank on June 29th, the move went surprisingly easy and everything seems to have survived well.

During the move, I cut the amount of rock by about half, as it didn't seem like it would fit back in the tank lol. All of the rock left out had no corals on it, just bubble algae, so there was very little coral lost in the move.

Here is a picture from before the move:


And immediately after the move:



And today (one month later):




Here are more details about the tank:

Crushed coral bed, < 1 inch deep
Aqua Tech 30-60 HOB filter (mechanical and carbon)
Seaclone Protein Skimmer
Penguin 550 Powerhead
300 W heater
LED lights - Fluval Sea Marine and Reef LED 2.0
2 x T5

The lights are on 12-13 hrs per day, and there is some indirect natural light from a nearby window.

I've been doing weekly water changes (RODI) of about 4 gallons.

After a month of having the tank running, I took some water to the LFS for measuring, here is what came back:

Specific Gravity - 1.028 -- I was using a hydrometer that was (and still is) saying 1.025. Same hydrometer that my friend previously was using in this tank, and he kept it at 1.025. I purchased a refractometer shortly after getting the tank setup. It was reading 1.028ish, but I chose to believe the hydrometer over it, as the hydrometer had been working fine for my friend. I am now planning on very slowly (via weekly water changes) lowering the specific gravity so that the refractometer shows 1.025.

Ph - 8.2
Alk - 10.2
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 5.0 ppm
Phosphate - 2.5-3.0 ppm (I measured this with salifert)
Calcium - > 500

I've been very happy with how healthy the tank has been, but a few issues are cropping ... I'll post specific questions in following posts...

 

[Tri2Spike]

So the issues I'm having:

1) Algae - red fuzzy algae. I'm guessing this is due to the high phosphate. But is it also due to too much light? I'm not sure why the PO4 is so high, perhaps because I switched salts? My friend was using Omega Premium reef salt, I picked up some Instant Ocean reef crystals, solely because that's what the store had. I assume I need to start using Phosban (or similar) and possibly switch back to Instant Ocean.

2) High calcium - is there any concern here as long as ALK stays in range?

3) I haven't been able to ID all of the corals, should I post pics in this thread? Or is there a more appropriate place?

Thanks!

 

[Tri2Spike]

Found these today ... guess the clown fish are pretty happy!