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Thank y'all for all the advice. I appreciate it very much! Dread, I would really like to see the fuge and maybe how to build it into I can do a under tank one.

Thanks,

HAT

Everything phil said I agree with, that's for sure.

We're in the same boat right now as far as setup goes. I swapped mine over to a reef-tank about 3 weeks before yours if I remember post dates correctly, and we both need to slow down and take our time.

I can tell you one thing that has greatly greatly improved my aquarium so far since the change was the addition of the refugium. I have 3 cats, so was unable to to do an under the tank setup like I would have preferred, so instead I built one that hangs on the back of the aquarium. With a 6 gallon capacity back there, I added some chaetomorph, a 5" sand bed, and broke some of the live rock up in my main tank to make it more aesthetically pleasing and threw some of the rubble into the fuge to help grow some copepods.

I've had my losses... I got antsy the second I bought the lights and went out and spent about $150 on frags with a local reefer... and I lost 4 of the 7... costly mistake that is for sure (2 acros... a really bright orange mushroom, and an acan which I think I kinda did in myself by trying to blow off some algae and it's tissue kinda came with it)

I've stepped back and decided to go with some of the easier softies and lps for the time being, and they all seem to be doing great. My pulsing xenia is always open and pulsing happily.. My frogspawn already looks to be starting a new branch.. my scroll coral opens up nicely, and a green nepthya which is growing quite tall already. I'm really limiting myself to only adding 1 new coral a month... and holding off if I'm noticing anything out of the ordinary in the tank. Right now I have some zoa's not opening up and a few have some brown slime coating on them so I'm currently starting to dose vitamin c into the tank as well.

Now that my fuge is up and running I'll be putting up another blog post today on it, so It may give you some ideas... fabricating it was really easy.. and the week or so it's been running I've already noticed less algae growth in the main aquarium and my phosphates have dropped

That Nitrate and Nitrite are problems. You'rs is a 29 gal right? (my favorite tank size by the way). If it were my tank I'd do daily 5 gal changes till the nitrate was down to at least 10ppm. And most tropical fish and corals seem to do better with a little higher temp, 78 to 80 degrees, but 76 is nothing to panic about.

How long has your tank been set up? is there anything in it beside live rock and sand?

As stated above the nitrite and nitrate is really high, However like stated above if there is nothing in your tank and you are in the middle of the nitrate cycle then it's ok for now.

What is the salinity level in the tank?

Regarding the PH and Alk they are related It kind of works like this your magnesium level should be around 1400 when it goes below that level the tank will also start to drop in the alkalinity (or KH level) as this drops then the calcium level will drop too. when these levels are very low (below acceptable levels in a reef aquarium) then you will see a drop in ph.

with all that being said I would get some good salt, mix it let it sit make sure that all of the levels are good before adding it to the tank. mix enough water to change about 50% AS LONG AS THERE ARE NO FISH OR CORALS IN THE TANK. If there are then you are either going to have to bag the fish and corals change the water and then re-acclimate them or do a series of smaller water changes so you don't shock them and kill them.

by doing this you are going to prolong the cycle a little but it is better then adding a bunch of chemicals to the tank to bring up the other parameters. (if you are still cycling the tank there should not be any animals in the tank)

Eek... Well lets see....

Nitrates are high, I would try and get them down to 0-5ppm, I've recently built a hang on the back refugium for my tank to hold chaeto algae to help with excess nutrients too.

Nitrite is high... this is toxic to fish and corals, and should read 0... If you're still getting a nitrite reading it means your tank cycle hasn't finished yet..

Alkalinity I'm not sure about... I know on my kit I'm shooting for 8-12 dkh... but don't have the conversion to ppm... I believe it's low though

PH is way low, this is not a freshwater tank... PH should be at least 8.0... I prefer to keep mine around 8.2

On the bright side of things though your temperature is great!

Thank y'all for all the good advice. I definitely appreciate all the help!

You should be able to pick up a 10 gal starter kit for under $50 at Walmart or any other box store. That's all you need for a hospital/quarantine tank. If that's too much, then a rubbermaid tub can be had for under $10. Just add a small power head for circulation. A hospital tank doesn't need lighting, or skimmer or any other fancy equipment, just circulation and a heater. You can do a 2 gal water change every couple days to keep the water quality up.

well i have used fresh water dipping for my fish when they broke out with ich. you put your fish in fresh water that is the same temperature as your tank for 5 minutes and then return them to your tank. if the fish starts looking like it is struggling then immediately put it back in the tank. i had two blue tangs and the only one i could catch was the only one that survived. i also used ruby reef kick ich in my tank and the corals did not even seem to notice. i used the ruby reef medicine before i tried the fresh water dip and it did not seemed to work. After i did the dip though, it seemed to keep the fish from catching it again.

Dread240, no disrespect taken friend! You are totally right. I "should" know better. Believe me when I say, because of my actions some of my fish died; I was actually sick to my stomach yesterday, because of my actions lately. I know better, been doing this too long to do what I did. :-(

No disrespect at all intended in this post... just going off what I recall as previous posts of yours.

If I remember, you'rea 29 gallon just like myself, but you've also recently set it up... within the past 2-3 months. Ich (or the parasites/fungus/whateverthehellitis at least) are virtually always present, but it's not until the fish are stressed that they lose their slime coating and come down sick. I would be paying very very close attention to the amount of live stock you already have in such a young tank and paying close attention to the parameters. Hell you already have more then mine in it which mine has been running for 5 years now.

Thank ya Phil, yeah I hope this stuff goes away.

I got your PM, but there seems to be a problem with the message board. I've never had marine Ich, so really don't know anything about it. I've delt with freshwater ich many times, but have no idea if they're similar at all. My understanding is that none of the medications are safe for corals or inverts, so you'll have to set up a hospital tank to treat the fish in. Good luck, I know the freshwater version can be vicious.

I use to be a stationary engineer in a building Phil. Then I went blind and had to resign. :<

Hey Phil, whats a good med for ich if ya have a reef?

Lighting design for buildings is part of what I do for a living.

Thanks Phil, very informative answer. Guess I won't be going to Home Depot or Lowes for DT lighting.

Ok, I cleaned my skimmer and did a water change. Hopefully that does something.

T5 HO lamps are used for general lighting in high celing spaces and should be available at any electrical supply store. But the highest spectrum you'll be likely to find is a "daylight" bulb, which is usually only 5500K or 6700K.

The metal halid lighting you find there only looks blue because your comparing it to the general fluorescent lighting which is usually 3500K or 4100K, both weighted more toward the red end of the spectrum. Even a 4100K lamp will look blue next to a 3500K lamp.

So the short answer is NO, you can't use Home Depot lamps over your reef without getting lots of algae growth. A refugium is another matter, 6700K is perfect for those since you're trying to grow algae there.

Thanks Melev for the infomation, I will do that!

Starting them out on the substrate is always best. After a couple of weeks, you can move it up a few inches. A few weeks later move it up again. Acropora and Birdsnest like flow.