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cmbspd

My first reef tank...going strong so far

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by
cmbspd
, 02-08-2010 at 10:15 PM (4482 Views)
Its almost three weeks now since I set up my tank. If you saw my previous posts then you know that I've got an atypical setup for a newbie because I bought a tank that came with a hippo tang and lots of fully cured liverock encrusted various corals. Water chemistry is doing great!n I experienced a little nitrogen and phosphorous spike the first, probably due to a mini die off from the live rock being transported to its new home. For the past two weeks Temp, pH and alk are all very stable at good levels (78-79F, 8.1-8.2 and 3.6meq/l). I've haven't seen any PO4 for for two weeks since adding a reactor with PHOSaR. Nitrates peaked somewhere around 20-40ppm but I performed a series of 3 ~40% water changes that broughte them down to around 2.5 ppm. Today I tested and only found 0.02ppm. I will double check tomorrow for testing error but I wonder if this could indicate that photosynthesis is really starting to take off (can NO3 drop that much in 2-3 days)? I spent several days slowly dosing CaCl from around 350 to my target level of 420ppm, so along with Mg of 1280-1290ppm I think water chemistry is doing really well.

I've started to learn how to feed my corals but I think that I've got to blend the food more finely. My cleaner shrimps are definetly piggy thieves stealing food from the hammer coral, but they are so cute that I can't hold it against them. This week I also installed my ATO system, which is much needed because I get almost a 0.001SG change in salinity while I'm at work. I setup a second QT tank this weekend for two bangaii (sp?) cardinalfish this weekend. So we'll be able to stagger our initial fish purchases by every two weeks. Two more weeks and the clowns get released into the display tank!

Okay, so I know that it is important to "go slow", but that is very relative to your circumstances. There is no similarity between a 3 week old tank started with dry Marco's rock versus a tank with transferred liverock. I know that some parts of my system are very young - my sand has little life and my constructed rock wall background is clearly settling in as that is the only place with algae growing on it. But, my question for everyone is this. Given that I started with well matured liverock and a lot of aged saltwater, how "jump started" is my tank? I'm a biologist so I understand the basics of the chemistry, nutrient cycling etc (but acknowledge that the details of dosing are new). I'm still wary of a potential major disaster and recognize that I might have missed something but I'm beginning to add more critters to my system - a candy cane coral and a coco worm this weekend for instance. I know that i have to spot feed the worm, but I feel that if I wrote this post on certain other websites the only comments and feedback that I'd receive are a dogmatic "you are going too fast". I'm willing to consider that to be the case but only if someone can explain why. If water parameters look good and everything in my tank acts healthy then why not add a couple of corals or other critters each week? Seriously, I would like you input. Don't worry though, no giant clams or mandarins for quite a while!

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  1. melev's Avatar
    Regarding the feeding of corals, some definitely need to be targets (like Tubastrea/Suncorals) while others do not. The Coco Worm is a filter feeder that really doesn't need that type of attention if you have a tank full of livestock. When you feed your fish, the waste the excrete will be something the worm will capture. Offering phytoplankton, rotifers, or some other micro-particulate food isn't a bad idea -- except if you overdo it and pollute the system's water.

    The reef tank has a specific bacterial level that is in direct correlation or balance to the livestock in it. The more livestock you add, the more bacteria is produced to keep up. It is definitely possible to go over-balance and introduce too much livestock and/or too much livestock too quickly. Try to be reasonable and add things gradually. Corals aren't usually a load on the tank like fish would be, so putting in 5 frags of LPS or SPS won't be nearly the same as adding a few larger fish.

    You asked about cured live rock and mature (used) saltwater. The question really needs to be "do I have sufficient live rock in the tank to keep up with the bioload?" If some of the rock is base rock, it doesn't count. Real live rock, the stuff that was collected from the ocean and is added to your tank is the natural filtration. Anything dead, dry, or hand-made may or may not be of assistance for 6 to 9 months, if ever. If the rock is too dense, it may never be more than just some rock eating up space in the tank. Mature water isn't necessarily a good thing, believe it or not. It has good qualities, but it also caries the bad stuff with it: nitrate, phosphate, unknown bacteria that may bloom, and so on. Some mixed saltwater that has aged 24 hours and tests with all the best parameters is better for the tank than to transfer over older water that may have some issues within it. This is just one of those things you have to decide for yourself if it is worth the trouble. When I moved my 280g, I brought all the water with it and ended up making 75g or so to get it running again. I wasn't going to set it up with all new water as I had livestock waiting in a barrel.
  2. cmbspd's Avatar
    Yes, if I could do it over again I wouldn't have used the old seawater - mostly because it had to sit around my house in buckets for 10 days during the initial setup. Although aerated, a lot of it got cold because I didn't have heaters for every bucket and I imagine that it contributed to the tank's first week of high NO3 and PO4, along with some rock die off. My rock volume and quality is really good - very open, porous rocks with lots of surface area. It also has a great abundance of bristle worms, starfish and at least some pods crawling around it.

    I'm just feeding the corals for my own fun right now and to learn the process for when I aquire more demanding specimens. I have had fish my whole life, but mostly smaller species in heavily planted FW tanks where they can forage for their own food. Thus, I'd say I'm normally a light feeder. I'm still getting a feel for how much to feed a 10" long tang! He clearly isn't starving and my NO3 is dropping without water changes so I think I've found a good amount - roughly a pea to chick pea volume worth of pellets a day and some nori.
  3. melev's Avatar
    Tangs are tricky because they can eat so much. However, they poop out a lot of waste which adds to water issues. If you don't mind those water changes you can stay ahead of it.