Getting Ready for Corals

[MrCote]

Im thinking about starting to put some soft corals in my tank. I have a 55 gallon tank that has been set up for 0ver 2 months. It finished cycling about a month ago. I have 11 lbs of live rock in it now and next week I will be putting 50 lbs of dry rock in the tank. I have @ 2" of live sand, 2 koralia 3 800 gph powerheads that are on a wavemaker. I have a Remora C Protein skimmer and a fluval 304. My PH is at 8.4, SG is 1.024, calcium 360,Nitrite 0.0, Amonia 0.0, Phosphate 0.0, Nitrate @ 0.5 Temp is 77F. I have been adding Kent Purple Tech 10ml a day and am starting to see the purple coraline get brighter and also have bright yellowish green forming on the LR. So what other water parameters should I be testing. Anything else that I need to do to start adding "easy to care for corals", and what corals should I start off with?

 

[MrCote]

 

[MrCote]

 

[MPevine11]

i would wait on the corals untill you have the 'dry rock' in and that becomes live.....

that what i would personally do. not sure if its the correct thing to do.




also as for the 'purple up', i would just wait untill it came on its own.

 

[JohnK]

I agree, get the rest of the rock in there and let it run for a bit. Also keep an eye on ammonia, phosphate and nitrate after you add the rock.

You do not want to be adding that purple up stuff without testing for Ca and alk. (I wouldn't use that product anyway, but that's another story). The main thing (if anything) useful in that is going to be Ca. You want to maintain Ca between @375-450. Dosing blindly is not a good idea. Down the road, you should look into switching over to a "two part additive". This way you can accurately supplement both Ca and alk, both of which are important and regardless of what the label says, no additive is going to add both at from the same bottle.

 

[afboundguy]

I agree with above statements... Forgo adding corals until the dry rock is done cycling because you will more than likely get another mini cycle when you add it.

Also ditch the purple up stuff for now because you're not testing calcium and there are much more cost effective products to use to maintain calcium such as the above mentioned 2 part solutions...

 

[MrCote]

Thanks for all the replies, I have been using an API test kit for calcium so I know my calcium is at 360. And I am getting the rock probably on wednesday so I just need to know about what I need to do to have the corals in my tank besides raise calcium

 

[MrCote]

I agree with above statements... Forgo adding corals until the dry rock is done cycling because you will more than likely get another mini cycle when you add it.

Also ditch the purple up stuff for now because you're not testing calcium and there are much more cost effective products to use to maintain calcium such as the above mentioned 2 part solutions...

how long does one of these mini cycles take to complete?

 

[afboundguy]

Can't really give an exact time... Could be faster than the orig cycle could be longer... I'd say it might be shorter if you made me choose

 

[JohnK]

There are a couple of things that will be happening.
If the rock has any dead organic matter on or in it, that will basically have to rot away until the rock is clean.
Once the rock is clean, the longer it sits and cycles the more life will inhabit it, and the more of a chance you have of cycling through the usual nusiance algaes and getting the coralline going like on the rock you already have.

Really, you need to make sure that the rock is clean and any organics have rotted out. From there, you can add hardy corals at any time, but the longer you wait the more stable the system will be and the happier the corals will be.

 

[The Ng Thing]

Word of caution: Don't always trust API Ca kit .... it may have just been a fluke for me but I've never gotten consistent readings from the one I had or the one the LFS store used to test my water. It's fine now but when you start keeping hard corals get a good quality test kit and compare it to other sources.

Couldn't resist adding ... ditch the purple up ;-)

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Totally agree with the aforementioned statements. Ditch the Purple Up, as it also contains phosphates. I experienced this in my days of trial and error. If you can try to soak the dry rock as well and use a powerhead or turkey baster to blowoff decaying matter.

 

[RayD]

I'd also consider ditching the Fluval 304. Nitrate factory IMO and they become a PITA to clean. Good healthy rock and a good skimmer will be plenty!

When I started years ago I did a Fluval 404. After about 3 months I absolutely hated it. JMO, YMMV.

 

[MrCote]

I am hopefully going to be getting a 20 gallon slong tank and using it as a sump soon and then Ill get a wet dry filter and refugium and most likely ditch the fluval then. But how come I should ditch the Purple Tech? My calcium is low and how else will it get raised to over 400?

 

[The Ng Thing]

Kent's turbo calcium ( or similar products that are calcium chloride)worked for me in conjunction with regular two part additives. The type that you need to dissolve in RO water is what I'm refering to not the liquid stuff (I never tried the liquid)

If your going to the Nov. meeting Randy Holmes would be a great person to consult if you want to learn more.

 

[MrCote]

meetings are hard for me to make because I work on weekends. Ill hopefully be able to attend a meeting eventually and then become an actual member