75 gal LPS dom tank

[Youngeshark70]

Planning on making my 75 gal reef with 20 gal sump a LPS, soft coral, and mushroom tank.

Ok now for tank info- Tank currently is only in very beginning stages with one clown. My total fish stocking in the end should be; one ocellaris clown, royal gramma, flasher wrasse, and a small tang. 20 gal sump has a psk 100 skimmer, and heaters. DT has approx 70-90lbs of liverock (have added a few batches and kina lost track). And a sand bed. Tank light is a 300 watt mars aqua led fixture.

I have a ton of questions about how to make this tank as perfect for LPS corals as possible without any or much additional equipment.

My tank is showing sorta high nitrates between 15-20, when i get later down the road for corals what number should i shoot for?

I tried to make my stocking list lighter to help with keeping bio load down. Will this make keeping corals easier or is it just better to normally stock the tank?

I see labels like low light and medium light, but how do i know what low/medium light? My leds have adjustments on the blues and whites, what setting should i put these on?

What are some signs to show my tank is ready for corals? After i finish my fish stocking in next two months.

I have more questions but i figure that is enough for now, thank to anyone who reads and helps. Tbh without this forum it would not be possible for me to do this hobby. Appreciate all you guys n gals help!


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[Youngeshark70]

Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated


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[mmarisca]

Your lights are sufficient. I'd do some research on the settings but start at the default level and see how your corals respond. My suggestion would be to start slow. There is no reason why you can't start introducing softies or mushrooms. Put them middle to sand and see how they adapt. When you begin adding LPS you might want to crank the light up a bit.

 

[tanked_life]

Welcome to the lovely world of LPS!

- I run 2 Mars aqua lights over my 55 LPS dom tank and I have whites 50% and blues 100%

- Lower nitrates to 0 before adding and it is ok to have phosphates.

- Since LPS love a dirty tank more so than sticks, it is ok to have a larger bio load. Get a good CUC (snails, stars, etc) and get the RIGHT fish suitable to your size tank. Avoid butterflies as they will nip lps sometimes. Angels are ok.

- Start off with a nice ole frogspawn or hammer coral then as follows once you see signs of good polyp extension and feeding Larger polyp brain corals (like lobophyllia, acanthos, welsophyllia) - duncans - cyphastrea - chalice corals (probably a nice watermelon chalice) - smaller polyp brain corals (favia/favites/goni) - acans

You can try torches and elegance at any given point but for me it was always a hit and miss no matter how mature my tank was and how well my other LPS do. Stay away from "flower pot coral" like alveopora (deep see flower pot) and goniopora rarely do beginners have the ability to keep them as they are beautiful but not very harder and can go down hill very fast.

Good luck!

 

[Youngeshark70]

Thanks mmarisca and tanked_life! So is this a good stocking?
Cuc
mostly snails, few hermits, shrimp, conch, tuxedo urchin
Fish
1 Clownfish
2xReef safe wrasse
Royal gramma
Yellow prawn goby
And yellow eye kole tang



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[Youngeshark70]

Also what is the best way to bring down nitrates? I have been doing weekly 20% water changes for almost a month and can't really tell a difference. Should i put a little hob filter in my sump with some activated carbon?


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[Taahirs]

Your nitrates don't have to be 0. For an lps tank between 5-10 is OK.

 

[tanked_life]

Also what is the best way to bring down nitrates? I have been doing weekly 20% water changes for almost a month and can't really tell a difference. Should i put a little hob filter in my sump with some activated carbon?


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I agree with Tahirs about the range 5-10 being ok. Mine just do best at 0. If you want to get to zero I would run a little carbon. It never hurts

 

[Youngeshark70]

My snowflake clown in the DT, i think he is hosting my powerhead in the top corner [emoji854].
https://vimeo.com/177605634


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[Youngeshark70]

And my two new fishes in qt. Royal gramma and Yellow prawn goby. They came in yesterday and today the RG took a few bites of vitamin enriched brine shrimp.

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[Youngeshark70]

I have another lighting question..for lps corals do i need a ramping up and down period? Right now i just have lights on a timer that kick on and off. I could possibly put the blues and whites on different timers. Then i could run my blues for a few hours, then both for a few hours, then blues again. What would be best?


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