Biocube 14 gallon, finally came along (Pic Heavy)

[YHSublime]

So I started one Reef Central around 11/12/12, maybe a little bit before then, with big dreams of putting together an amazing Nano tank. Many of you walked me through the cycling process, and preached patience, now I'm back to show my success, as well as ask some questions!

I got involved with a local club, and it has been incredibly gratifying. Some of my additions:

Coral Added:

15lbs of live rock
20lbs of Aragonite live sand (live now!)
Percula Clowns (2)
Ricordeas (2)
JPB Cobalt Shrooms (4)
Liams Cloves (2" sq)
Wavespring Neon Toadie
Wavespring Neon Sinularia
Green Star Polyps
Rock Anemone
Red Zoas

Peppermint Shrimp added:

Two Clown Perculas added:

The only problems I've had so far are my Red Zoas are the only corals that are not responding well to my tank. They came out the first day, and then never came out again. Here are my water parameters:


So here are my numbers:
Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: .25
No2: 0
No3: inbetween 10-80ppm

Calcium: Is about 450ppm
KH: 196.9
Phosphates: .25 (maybe to .5)
(Sorry, last 3 were my first reads.)

This was also right after a 20% water change, I don't know if that affects anything. Also, I have had what appears to be a dime size spot of red appear in my sand/glass front and center. I hit it when I vacuum during a water change, but it's been coming back. Any advice or thoughts about what I should do here?

 

[Track Rat]

Your ammonia is high indicating that your tank may going through another cycle. And you NO3 :eek2: 5-80 is a massive range, you should retest or try a different test kit. Ideally NO3 should never be over 10. As for Alkalinity I'm not sure what unit of measure you are using, most people express it as DKH and it should be between 8-11ish. Last and certainly not least PO4 is way too high. It very close to 0 ie. .01 or so. This leads me to beleave you are using tap water. If so you need to change to RO/DI asap. Your corals appear to be surviving but certainly not thriving.

I would start doing 20% water changes twice a week with RO/DI water until Ammo, NO2, are 0 NO3>10, and PO4 near 0.

Hope that helps.

 

[YHSublime]

I'll try testing again. I have NEVER used tapwater, but I have used distilled water from the grocery store (deer park I think.) I had previously put up a post about this, and was under the impression that that was ok? I get all my RO/DI from a LFS, as I'm really only dealing with about 12 gallons or less of water. I will be moving to a 40 breeder in the next couple months, so I will be investing in an RO/DI filter. My ammonia level was at 0 and then recently went up. Sorry about the nitrates, that is obviously a typo, but from what I can remember offhand, it was higher than it should have been. You're right, these numbers do look like my tank is cycling again. This is my first go with corals, so in my eyes I thought they were thriving. I actually have been doing 20% changes 2x a week, so hopefully everything will level out again. I'm only feeding for the two clowns, once a day, and I assure you that none is wasted. I can't wait to see what these corals will look like if they're only just getting by atm!