Caring for a reef tank

[williamstlj530]

Hello. I am Toby Williams
I have been in the Hobby for about 2 yrs., and I keep hearing several different things on the maintenance of corals. I have a 100 gal. tank with perfect water quality and it has been running for about 10 months with about 85 lbs. of Live rock, 300 gal. wet/dry and 35 gal refugium, (2) 175W MH and 260Watt PowerCompacts w/ a total of 610 watts(although I haven't had a need for that much light yet) and 2 blue damsels. The reason I am telling you this brings me to my question. I had a 55 gal. before and not much luck with corals. I would really like to be successful at this, this time. I have been adding Kent Marine: Strontium&Molybdenum,Turbo Calcium,Iron,Trace Elements all from Kent Marine (according to recommendations on Bottles) and Kent Marine salt, in the past, is this sufficient? Or am I missing something? Or am I polluting my tank? Corals don't require target feeding do they? Also I keep my ph@8.2, Salinity@.023, Temp@80f and no ammonia, nitrite or nitrates. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated, I haven't had much luck around town getting this info. Thanks Alot!

 

[skylab1]

Toby,

You said you havent' had much luck with corals in the past, the current 100 gallon tank beside the two damsels what else you have in the tank?

 

[Blown 346]

You are definitly setup for corals and the care of them. In my opinion I dont dose for anything unless my test kits say I am low on something, then I will. But 95% of the time I never dose anything since thru normal water changes you will replenish the essential ellements that the tank needs and uses.
I would only dose if you have alot of demanding corals with certain supplement needs, otherwise you dont have to.

 

[bwayne315]

You could start out with some softies, cabbage leather, colt coral, or mushrooms etc... They are fairly easy to keep. I would just dose with trace elements, unless you plan to keeping stony corals that require calcium supplements. Keeping softies you also want to feed some phytoplankton a couple of times a week. You can also target feed them if you like. I also feed some cyclopeze as well. There should be some local reef clubs in Texas. You can try and get some frags and see how they do before you go buy a bunch of corals.

B.

 

[shag26272]

I dose B-Ionic and DT's phyto in my tanks and I have had great success. But it is not needed if you do water changes.

 

[TekCat]

First that come to mind - bring SG to 1.026. What you have is Ok, but inverts/corals like it higher.

As previously stated do not dose anything if you cant test. And dose only if you're low on certain element. Here is a link to Reef Aquarium Water Parameters, you might find it useful.

good luck!

 

[joe90usa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6684276#post6684276 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TekCat
First that come to mind - bring SG to 1.026. What you have is Ok, but inverts/corals like it higher.

As previously stated do not dose anything if you cant test. And dose only if you're low on certain element. Here is a link to Reef Aquarium Water Parameters, you might find it useful.

good luck!

Good advice.