At a certain point, you'll shift from newbie params... ["Hey, my fish store says my water's ok."]...roughly known as: fish can survive in my nitrates, the salinity's stable at something-or-another and I don't have any ammonia...
...to either fish params or coral params...the latter of which have their own subdivision.
If you're doing fish-only, keep your water like this: [and comments are exceedingly welcome here: I'm not a fish-only keeper]---Salinity 1.024-6, temperature plus/minus 2 degrees of 80; ph 7.9-8.3; alk 8.3-9.3, ammonia 0, nitrate 5 or less. [Some fish can handle upwards of that, but give them the best you can---and here's where I'd like some comments from fish-only keepers, esp those who keep larger fish.]
If you're doing softie corals: same as those I give for fish-only.
If you're doing lps stony: same, but get the nitrate down to 2-3, and get the calcium steady at 400-450. To do that, you will need to test your magnesium and be sure it's at least 1200. [Magnesium 'sets' the level of calcium the water can 'hold.' If your alk is in the zone, and your mg is three times the calcium level you want, it's easy to dose to that level. If it's not---you can dose forever and it won't stay there.]
If you're doing sps: no nitrate whatsoever, skimmed to a faretheewell, hyper-clean, very high lighting, and pretty well as for lps stony, outside of that. If you have a lot of nutrient in the water, your lps will do better than the stony; if you have skimmed out everything, your sps will do better and the lps not as well. Both eat light.
There is technically no reason you can't set up a tank, go straight to corals, and add fish later...except that corals that do eat particulates more than they eat light do appreciate a little fish poo and stray fishfood.
If you're going toward corals, you want NO filter but your live rock and skimmer. If you're FOWLR you may use a filter, and probably will. Clean it often, like weekly, to keep that nitrate down.
HTH.
...to either fish params or coral params...the latter of which have their own subdivision.
If you're doing fish-only, keep your water like this: [and comments are exceedingly welcome here: I'm not a fish-only keeper]---Salinity 1.024-6, temperature plus/minus 2 degrees of 80; ph 7.9-8.3; alk 8.3-9.3, ammonia 0, nitrate 5 or less. [Some fish can handle upwards of that, but give them the best you can---and here's where I'd like some comments from fish-only keepers, esp those who keep larger fish.]
If you're doing softie corals: same as those I give for fish-only.
If you're doing lps stony: same, but get the nitrate down to 2-3, and get the calcium steady at 400-450. To do that, you will need to test your magnesium and be sure it's at least 1200. [Magnesium 'sets' the level of calcium the water can 'hold.' If your alk is in the zone, and your mg is three times the calcium level you want, it's easy to dose to that level. If it's not---you can dose forever and it won't stay there.]
If you're doing sps: no nitrate whatsoever, skimmed to a faretheewell, hyper-clean, very high lighting, and pretty well as for lps stony, outside of that. If you have a lot of nutrient in the water, your lps will do better than the stony; if you have skimmed out everything, your sps will do better and the lps not as well. Both eat light.
There is technically no reason you can't set up a tank, go straight to corals, and add fish later...except that corals that do eat particulates more than they eat light do appreciate a little fish poo and stray fishfood.
If you're going toward corals, you want NO filter but your live rock and skimmer. If you're FOWLR you may use a filter, and probably will. Clean it often, like weekly, to keep that nitrate down.
HTH.
