My First Corals

[nhoffee]

Hi all, I have a few questions. But first Ill get the chemical make up of my water out of the way. PH 8.3, Alkalinity 10.5 (working on bringing it down), Calcium is at 550, Nitrate is at 3.5(doing water changes weekly), Nitrites is at 0, Salinity is at 1.0245(ish), Ammonia is at 0, Temp is at 76 +/- 3. Well do to some issues that I had with a new sump I received my first 3 Softies for free. I am right at the Salinity of the LFS. Tank is currently 22 Days old. Cycled arount day 15.

1: Is it required to Dip your corals from a local fish store?
2: Iodine is it recommended to does it daily/weekly/monthly?
3: Any other help or advice would be welcome.


Thanks, Nathan

 

[saw wave analog]

I've never dipped anything and I've never had any problems that I haven't caused myself. I'd be more cautious if I had a high dollar tank though

 

[jnbrex]

I would dip any sps corals that you possibly get in the future, if you decide to get any. I have not noticed any difference when dosing iodine, with the exception of one coral. When I dosed iodine, my xenia grew about 10x as fast and looked much healthier. If you plan on keeping the xenia, iodine would probably be helpful.

 

[pico-reefer]

i would slowly raise your salinity up to 1.026. waterchanges take care of iodine. its the mag,ph,cal. and alk you need to monitor. and i'd try to keep those temp swings within a degree or 2, 3 seems a bit much

EDIT- and you should always dip your corals, why risk bringing something bad into your tank?

 

[nhoffee]

Temps swings

Temps swings

Hi all, Ty for the reply. My temps are swinging because of the warm temps here in Oregon and I don't yet have enough to buy a chiller just yet when I get paid again I'll look into getting a fan system till I can get a chiller. I am using a airconditioare to help cool so far I have had to open the doors to my sump to help cool it down.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

your one coral is a gonipora or alevopora (LPS,not a softy)....likely wont live in such a new tank, your parameters look fine other then the calcium is a little high..your alk is fine, most prefer it around 8-9 though unless you are going strictly SPS then they like to go a little lower still, i used to run my tank at 10 dKh though..