New to hobbie. 120 gal. reef. been cycling for about 5 weeks. Started with cured live rock and live sand. Experiencing algae die off. beautiful and expensive Fugi rock turning white. Picked up reef test kit and started adding calcium. Will this stave off the algae die off ? Also noticed that my carbonate level is high. around 11dkh. I took the carbonate reading after dosing with calcium. could this be the reason for the high reading ? Is a high carbonate reading bad? I am also in the market for equipment such as contorller, phosphate reactor, calicum generator with CO2, chiller, UV sterilizer. I still need to research sizing of above mentioned equipment..I have learned as an industrial tecnician that it doesn't make much sense to load up a $300 dollar motor with $ 1500 worth of protection. Does this logic apply to this hobbie with respect to tank size or is this more of a matter of maintaining a critical process. Is there a reliable cheaper source for chem. additives and test kits ?
Need advice /equipment
- Thread starter sfreiler
- Start date
Shooter7
New member
What's the status of your cycle? It's not uncommon to lose some color on your rock while cycling. I would encourage you, though, to step away from the additives and such during a cycle. If your tank is this new, you shouldn't have to worry about that kind of stuff yet since you don't have corals in there using it up. Mix up a batch of saltwater, test it to see where the numbers are on the new water. Most mixes will get you to a pretty decent zone with just the water mix without having to add anything. If something is off significantly from normal parameters,
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
then use a reef chemistry calculator
http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
to help you figure out what and how much and how quickly you should add it. Only add things you can test for, I use Salifert test kits, but there are others. If the current levels in your tank are really off right now from putting additives in the tank, I would suggest doing a pretty big water change and get things back on track. You're still early in the game. With regards to the equipment, do you have a skimmer yet? RO/DI? Phosphate reactor is easy, as many or most use the 2 Little Fishies version, then you have to decide what media to use in it. I use PHOSaR. Calcium reactor is not really a necessity for you at this point, but if you're looking ahead, GEO seems to be one of the most popular brands on here and I use one on my 120g. Running one of these systems is more than just the equipment or system applied. You also have to keep in touch with the chemistry, and even more so, the biology. I can look at my tank now and see without even testing when something is a little off. A little more algae growing, coral growth slowing down, color off, whatever, you just have to get a feel for the little underwater world you have in front of you. The equipment chosen and systems working can certainly help simplify the quest, though. HTH
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
then use a reef chemistry calculator
http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
to help you figure out what and how much and how quickly you should add it. Only add things you can test for, I use Salifert test kits, but there are others. If the current levels in your tank are really off right now from putting additives in the tank, I would suggest doing a pretty big water change and get things back on track. You're still early in the game. With regards to the equipment, do you have a skimmer yet? RO/DI? Phosphate reactor is easy, as many or most use the 2 Little Fishies version, then you have to decide what media to use in it. I use PHOSaR. Calcium reactor is not really a necessity for you at this point, but if you're looking ahead, GEO seems to be one of the most popular brands on here and I use one on my 120g. Running one of these systems is more than just the equipment or system applied. You also have to keep in touch with the chemistry, and even more so, the biology. I can look at my tank now and see without even testing when something is a little off. A little more algae growing, coral growth slowing down, color off, whatever, you just have to get a feel for the little underwater world you have in front of you. The equipment chosen and systems working can certainly help simplify the quest, though. HTH
after 5 weeks i would not add anything, just let the tank stabilise and keep testing, do everything slowly, if you rush and start dosing things will get bad, start off slow and let the water start to improve via water changes and regular maintenance, too fast means mistakes and possibly a crash, its very early days yet, this could take months before anything good starts to happen, just slow down, patience and monitoring is best, lets see a complete set of parameter readings, then we can advice on dosing
