redseaapples
New member
i rarely post but read a lot ..great source of information and various views ...not a newbie had fresh and salt since undergravel was the in thing , but as i resurect my what was to be my first coral tank ive looked back on mistakes i made through thinking i knew what i was doing to the realization that its far more complicated than we realize..
when i first set this tank up 2 yrs ago i was plagued by nitrate and phosphate hair algae aptasia ...doing a fish only was so much easier ..discovered nopox and ended up over dosing to get that 0 nitrate i thought was needed ...phosphate rose and destroyed my tank so after a while i ended up with a live rock and my poor old fish both now over 10 yrs old that had lived through my whole adventure ..sadly i lost my blue tang ..he was called blue ..but maroon clown fish now has the whole tank ..happily i think she is a meany ...so to my observations and questions....
my tank now runs with nopox still i average under 10ppm all the time less is better chasing 0 causes other problems better to let nitrates rise a bit then create other issues just to get 0 ..but now i also halve the dose 2ml a day 1ml in tank 1 ml in skimmer ..curious why it makes the skimmer skim so much more..?
phosphate i run a phosphate remover all the time phosguard phosbon all seem to work well keeps at .02 till exhausted takes a week to climb to 0.09 then replace
but i never really understood with waterchanges every week why it wouldnt stay down before without phos stuff ..i tried the phosphate chemical ages ago but its too easy to trash a tank ..threw 3/4 bttle in bin..purigen instead of carbon just works better
so now onto calcium and alkalinity ...i only just started added soft corals which dont really rely on these and i can see many various opinions on alkalinity ..when tested i barely get 7 and it drops to 6.1 in 2 weeks with 2 water changes in that time...why doesnt water changes correct the issue i have nothing i know that would absorb these elements ...for a general mixed tank what target should i aim for ...i see everyone goes to the standard parameters but other opinions say 8 9 or 10 dkh and testing and dosing to read my tank on this will take a while i think...i guess you can overdose as well ,calcium doesnt vary much small dose and its back up at 420 ..but if calcium gets to high what does that do to tank ? for once i am happy and not stressed about the tanks progress ..it stays remarkably clean with average maintaince and everything is happy...dosing reef fusion for cal/alk but want to set a goal number for both and keep it there ..if theres one thing ive learnt not only through my aquarium adventures but in my growing of tropical plants is that you dont know till you know and you must be open to all opinions and the most important think is patience ..im still waiting after 14 yrs for a rare orchid to flower ..one day
when i first set this tank up 2 yrs ago i was plagued by nitrate and phosphate hair algae aptasia ...doing a fish only was so much easier ..discovered nopox and ended up over dosing to get that 0 nitrate i thought was needed ...phosphate rose and destroyed my tank so after a while i ended up with a live rock and my poor old fish both now over 10 yrs old that had lived through my whole adventure ..sadly i lost my blue tang ..he was called blue ..but maroon clown fish now has the whole tank ..happily i think she is a meany ...so to my observations and questions....
my tank now runs with nopox still i average under 10ppm all the time less is better chasing 0 causes other problems better to let nitrates rise a bit then create other issues just to get 0 ..but now i also halve the dose 2ml a day 1ml in tank 1 ml in skimmer ..curious why it makes the skimmer skim so much more..?
phosphate i run a phosphate remover all the time phosguard phosbon all seem to work well keeps at .02 till exhausted takes a week to climb to 0.09 then replace
but i never really understood with waterchanges every week why it wouldnt stay down before without phos stuff ..i tried the phosphate chemical ages ago but its too easy to trash a tank ..threw 3/4 bttle in bin..purigen instead of carbon just works better
so now onto calcium and alkalinity ...i only just started added soft corals which dont really rely on these and i can see many various opinions on alkalinity ..when tested i barely get 7 and it drops to 6.1 in 2 weeks with 2 water changes in that time...why doesnt water changes correct the issue i have nothing i know that would absorb these elements ...for a general mixed tank what target should i aim for ...i see everyone goes to the standard parameters but other opinions say 8 9 or 10 dkh and testing and dosing to read my tank on this will take a while i think...i guess you can overdose as well ,calcium doesnt vary much small dose and its back up at 420 ..but if calcium gets to high what does that do to tank ? for once i am happy and not stressed about the tanks progress ..it stays remarkably clean with average maintaince and everything is happy...dosing reef fusion for cal/alk but want to set a goal number for both and keep it there ..if theres one thing ive learnt not only through my aquarium adventures but in my growing of tropical plants is that you dont know till you know and you must be open to all opinions and the most important think is patience ..im still waiting after 14 yrs for a rare orchid to flower ..one day
