STARTING a new SPS 90 gal - Any suggestions..?

[ikn0xl]

I have a 90 gal up and running 9 mos.
Tank Parameters looking good

Nitrate 20
Nitrite - 0
Amm - 0
Good Corraline growth,

Havent measured ALK or Calcium levels or ther Magnesium or Iodine levels yet, SHould I..?

Removed all my fish except 2 blue tangs Juveniles put all of them in a QT tank and I did this to allow a growth spurt of brine shrimp eggs added directly to the tank and pods,

I have a fuge with caulerpa and chaeto growing,

Ive noticed cyano taking over the fuge which I handpicked and threw away I have a few zoo colonies and their doing well.

ASM G2 skimmer HOB overflow q/ rio 1700 and a RIO 14HF inside the tank with a maxijet 1200 for flow.

Honestly the tanks health looks good except for aglae and thats because I need to get a larger cleanup crew,

Currently I only have 8 snails and 5 crabs and soon to be added will be 50 turbo snails and a variety of other cleaners

ANy suggestions on the cleaners...?

I AM running Kent reef carbon and Phosphate remover but I think I need more than the suggested amount of phosphate remover..?


What are the phosphate reacotrs like and how much are they how about maintenance..?

Only thing left I believe is a good lighting system MH's, currently I have 4x65w coralife PC retro 3"from water surface.

Any suggestions..?

Regards
Sev

 

[mntl]

What are your goals for the system/what are you planning on keeping in it, this will help in answering some of your questions. For a fish only system you are probably fine at the moment, sinse you are in the sps forum I am assuming you want to keep sps and in that case the nitrate needs to get as close as possible to 0 with 0 being preferable. Am/trite/trate you have done which is good but phosphate is necessary in my opinion if you plan on keeping corals and in the case of sps it needs to be 0 (per salifert or equivalent).

a little more info on your goals would be a huge help.

--John

 

[Fcataudo]

As mtnl said Nitrate should be as close to zero as possible. As for calcium and magnesium your levels are probably somewhat stable since you do not have any corals in there. Once you go the SPS route yu are going to have to monitor regulary or at least until you create stble environments. I currently dose alk and Ca, but am switching to a Calcium Reactor. My clams and SPS are just depleting my CA levels faster now and dosing seems to no longer handle the demand. As I mentioned check your Alk leves too.

 

[clkwrk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6672427#post6672427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ikn0xl
I have a 90 gal up and running 9 mos.

Havent measured ALK or Calcium levels or ther Magnesium or Iodine levels yet, SHould I..?

? But of course . If you want to get serious with keeping SPS then I feel you need to get serious about your water params. Not testing for 9 months is extreamly lazy IMO .Most SPS keepers with jaw dropping tanks aren't lazy about testing their water params.

For lighting 2x250 de or se's or 8x54w t5's

 

[sm fragman]

after 9 months i would think you wiould have that nitrate down to just about 0

 

[ikn0xl]

Yes indeed tsting is extremely important,

I am going to take a trip down to the wholesalers located near LAX in southern Cal. and I will aquire a few test kits, I have heard good comments on the salifert line any others that are recommended..?

Which kinds
Calcium
Magnesium

ALK - I have Aquarium Pharmaseuticals brand

What is Iodine used for..?

 

[ikn0xl]

well nitrates are up there becasue the fish were removed recently, I feed formula one and formula 2 I think they are the reasons for excess nitrate but I dont know what else to feed?

I recently gave cyclopeeze a go any other suggestions..?

 

[Fcataudo]

Definitely need to boost the cleanup crew. How often do you feed. If you have proper turn over and skimming along with manageable bioload you should have Nitrates near zero. In my 90 gallon SPS I have an ASM 3 with three seios in the display tank for current. I also have a huge clean up crew and 200lbs of live rock. I have never had nitrates higher then trace (meaning nearly undetectable) I would recommend adding to the cleanup crew dialing the skimmer in to produce a very wet skimmate and a 10% water change. That should bring you to zero or close. Oh and Sailfert are great test kits.

 

[ikn0xl]

Thank you for your comments , I will post again shortly