AussieDog
New member
Want to start off and say I'm new here (Just joined, always lurked) and am glad to be apart of this awesome site! I wanted to just toss out a welcome thread with a few question(s) if you will...so here goes.
I have been running a 54G Corner reef tank for going on 4 months now and I've been experimenting with beginner SPS coral (shooting to mainly keep LPS, not SPS) that I have received for next to nothing for the heck of it. Problem is, I've had nothing but trouble with keeping things alive for more than a month, if that.
What I've currently lost or starting to lose is;
-Tyree Setosa
-Rainbow Monticap
-ORA Green Birdsnest
Now, I'm not too concerned I've lost those because again, it was mainly an experiment and I received them for next to nothing for a trial run if I wanted to keep SPS. I've since kinda lost my desire to keep SPS and want to get back into Chalices, Hammers, Torches etc. With that being said, I have been able to notice a trend with parameters and they usually stay around the following;
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 8.2
CA: 440
Alk: 9.5dkH
Mag: 1350
The tank, being a corner tank, was annoying to find a T5HO fixture to fit properly over the tank, so I'm running an 30" AquaticLife 4Bulb T5HO w/2 Lunar LEDs with no additional lighting. I'm using the standard bulbs that came with the fixture until I can actually pony up the $$ for better bulbs, hopefully tax return time!
At any rate, since I'm wanting to keep LPS again, I'm not too concerned with the nitrate levels because I know they typically like dirtier water (i.e. 10-20ppm Nitrates being ok) and the tank gets a 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks using standard Tropic Marin salt (which i'm thinking about switching to an actual reef salt). I'm also running a sockless/spongeless sump with just protein skimming. I also have 2 Koralia 1150gph for additional flow. Fish inhabitants are;
-Black Ocellaris
-Sixline Wrasse
-Fiji Coral Beauty - Suspect Coral Nipper, but no evidence.
-Flame Hawk - Suspect Coral Nipper, but no evidence.
So the ultimate question is, am I missing something here? I feel like all my paramters are spot on from what I can tell and so far since I've seemingly failed at keeping those SPS, I feel like when I do try out LPS again, I'm gonna fail.
Any insight, suggestions, comments, concerns are appreciated! Thanks for dealing with my long winded post and hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse here! :deadhorse1:
I have been running a 54G Corner reef tank for going on 4 months now and I've been experimenting with beginner SPS coral (shooting to mainly keep LPS, not SPS) that I have received for next to nothing for the heck of it. Problem is, I've had nothing but trouble with keeping things alive for more than a month, if that.
What I've currently lost or starting to lose is;
-Tyree Setosa
-Rainbow Monticap
-ORA Green Birdsnest
Now, I'm not too concerned I've lost those because again, it was mainly an experiment and I received them for next to nothing for a trial run if I wanted to keep SPS. I've since kinda lost my desire to keep SPS and want to get back into Chalices, Hammers, Torches etc. With that being said, I have been able to notice a trend with parameters and they usually stay around the following;
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 8.2
CA: 440
Alk: 9.5dkH
Mag: 1350
The tank, being a corner tank, was annoying to find a T5HO fixture to fit properly over the tank, so I'm running an 30" AquaticLife 4Bulb T5HO w/2 Lunar LEDs with no additional lighting. I'm using the standard bulbs that came with the fixture until I can actually pony up the $$ for better bulbs, hopefully tax return time!
At any rate, since I'm wanting to keep LPS again, I'm not too concerned with the nitrate levels because I know they typically like dirtier water (i.e. 10-20ppm Nitrates being ok) and the tank gets a 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks using standard Tropic Marin salt (which i'm thinking about switching to an actual reef salt). I'm also running a sockless/spongeless sump with just protein skimming. I also have 2 Koralia 1150gph for additional flow. Fish inhabitants are;
-Black Ocellaris
-Sixline Wrasse
-Fiji Coral Beauty - Suspect Coral Nipper, but no evidence.
-Flame Hawk - Suspect Coral Nipper, but no evidence.
So the ultimate question is, am I missing something here? I feel like all my paramters are spot on from what I can tell and so far since I've seemingly failed at keeping those SPS, I feel like when I do try out LPS again, I'm gonna fail.
Any insight, suggestions, comments, concerns are appreciated! Thanks for dealing with my long winded post and hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse here! :deadhorse1:
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