C_Everett95
New member
Hello fellow reefers!
Okay so I'm having a bit of trouble with my water parameters. At first everything seemed fine with the simple api kit I had until I did the research and found out that most of these tests are junk. Through a bunch of decision making I decided to go ahead and go purchase a couple of salifert kits: Calcium, Magnesium, and alkalinity. After using these tests I figured out pretty quick how wrong I was thinking my tank was ready to add some corals. Well I did kind of jump the gun senselessly when my tank finished cycling and purchase two zoanthids, a 1x1 frag of GSP and a mushroom (don't know which kind specifically). I noticed that after two weeks my mushrooms still haven't plumped back up as they were at my LFS. The zoas do come out, one of them fully, and the other about 3/4 of it comes out. My GSP has came out a few times fully but most of the time either doesn't come out or only partially does and only for a little while, and now a hermit crab has steadily been climbing on it and I'm not sure if it's cleaning it or something worse. My CUC consists of 6 little hermit crabs at the moment. Anyways back to the point of this post. My water parameters are as follows.
Alk - non detectable at first so I have no idea where it was but it was way above 15.7 which I believe if the highest the test will read. Did two 20% water changes over the course of 3 days and now my Alk currently sits at 15.
Cal - 400
Mag - 1140
Nitrates - .5
Ammonia - 0-2 (only have an api liquid kit for this right now)
SG - 1.025
Being new to the hobby and not doing my research I fell into the pit of believing my ill informed buddy who was going to start a 5 gallon fluval nano with no experience and quickly gave it up. He gave me api pH buffer, and Kent marine Purple Tech. Now having done some research I figured out that I shouldn't have used any of those and should not dose anything without the proper knowledge. I'm assuming the ph buffer is why my alkalinity is so high since it says it raises carbonate hardness to buffer the pH. I am new to this hobby, but I am also a fast learner, but that being said I don't want to jump into anything without proper knowledge. So I'm reaching out to you guys in hopes of Learning a thing or two and hopefully getting my water up and running properly so I can start enjoying my new reef tank!
Oh and one last bit of info. My current VERY TEMPORARY lighting system is a marine land reef capable led system just because I'd rather have the white and blue les option over the stock bulb that came with my tank. I have a 32" euphotica led system I'll be ordering in a week. 99 led 216w total output, full spectrum, separate dimmable drivers, sunrise/sunset programmability. I know this may not be the best lighting system there is and you shouldn't "skimp on lights" but after comparing a ton of lights from Chinese black boxes up to kessils and maxspects, this is about topping out my lighting budget and comes with all the features I wanted in particular and not having to buy two or three separate systems. And I also don't plan on keeping any sps or super hard corals any time soon. Any criticism on this would be appreciated. Let me know your thoughts. I know this thread is all over the place as I'm kind of new to forums, so please give me a break
Hope to hear from someone!
Okay so I'm having a bit of trouble with my water parameters. At first everything seemed fine with the simple api kit I had until I did the research and found out that most of these tests are junk. Through a bunch of decision making I decided to go ahead and go purchase a couple of salifert kits: Calcium, Magnesium, and alkalinity. After using these tests I figured out pretty quick how wrong I was thinking my tank was ready to add some corals. Well I did kind of jump the gun senselessly when my tank finished cycling and purchase two zoanthids, a 1x1 frag of GSP and a mushroom (don't know which kind specifically). I noticed that after two weeks my mushrooms still haven't plumped back up as they were at my LFS. The zoas do come out, one of them fully, and the other about 3/4 of it comes out. My GSP has came out a few times fully but most of the time either doesn't come out or only partially does and only for a little while, and now a hermit crab has steadily been climbing on it and I'm not sure if it's cleaning it or something worse. My CUC consists of 6 little hermit crabs at the moment. Anyways back to the point of this post. My water parameters are as follows.
Alk - non detectable at first so I have no idea where it was but it was way above 15.7 which I believe if the highest the test will read. Did two 20% water changes over the course of 3 days and now my Alk currently sits at 15.
Cal - 400
Mag - 1140
Nitrates - .5
Ammonia - 0-2 (only have an api liquid kit for this right now)
SG - 1.025
Being new to the hobby and not doing my research I fell into the pit of believing my ill informed buddy who was going to start a 5 gallon fluval nano with no experience and quickly gave it up. He gave me api pH buffer, and Kent marine Purple Tech. Now having done some research I figured out that I shouldn't have used any of those and should not dose anything without the proper knowledge. I'm assuming the ph buffer is why my alkalinity is so high since it says it raises carbonate hardness to buffer the pH. I am new to this hobby, but I am also a fast learner, but that being said I don't want to jump into anything without proper knowledge. So I'm reaching out to you guys in hopes of Learning a thing or two and hopefully getting my water up and running properly so I can start enjoying my new reef tank!
Oh and one last bit of info. My current VERY TEMPORARY lighting system is a marine land reef capable led system just because I'd rather have the white and blue les option over the stock bulb that came with my tank. I have a 32" euphotica led system I'll be ordering in a week. 99 led 216w total output, full spectrum, separate dimmable drivers, sunrise/sunset programmability. I know this may not be the best lighting system there is and you shouldn't "skimp on lights" but after comparing a ton of lights from Chinese black boxes up to kessils and maxspects, this is about topping out my lighting budget and comes with all the features I wanted in particular and not having to buy two or three separate systems. And I also don't plan on keeping any sps or super hard corals any time soon. Any criticism on this would be appreciated. Let me know your thoughts. I know this thread is all over the place as I'm kind of new to forums, so please give me a break
Hope to hear from someone!
