What next?

[Tarhiel]

Hello everyone, this is my first thread, and my first post outside of the "Post your fish combinations here" thread, though I have been a lurker and a reader for a little while, and have learned a great deal from this site.

Anyhow, my questions- what now? I have been working on my first saltwater tank, and am not quite sure how to proceed. The tank has been up since mid-August, started the cycle toward the beginning of September by adding a live shrimp, and believe that the cycle has been completed. My chemistry is currently:
Calcium ~420ppm
dKH 10
Phospates ~0.25
Nitrate ~40ppm
NH3 and NO2 both 0
Ph 8.2

My tank specs:
29gallon corner/pentagon tank, taller rather than long. Hob filter that can be modded into a fuge, or I can just fill it with more LR. DSB, about six inches deep, with a partial plenum.I know this method has fallen out of favour a bit, but the first book I read before starting was John Tullock's "Natural Reef Aquariums" and he convinced me. About 25lbs of LR, about 100lbs of sand, though the bottom layer was not live when purchased. I do not yet have adequate lighting, just an old power compact fixture, but I will being adding coral-worthy lighting as soon as possible, likely LEDs. No skimmer, no sump, one power head that I plan to supplement, as it is only 106gph.

So my question is- what now? I have a small CUC, is it now time for fish? More inverts? When can I add mushroom corals? I plan to do all softies, and I know they require the leats amount of light.

Any and all help is much appreciated!

 

[thegrun]

I would make a large water change (50%+) to reduce your nitrates and phosphates or you are going to have issues with algae before long. After that you are fine to slowly add fish. Most soft corals are hardy so you should be fine to add the mushrooms after you make your water change.

 

[edinphilly]

+1 to the large water change. I have a 1yr old standard 29 gallon. The biggest issue I see with what you've posted is lack of flow. I'm turning over 1200 GPH with a couple power heads. Up your flow sooner rather than later. It will help with combating algae and it increase your natural filtration.

 

[edinphilly]

Also I'd toss a bag of a Phosban product to remove phos and nitrate. I used mine to get through a period of phosphate leaking out of rocks and it worked good. Especially since you're not skimming.

 

[edinphilly]

Toss in your HOB I mean

 

[Bryopsis]

Get a skimmer.

Get familiar with carbon dosing in some form. I know you have a plenum, but I would be cautious as it may do very well with nitrates, phosphates will whoop ya. It will soak into your calcium carbonate based materials (most sand, LR) and sneak up on you, and then you'll have an explosion of algae. I myself prefer biopellets as it's very easy to keep phosphates in check with additional nitrate producing mechanisms such as canisters, hob filters, sandbeds, and as it's just a reliance on a pump versus a dosing pump(the stress on electrics is mainly turning on and off) or human. (as a side note with my own experience, recirculating reactors are necessary for easier operation as every time you expose the pellets to air the system semi-resets, and other than the bp reactor plumbed into skimmer input, draw water from the skimmer output to the bp reactor input)

If you get any non-soft corals, get your fish and critters before corals. (mainly for preventing a bloom etc and then dealing with it on your corals versus already getting the system stable with fish first)

 

[Sk8r]

Start a fish in quarantine. Or a zoa in observation. You're pretty well started.