when to add corals

[spragro1]

I have successfully killed 1000$ worth of soft and hard corals as my tank has had a host of plumbing problems and i havent been home much - but the question i have is that my LFS has told me that i cannot add corals to the tank unless i have heavy coralline algea growth - is this true

 

[Ehgemus]

Re: when to add corals

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8024242#post8024242 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spragro1
question i have is that my LFS has told me that i cannot add corals to the tank unless i have heavy coralline algea growth - is this true

No, that is not true!!!!

 

[Sk8r]

The main thing is your water parameters and water source. You should be using ro/di for safety, if you have had troubles; you should be testing nearly daily for the first few months until you're steady-on. And you should either have a good fishsitter or not start anything until you can automate it reliably.

 

[nmprisons]

they are saying that, probably, because coraline requires calcium to grow and so if there is good growth, there is probably some coraline. the reality is that lighting, flow, ammonia, nitrate, ph, alkalinity, and calcium are what really matters, not whether you have algae growing.

 

[MJAnderson]

I asked this same thing in the SPS forum about my 2 month old tank. People seemed to agree that once you start getting 1/2" patches of corraline, you're ready.

Stability is important. Im testing daily while I try to figure out impacts of kalk and water changes.