Dosing Ect For Corals?

[tnhowery]

Hey I have recently moved from my 10G to a 29G SW tank. I currently have my CUC in the tank and have added my first coral a green star polyp. My question is what are the paramaters i need to test for for corals? I kinda jumped the gun a little and im sure my current coral will be fine but for more advanced corals what do i need to do?

BTW my paramaters as of now are

TEMP 79F
PH 7.9 HOW DO I GET THIS UP?
SG 1.025
AM, NO2 = 0
NO3 = less than 5

i have 35-40lbs of LR a hydro koralia 750GPH powerhead and a CURRENT SUNDIAL T5 light 96 WATTS, with two whites two actinics and two moonlights. Everything seems stable at this point.

Thanks for any replys.

 

[-Nemo-]

Green star polyps are one of the most hardiest corals so they are a great first coral.
Sticking with softies, you don't have to worry about your stats as much as say, lps or sps although your light would support lps fairly well.

As per your ph: Try pointing a powerhead upwards for surface agitation, it can help gases exchange better and increase your ph.

Make sure your nitRATes stay as low as possible (definitely under 20), and the only other thing I would double check would be your KH, it should be between 8-12.

If you decide to get into LPS, you would also want to check up on your calcium and make sure it stays in the 400-450ppm range. But with softies, it isn't as much as a problem.

So in conclusion, don't dose anything right now

 

[tnhowery]

Thanks for the reply, i knew the Star coral was def easy to keep so i wanted to start off with that i have had it in the tank for a week now and am already seeing growth on it. I would def like to get into lps at some point. I really like the hammer and the sun coral as well as the trumpet. I am going to leave the tank alone for about two weeks and get some zoos tho. then give it a bit more just to make sure, oh ya the stocking... i will eventually have two clowns and a goby/pistol shrimp. is this okay in a 29? I need to start a journal lol.


Oh and as far as the surface agitation i have a HOB filter from my 10G that i put on for the beneficial bacteria... This is creating agitation but doesnt seem to be doing the trick... I havent tested for two days so i will try again tonight and see what happens.

 

[-Nemo-]

that's fine for a 29g- and leaves you with more room even.

Sun corals are nonphotosynthetic and need to be fed several times a week, incase you didn't know.

pH can change throughout the day. It will typically be low at night and when the lights are first turned on and will usually rise throughout the day. If you didn't, try testing 4 or 5 hours after the lights have been turned on.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The PH is fine so I wouldn't worry about that. A stable PH that is a little lower than normally recommended is better than one that is bouncing around all over the place as you try to adjust it. PH on one of my old tanks was always around 7.8 and never had any issues.

As nemo said don't worry about dosing anything right now. To be honest if you do regular water changes you never need to dose anything unless the tank is completely full of SPS corals.

Fish stock sounds fine and as above you could probably add a little more to that.

 

[tnhowery]

Thanks for the info, and yes i did know sun corals are non photosythetic, but i will wait a while on one of those. My ideas changed some on stocking not a bunch but some I will post in the proper section!