My First Attempt At Marine (cheap Custom Tank 80ish Litres)

[creg]

thanks for the tip greg. i test nitrates but i dont trust the results, my lfs is a marine specialist im going to take a sample to them tommorow to see if it is either of those. ive heard it can be old bulbs too, well i bought my light unit 2nd hand and the guy said the bulbs were only 6 weeks old but i dont trust him so could be that. for now i am going to double the amount of water i change each week and look into possibly getting a skimmer.

 

[gregswimm]

I don't trust anyone short of a lab to test my water.  Get yourself Red Sea algae control test kit.  Comes with phosphate and nitrate tests.  I have it, love it, and recommend it.

With a skimmer, expect difficulty in keeping NPS corals and clams and almost anything that filter-feeds.

 

[creg]

went to my lfs yday and he was very helpful. he tested my water using a salifert kit and i had 0 nitrates and phosphates but he said that could be because the algae has used it all up. he also advised me to shorten my lighting to 4 hours a day and raise my ph upto 8.3. my salinity was a little high at 1.027 so he advised i lower that to 1.025 aswell.

 

[gregswimm]

it is not possible to have phosphates at 0 without a serious phosban reactor.  Even if algae is consuming the phosphates, they will still show up on the tests.  Having absolutely zero phosphates is not good for your corals, remember that corals have symbiotic algae in them and this algae needs some phosphates to stay healthy.   As far as your salinity goes, 1.027 isn't that high, you don't want to go over 1.032.  1.027 is the average gravity of the surface of all the oceans, and the deeper you go the saltier it gets.

 

[creg]

i do have rowaphos in my external filter could that be why phosphates are 0?
either way the algae is dying off fast

 

[gregswimm]

Possible, but it is unlikely that they are at zero.  I would suspect a flawed test.

 

[creg]

new fish, risky i know
 

 

 

 
xenia frag
 

 

[gregswimm]

Not a bad choice as far as damsels go (I would have gone with the azure based on this article .  The yellow tail is said to be the least agressive, but I guess this is like saying "the smallest elephant".

Nice xenia, I have always liked them.  Is that the pulsing variety?

 

[creg]

im hoping if i keep only one damsel in the tank he will be ok. think my overall stock will be 1 yellowtail damsel, 1 cardinalfish, 1 orangespot goby and possibly 1 of something else
 
yeah pulsing xenia i believe, ive had it over a month now it isnt growing very fast. coming from planted tanks im shocked at how slow corals spread

 

[gregswimm]

I think you have too many fish planned to be honest.  Cardinals get surprisingly big, you might be better off with something that would be able to match the damsel's aggression like a clown.

I'm quite surprised at how fast they actually grow.  My zoanthid colony is easily 4x larger than it was when I started, my montipora capricornis has added a good inch to it's radius and my pocillopora is starting to make new branches.  Xenia is supposed to be a weed lol.  Once they get settled in they really go.  Also, frequent testing is key; especially when deciding how much to feed and how often based on your test results.

 

[creg]

my lfs has a few fully grown cardinals recently and i was pretty shocked just how big they get, i read 3 inches but they look bigger. i may ask if they will trade mine for a common clown

 

[gregswimm]

There are a lot of common clowns.  Make sure you know which species you want (probably an A. percula).