help starting a reef

[randy123]

Ive kept fish for about a year now, and about 5 months ago I tried some soft corals. Now I want to try some real reefing. Due to the expense involved, I would rather learn my lessons the easy way,so I am hoping for any wisdom that others might share.

I have prepared by upgrading my lights to a 6bulb teklight, and my flow is up around 40x turnover. I have a skimmer that is rated for a system 2x as big as mine. My understanding is that I can have most SPS corals, provided that they are built up a little on the rock to ensure enough light is reaching them.

The main area for me that is a little muddy is nutrient dosing. What tests should I be running, and how often? And what is good to add? I am on instant ocean saltmix, so my understanding is that dosing is a must.

Also if anyone had any other random pointers, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Lance]

Originally Posted by randy123

Ive kept fish for about a year now, and about 5 months ago I tried some soft corals. Now I want to try some real reefing. Due to the expense involved, I would rather learn my lessons the easy way,so I am hoping for any wisdom that others might share.

I have prepared by upgrading my lights to a 6bulb teklight, and my flow is up around 40x turnover. I have a skimmer that is rated for a system 2x as big as mine. My understanding is that I can have most SPS corals, provided that they are built up a little on the rock to ensure enough light is reaching them.

The main area for me that is a little muddy is nutrient dosing. What tests should I be running, and how often? And what is good to add? I am on instant ocean saltmix, so my understanding is that dosing is a must.

Also if anyone had any other random pointers, it would be appreciated.

Thanks!

You may not have to dose Ca, Alk or Mg for awhile. As your corals, clams, corraline, etc. grow they will use up more of these elements. Frequent testing will tell you when it is time to dose. Get yourself some good test kits.

[e46er]

i set my reef up a year ago
get some good test kits for mg,ca,KH

i use instant ocean salt and have to dose Ca and Mg into the fresh saltwater ive made up

most buckets come in around 360ppm Ca 9DKH and 1150Mg

i keep my params at
ca 420
mg 1350
DKH 9-10
sal 1.026

[whatcaneyedo]

New Instant Ocean seems to be just fine right out of the bucket. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1714505 I've received the same figures for calcium and alkalinity but slightly lower values for magnesium. Testing your own bucket will tell you for sure as there tends to be some variation between batches.

In many cases there is no need to dose 'nutrients' as nutrients are added every time you feed your fish or your fish poop.

If you're a little fuzzy on the chemistry side of things there are a ton of good articles here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=102605

... my apologies for all of the Reefcentral links... I'm sure there are some articles cataloged on this site too, I'm just used to looking on Reefcental because I've been a member on there longer.

[The Grizz]

I started with IO but now I use IO Reef Crystals and don't have to dose as much now. It cost about $20 more per pail but I save that in supp's. Nice to see another Red Deer reefer.