Ty.S44
Community Member
I've had my aquarium running for around three months now (since the beginning of April), and It's a 48"L x 30"W x 30"H or around 190 gallons. I recently just introduced my first batch of coral frags to the tank (mushroom, ricordea, leather, and GSP) and a green BTA alongside a maroon clownfish. This puts my list of current fish at a honey red damselfish, an orange line rabbitfish, a butter hamlet, a rock beauty angelfish, and now a maroon clownfish. They're all roughly the same size at about 3" +/- 0.5". Yes, I understand it seems a little early to be throwing a 'nem into the mix, and it very well could be. However, the anemone actually seems to be doing the best of the new nonfish inhabitants. This prompted me to do the first round of testing my tank has had.
Again, yes, it has been three months since the tank has had its first fish with no tests for anything but ammonia. I always tested a few days before I introduce new livestock to the tank, and never have gotten a reading above zero. I'd also like to mention (I wouldn't really like to, as I'm not proud of it. But I am anyway because this bit of information could be important.) that this tank has never received a water change. My reasoning? Up until now, I've only had fish, so to my knowledge the only parameters that affect them are of course temperature, salinity, and ammonia. Since none of those parameters has fluctuated, I saw no reason to perform a water change. Also, I live in an apartment, so while doable and I will if I must, it's not very convenient.
The state of my livestock is currently good overall. My fish look good. The inverts are also good as far as I can tell. It's of course my corals that are suffering I think. My mushroom and ricordea don't seem to be in too bad of shape. I'm just having a rough time getting them to stay in place. My leather has completely drooped over and lost a lot of color. My GPS looks okay when its polyps are out, but the issue is they're almost never out. My BTA, as previously mentioned, looks okay. It's got a pretty good green coloration going. It's mouth is puckered shut, and the foot doesn't seem to be damaged at all.
Now, here's what I'm sure you all have been waiting to find out, or you just skipped down here in a very understandable fashion. I tested the following parameters, and here's how they came back. Bear in mind, my filtration at the moment is a single 7" filter sock in an otherwise empty sump.
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - Near 0
Nitrate - 40 ppm
Calcium - 480ppm-500ppm
Magnesium - Roughly 2000ppm (I had to estimate as the test I used didn't go this high. I tested twice and got the same result.)
Alkalinity - 7.7 dkh
If you managed to get through all of this I genuinely applaud you. I know I wrote a lot, but I felt most of it was necessary information. Of course, more information and/or photos of anything are available upon request. I'd appreciate any and all recommendations or diagnosis of any issues I've probably got.
Again, yes, it has been three months since the tank has had its first fish with no tests for anything but ammonia. I always tested a few days before I introduce new livestock to the tank, and never have gotten a reading above zero. I'd also like to mention (I wouldn't really like to, as I'm not proud of it. But I am anyway because this bit of information could be important.) that this tank has never received a water change. My reasoning? Up until now, I've only had fish, so to my knowledge the only parameters that affect them are of course temperature, salinity, and ammonia. Since none of those parameters has fluctuated, I saw no reason to perform a water change. Also, I live in an apartment, so while doable and I will if I must, it's not very convenient.
The state of my livestock is currently good overall. My fish look good. The inverts are also good as far as I can tell. It's of course my corals that are suffering I think. My mushroom and ricordea don't seem to be in too bad of shape. I'm just having a rough time getting them to stay in place. My leather has completely drooped over and lost a lot of color. My GPS looks okay when its polyps are out, but the issue is they're almost never out. My BTA, as previously mentioned, looks okay. It's got a pretty good green coloration going. It's mouth is puckered shut, and the foot doesn't seem to be damaged at all.
Now, here's what I'm sure you all have been waiting to find out, or you just skipped down here in a very understandable fashion. I tested the following parameters, and here's how they came back. Bear in mind, my filtration at the moment is a single 7" filter sock in an otherwise empty sump.
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - Near 0
Nitrate - 40 ppm
Calcium - 480ppm-500ppm
Magnesium - Roughly 2000ppm (I had to estimate as the test I used didn't go this high. I tested twice and got the same result.)
Alkalinity - 7.7 dkh
If you managed to get through all of this I genuinely applaud you. I know I wrote a lot, but I felt most of it was necessary information. Of course, more information and/or photos of anything are available upon request. I'd appreciate any and all recommendations or diagnosis of any issues I've probably got.
