shadynate
Community Member
Hey all-
I started my tank fresh out the mental hospital in October of 2022. Needed a project at home while I took time off work and back in high school I had a reef tank (not a great one, almost never had any coral other than zoas). This new tank is a redsea max nano peninsula 26g rank. The protein skimmer runs and collects nice skimmate. I do a weekly 4g water change, sometimes biweekly. It is stocked as follows:
2 clownfish
1 newly added tailspin blenny
4 nassarius snails
A handful (5 ish) of margarita snails, a few trochus, tbh a few more snails I am unsure but maybe around 10 active snails.
A handful of hermit crabs, I would say around 3-8.
Pincushion urchin
Camelback shrimp
Lettuce Nudibranch
4 types of zoanthids
Pink bubble tip anenome
GSP
2 mushroom varieties
Failed keeping SPS and encrusting LPS coral.
Tanks parameters are as follows:
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0-8.15 (at times maybe 7.9)
Nitrate: 1-5ppm
Phosphate: 0.21ppm
Calcium: 430ppm
Alkalinity: 10.8-11.2
Magnesium: 1300ppm
Some of the coral are doing amazing. The anemone seems to be thriving. The GSP is as well. I tried SPS 6 months ago and failed. There is a newly added Kenya tree seems to be doing well. But I seem to struggle with growth. The zoanthids don't always open up fully, they are 80% open. The ricordea mushroom seems to be shrunk, but after a water change, or a couple, has seen to plump back up a bit.
I want to eventually keep SPS. I run an MP10 I run on medium Reef Crest mode. As I type this I see I can customize mode by time of day so I may play with that.
I want to know how I can better improve my water quality and have coral thrive and be able to keep LPS and SPS. The hammer coral I have also is still alive but not thriving or looking great. Perhaps it is just a small frag but. I am relatively a noob and wonder if my alkalinity is too high, or perhaps changing salt mix. I use aqua forest reef salt mix. I use aqua forest calcium alk and magnesium although I have hardly ever had to dose. Am I doing water changes too frequent? Or too large? My phosphate seems to not go below 0.2ppm, how does that affect polyp extension? I have GFO and Carbon bag in the overflow "sump", and does aqua forest bacteria and NP bactobalance. every other day or so.
Let me know if there is more pertinent information or additional information to provide to better assist. And thank you in advance for reading this far and responding
Best,
N8
I started my tank fresh out the mental hospital in October of 2022. Needed a project at home while I took time off work and back in high school I had a reef tank (not a great one, almost never had any coral other than zoas). This new tank is a redsea max nano peninsula 26g rank. The protein skimmer runs and collects nice skimmate. I do a weekly 4g water change, sometimes biweekly. It is stocked as follows:
2 clownfish
1 newly added tailspin blenny
4 nassarius snails
A handful (5 ish) of margarita snails, a few trochus, tbh a few more snails I am unsure but maybe around 10 active snails.
A handful of hermit crabs, I would say around 3-8.
Pincushion urchin
Camelback shrimp
Lettuce Nudibranch
4 types of zoanthids
Pink bubble tip anenome
GSP
2 mushroom varieties
Failed keeping SPS and encrusting LPS coral.
Tanks parameters are as follows:
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0-8.15 (at times maybe 7.9)
Nitrate: 1-5ppm
Phosphate: 0.21ppm
Calcium: 430ppm
Alkalinity: 10.8-11.2
Magnesium: 1300ppm
Some of the coral are doing amazing. The anemone seems to be thriving. The GSP is as well. I tried SPS 6 months ago and failed. There is a newly added Kenya tree seems to be doing well. But I seem to struggle with growth. The zoanthids don't always open up fully, they are 80% open. The ricordea mushroom seems to be shrunk, but after a water change, or a couple, has seen to plump back up a bit.
I want to eventually keep SPS. I run an MP10 I run on medium Reef Crest mode. As I type this I see I can customize mode by time of day so I may play with that.
I want to know how I can better improve my water quality and have coral thrive and be able to keep LPS and SPS. The hammer coral I have also is still alive but not thriving or looking great. Perhaps it is just a small frag but. I am relatively a noob and wonder if my alkalinity is too high, or perhaps changing salt mix. I use aqua forest reef salt mix. I use aqua forest calcium alk and magnesium although I have hardly ever had to dose. Am I doing water changes too frequent? Or too large? My phosphate seems to not go below 0.2ppm, how does that affect polyp extension? I have GFO and Carbon bag in the overflow "sump", and does aqua forest bacteria and NP bactobalance. every other day or so.
Let me know if there is more pertinent information or additional information to provide to better assist. And thank you in advance for reading this far and responding
Best,
N8
