Adding Soft Corals and Mushrooms Today

[estockman]

Hi everybody!

I am new to this site, and new to the hobby. I read and read, but never get that sense of being comfortable with this hobby. It feels like there are alot of different solutions to most every problem. There are also alot of different ways to accomplish the same goal. So I would like to let you guys know what I have and see if you can help me get my questions answered.

I have a biocube 29, with 20#s Fiji liverock. The tank has been up almost a year. My salinity is 1.023 (this morning). All I dose my tank with is Purple up currently. My temp runs about 79 deg consistently.

I have killed alot of fish and I am not proud of that. I blame it all on temperature fluctuations in the summer where my tank rose to 85 degrees on some days. It happened while I was at work and didnt even know. I ofcourse got ick, and although I tried quarantining I lost my fish. I will be buying a chiller over the winter.

I have kept a carpet anemone and cleaner shrimp for this entire time. I believe my water parameters are right on and test a few times a month.

Now I have ordered some beginner softies and mushrooms. They will arrive today and I am prepared to acclimate per the website I purchased them from.

QUESTION: I know this is huge, and most will tell me to search, but what should I begin dosing or supplementing with so that I can grow the most colorful and impressive corals possible? I use RO water and do frequent water changes. I have read that if you change your water enough you dont need anything. Then again I have read the opposite.

I am sorry for the long post. I respect your opinions and thank you in advance for anything you can throw at me. When I get home from work I will post a pic of the tank if you wish.

Thanks so much!

Eric

[thegrun]

Welcome to Reef Central Eric! First off I would recommend bringing your salinity up to 1.025 or 1.026. You should do this slowly by topping off with salt water rather than fresh water. Secondly you should not dose anything without a reason to do so. Water changes may be all your tank needs as far as maintaining proper chemistry. Blindly adding anything to your tank is at best a waste of money and could well be doing harm. If you are making regular water changes, your main concern will be the big three: Calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Let us know exactly what your water parameters are and we can advise you as to some possible solutions. Simply topping off with Kalkwasser (lime water) is likely all you need to do at this point.

[sqwat]

i dose purple up and iron .purple up is a great all in one for nano tanks i no people will say it sucks or whatever none of them have ever used and i dont like when people comment on thinbgs they havent used.just make sure you have a teats kit for a the things in purple up.not everyone can do constant water changes and with nano's its very important not to do huge changes cause of fluctuations are not as forgivable.i just wish purple up didnt say coralline excellerater on it so misleading.the calium and mag arwe great in it i dose 1/2 teaspoon everynight and my parameters are perfect and i get great growth.i also test and dose iron.i have all mixed reefs.purple up is not a snake oil eather just a all in one that is very good also just missleading.i do have allot of coralline covering all my rocks and it loves the calcium.i never see a fluctuation in my iodide and strontium eather.you just have to come up with the proper dose of purple in youre system.do this by testing everything and comming up with a starting point and adding a little every day till you find the dose that keeps everything in check.what works for somepeople d oesnt work for others so do youre own method of one that you are comfertable.im comfortable with perfect water parameters and with purple up i can keep them there confidently every time.

[thegrun]

As you mentioned in your post, there is usually more than one way to solve any problem. That said, I still maintain that it is much better to only add what your tank needs rather than taking the "shotgun" approach and adding an all in one chemical treatment like purple-up.

[WetShepherd]

Welcome aboard Eric
I'm wondering why you are dosing with purple up. I'm assuming you either a. tested your water for calc, mag and alc and found it lacking, or b. just started adding it based on general advice from your LFS or something you read somewhere else. It's probably not A. because that would really be the answer to the question you are asking here. If it's B, then I would do the tests and post your numbers here asking for advice going forward. I wouldn't say stop your purple up immediately as anything sudden is usually bad - but based on what you have in your tank and the corals you are adding, it doesn't sound like your tank should require dosing.

Regarding the Ich - very sorry to hear that - it sounds like your tank currently has no fish in it? Are you or have you run it that way for 8+ weeks to kill off the Ich? Good sutff if so, and GL if not yet - hate to see you go through that again.

Hopefully your sailing will be a bit smoother from here on out

[estockman]

Unfortunately a little of A and B. I do test for all the basic stuff which calcium is one of them. I dose it to keep calcium in check. I dont test for the others. The LFS said that .5 a capfull a day was fine and I need NOT worry about testing the others. Stupid me.

Its probably been 6 weeks or so since I last had fish. I am not adding any until the full 8 weeks. Just the corals. My understanding is that they are not affected.

But now that we get on the topic of other chemicals in purple up. I suppose its possible that I am overdosing something I did NOT test for. That then is causing ick. Is that possible?

So lets recap, I need to go get some more test kits. Right now I test salinity, calcium, nitrates, phosphates, ph. What else should I buy?

[WetShepherd]

Alkalinity and Magnesium. They are important because all three factors are tied together. You require the appropriate levels for the calcium to be useful in the water. If you have a regimen, don't change it and everything is going smoothly I can see an argument being made for only testing one as a change in one would cause a change in the others. I test for them all because I haven't reached that level of comfort yet.

Re: Ich - it's a parasite and was brought into your tank on something wet (usually fish). You were informed correctly that it won't harm the corals you are adding - but it can travel on anything wet - and if your corals have any on them, then you need to start your 8 week fallow period over. Unfortunately there's no way to know, so you'll probably get people suggesting both (a.) start over and (b.)don't worry about it. Over-dosing will only affect Ich in-so-much as adding to the stress level of your fish, making it harder for them to fight the parasite. It can not cause it by itself.

Oh yea, grab an ammonia test kit if you don't have one. Once cycled it isn't usually a problem, but there may be times you want to test it - such as finding a dead fish and not knowing how long it's been dead in the tank. Finding any dead bio-mass that can overload your biological filter is worth testing your water for ammonia. It lets you know you should do a big water change and possibly use ammo-lock or an equivalent in the short term.