Newbie Advice

[dee99gt]

I’m asking for a friend. He has a 40 gallon. It’s been up for almost a month and a half. He cycled it with adding different bacteria in bottles. He has a hob filter with carbon along with a uv light, and also a wave maker. Light source he has a small fluval led light.

After the tank quickly cycled a bout 2.5 weeks ago he added Kenya tree coral, 2 clown fish and a clean up grew. He has to manually add water in his tank so his salinity swings from .24 - .28 depending. He just bought 3 chromis for it as of two days ago along with 1 Duncan coral. He tells me his water is stable. His PH is between 7.4-7.6. Calcium at one point was around 600.

Any advice? My friend isn’t on here but i am going to share this with him as he won’t take my advice.

[Anemone]

Slow down, or he's going to spend a lot of money on dead corals and fish.

We really can't give specific advice without more info on the tank and set up. What size/type HOB filter? What size UV light? What type of lighting ("small fluval led light" doesn't tell us much).

What are his other tank parameters (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?). pH of 7.4-7.6 is too low, calcium of 600 is too high. Salinity swings from 1.024 to 1.028 SG are way too extreme - he needs to figure out a way to smooth that out (in a 40 gallon tank, he must be allowing an awful lot of evaporation before replenishing with FW to get those types of swings).

Kevin

[elecbzerk]

Yes, salinty swings like that will cause problems for your friend. Anything that happens fast in this hobby is always bad...tell him to slow down

[dee99gt]

I’m not too sure of the specs of his equipment. I have a 90 gallon reef with softies and LPS. I’ve tried to offer him advice several times but he sees my way of doing it the most “expensive way”. It’s just unfortunate to see someone who wants to get into the hobby think his way is better and not listen to advice.

[jlmawp]

Originally Posted by dee99gt

I’m not too sure of the specs of his equipment. I have a 90 gallon reef with softies and LPS. I’ve tried to offer him advice several times but he sees my way of doing it the most “expensive way”. It’s just unfortunate to see someone who wants to get into the hobby think his way is better and not listen to advice.

If he's a sane person, once he sees you were right, maybe he'll come around.

Also, if he's not willing to listen to you at all, then don't concern yourself with it. After some failures, he'll come back to you for more advice, and then maybe he'll be more open-minded.

[RobZilla04]

Tell your friend to get on here or at least to research and learn the basics.

[JUNBUG361]

Originally Posted by RobZilla04

Tell your friend to get on here or at least to research and learn the basics.

agree