My two weeks of reefing experience

[Rainman]

So, here's the deal. I've recently set up my tank with the aim of setting up a reef (thinking: soft and hard corals, copperbanded butterfly, semi-circular angel).

My experience is mainly freshwater, this tank used to be fresh, but I have managed to keep a pair of percula clowns alive for 6 months (had to sell them when I moved state) in a 60l tank, and used to live in a house with 3 x 5ft tanks in it.

Here are the specs: http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=332648#332648.

The tank has been running for two weeks with no water changes, but I'm facing several issues:

1. pH has started and remained at 8.4. Is this too high?

2. Alk was initially high (due to the plenum) but has dropped off to 80 ppm. I will soon have to start dosing with kalk. This should be cool as I've read the reefs.org FAQ thread on it and seems straight forward enough.

3. Temp is between 25 and 30 C. This is too high, isn't it? I live in Townsville, Australia which is hot! - and it's only September. I think I might be forced to get a chiller.

4. My tank seems to be cycling "oh, no, something's actually happening in there! ". I added two pieces of live rock about 10 days ago to kick it off. The ammonia rose to 1ppm but has now dropped slightly to 0.5-1ppm, nitrite has risen from 0 to 1 to 5ppm and stopped, nitrate began rising at about the same time as nitrite and has risen steadily to 80ppm.

In the last 3 days I have begun to get slight brown algae (could be diatoms) growing on the sand in the tank. This is what I expected, having watched friend's tanks cycle in the past (this was usually followed by green and red algae growth, respectively).

I assume (and hope) that these levels fall in the near future, meaning that the plenum has begun doing what it is supposed to.

What do you guys make of all this?

 

[liquid]

Sounds like everything's going the way they should. I wouldn't be concerned about the pH as the readings are normal. If you're using a test kit as opposed to an electronic pH meter to measure your pH, then I'd consider the pH suspect as it's pretty hard to get an accurate reading with the test kits. Diatoms are normal for what you're seeing. It'll pass. Use RO/DI water for your topoffs and for making saltwater as tap water can have phosphates in it which could manifest itself in different types of algal and cyano blooms.

I can't comment on the fish selection as I've always focused more on the corals. heh

hth

Shane

 

[Rainman]

Thanks for the feedback, liquid. I'll keep you updated.

 

[ChrisRD]

Your parameters will probably settle down for you in another couple of weeks. Just be patient and don't add any livestock until the tank is stable. Good luck with you new setup!

 

[Rainman]

The parameters aren't doing s$#%, except for having gone up and now staying there! I think it's because the plenum isn't working. Today I removed the top 1/2 inch of the 6 inches of CaCO3 that I have in the plenum and put on 1 1/2 inches of reef sand (taken from the main tank).
It is a finer grain and should hopefully get it working.

If nothing happens within 3 weeks from now, I'm thinking about pulling the plenum down and putting some bio-balls and matrix in its place. This would be a shame, but I have already got the ingredients and know that it would work.