28g jbj led tank questions and inquiry

L

LSBBA

Premium Member
I am brand new to saltwater and am doing a bunch of research thanks to some helpful advice from you guys on here. You suggested I put up my tanks pics and specs so you could give some more guidance. I have a 28g JBJ Led Nano Tank. It is all LED and pretty sweet. I have about 30lbs of live rock in the tank and refugium combined. I added live sand to the back in the main chamber and i am using some sort of blackish colored sand that i bought from true perc. I have a heater and digital thermometer that I added to it. I have the trace elements that I add to the tank weekly which i will list in a sec.( What other elements do I need?) I have four testing kits which are for ammonia, pH, Nitrate, and Nitrite. (what other test kits do I need?)

I have the following things in my tank: Look at picture for number corelations
(#10)1 black/white Clown, (#3)1 six-line wrasse, (#6) 2 red firefish goby, (#12)1 aurora goby (which is cave buddies with a tiger pistol shrimp),(#12) 1 Tiger Pistol shrimp, (#4)1 Blue Spiny Lobster, (#7)1 Cleaner Shrimp ( dont know the name of it), (#8) 1 Torch Coral, (#9) 3 Feather Dusters, (#11)1 Candy Coral (redish color), (forgot to number lol, but is circled) 1 Dragon's Breath Fire Algae, (#10) 1 Rose Bubble Tip anemone, (#5) 1 Blue Mushroom colony, (#2) 1 Clam (don't know what type) little Help on that, and (#1) 1 pulsing Xeniya (sp).

I have the following trace elements:
Phytoplex 1/2 a tsp per week
Tech m Magnesium 1/2 a tsp per week
Microvert 28 drops per week (says one drop per gallon)
Liquid Calcium 1/2 a tsp per week
Iodide 1/2 a tsp per week
Iron & Manganese 1/2 a tsp per week
I feed my fish everyday with 1/2 tsp of Arctipods mixed with 1 punchout of brine shrimp with 2 drops of garlic xtreme and 2 drops of marine C and i feed my clam 1 tsp of Live Marine Phytoplankton.

Please tell me what else i should or should not do. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you could give me. My parameters are salinity of 1.024, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 15-25ppm, ph 8.0 and temp is 78-79.
 
I would suggest at least two more test kits, a Calcium and Alkalinity test kits. You should target your Ca level for around 430 ppm and 8 to 9 DKH for the Alk. You could also get a Magnesium test kit and target it for 1400 ppm. One rule of thumb is to never add something (trace elements) that you do not test for.
 
Do you have specific questions or are you just wondering if you're doing everything right?

Personally I would say that the trace element work is overboard. I do bi-weekly water changes with reef crystals to keep my trace elements up, but that's just different opinions not something you're doing wrong or anything.

I think it looks great. :)
 
@washingtond wrote:
I would suggest at least two more test kits said:
+1


To me it seems like you're adding way too many supplements. Don't add anything you can't measure before you add it. Just worry about the big 3, Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium

I was guilty of doing a lot when I first started out, but as soon as I stopped everything stabilized and my tank was a lot healthier. You should be getting plenty of Trace Elements from your salt mix.
If you want to keep everything a little more stable then do a 2 gallon water change once a week. remember on smaller systems that your parameters will fluctuate more than on a larger system.
Click to expand...
 
These were the elements that my lFS suggested to me when i was buying my livestock from him. Was he just upselling? What elements should I stop using?
 
Which elements do suggest I stop using? When i bought my livestock the LFS said, "ohh you need this for such and such reasons..." was he just trying to upsell me?
 
moved and merged threads...but as mentioned, if you dont test for it, dont add it. so stop using any trace minerals you do not have a test kit for.
 
Also as mentioned above regular water changes will replenish most trace elements. You should only add the ones (Ca & Alk to name a few) that testing indicates need replacing.

For a better understanding of how things work I would also recommend that you get this book for more detailed information on how it all fits together. It is one of the best on the market. "The Reef Aquarium Science, Art, and Technology" volume three by Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek. That is volume three, there is also a volume 1 & 2 but 3 is the one you want first.
 
Here are some sites that can give you a lot of info very quickly.

www.wetwebmedia.com
http://reefkeeping.com/index.htm

A book is a better way to go because of it being a continuous process through the entire book. Knowledge being built upon knowledge that grows throughout the book will give you a better understanding than reading several short articles with most being written with previous knowledge assumed. However... online articles are available right now... and you can search them to find some answers to specific questions a little easier.
 
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