What next?

[mitch91175]

I have had my tank setup for a week. I have app. 110lbs of live rock in it. Filtration is a sump with a EuroReef skimmer and a Mag 7. My ammonia levels are 0ppm, nitrite at 0ppm and nitrate at 50mg/l. I have a few questions:

1. Is there anything that I can do naturally to control nitrate besides water changes?
2. My LR has brown algae on it. Is this because of the nitrate or is that the first signs of the tank cycling?
3. I have been adding 25ml of B-ionic 1 & 2 daily. I want to get a salt water test kit to check for calcium, etc. What is best recommended? Should I just invest in a controller, etc?


I am transitioning from fresh to salt so I first wanted the get the ammonia and nitrite to 0 ppm then go from there. Now I am at calcium, alkalinity, etc. I would rather purchase items that does not take up a lot of space but will be sufficient for a 92 gal tank. I have limited space in the area where the tank is located.

I have done some research on Aquacontrollers, calcium reactors, and would like to know what is the next step in my progression from fresh to salt.

By the way, I plan on this being a reef tank and want to take it as slow as needed to get the best water parameters for a reef setup.

 

[Ashlar]

@mitch91175 wrote:

I'm a big fan of refugiums. They can be as simple as a lit chamber in your sump, or as complex as a separate tank. If you can get a large enough refugium with a DSB and lots of macroalgae, nitrates disappear.

@mitch91175 wrote:

Well, there's 'cycling' and then there's maturation. Often folks see a 'stoplight' progression- red cyano, yellow / brown diatoms, and then green algae. That's fairly normal in a new tank. Now being that new, it is a little unusual. Are you topping off with RO, or tap water? Did you make your won water with your own RO/DI unit, or did you purchase it from a store?

@mitch91175 wrote:

Well, I wouldn't add anything without being able to test it. Wait until you get a test kit before adding anything else. Controllers are nice, but they don't test alkalinity or calcium, so I wouldn't worry about them at this point.

@mitch91175 wrote:

Great attitude. If you're shooting for a true reef, then you also want to shoot for 0 nitrates. I'd seriously consider a large refugium. Until you get to 0/0/0, I wouldn't do anything else.

 

[josephatmbimortgage]

Well it sound like you need some seeded live sand and waste water from an established tank is the first thing I would recommend , 5 - 10 gallon waste water that is stired up in the sand bed. The next is adding Bionic to a tank with nothing in it is a pointless matter in the fact that nothing is in there to absorb the suppliments. Saltwater mix will do just fine.
Turn lights on tank for only 2-3 hour just to start the coraline algea start. I would recommend the API Kh/Gh test kit and API calcuim bc they are way easy to use and measure. I usd those kits for yrs and test them against the more costly test to get the same results. Check Local LFS for discount for memebers. I have helped 50 plus new reefers in getting a tank up and running in as little as 10 days full cycle. The biggest problem in most case is that people turn the lights on as the tank is cycling which is not needed at all and not getting seeded sand and waste water for the natural bacteria need to get the tank up to par.

-Joseph Le