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Starting My 42g Saltwater Cube...

Todays results
s.g. 1.023
temp 26 degrees
pH 7.9
Ammonia 0.25-0.5
Nitrite 0-0.25
Nitrate-20

I'm guessing this means the tank is virtually cycled already since the main thing that is rising is the nitrate?
 
My questions seem to be getting missed, so will just post them all together LOL

1. How many Turbo, and how many Astrea snails would be a good starting point?
2. Whats the best brand for fish food? what would you recommend?
3. apart from frozen meaty products, what else do I need for corals (water treatments, other foods etc)
4. For medications, the best freshwater medication I can get is called Triple Sulfa and is a broad spectrum medication for fresh and salt water and treats external bacterial diseases in fish, will this be okay for marine? and what other meds is it good to always have on hand?
5. If all I'm getting is a small rise in ammonia, and a large rise in Nitrate, does that mean I'm cycled?
 
1. If you plan on keeping corals, Turbo snails might not be the best idea. Try getting a 10-spot of Astrea, Cerith, and Nassarius snails to start

2. Omega1 is great for dry foods, I like Hikari for frozen and as another good dry. My fish are currently eating mysis/brine frozen Hikari, Omega 1 flake, Hikari pellet, and roe which is fish eggs from my local asian market

3. Since you're keeping hard corals you will need to test for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium, and I'd also reccomend phosphate testing. The corals you listed can be fed the same frozen foods as your fish.

4. ONLY use meds in QT if you're gonna keep corals. IMO, parasites are more prevalent in SW than they are in FW, and the best defense there is a hyposalinity QT.

5. Yes, sounds like you're cycled. Are you getting algae blooms yet?
 
Yup, plenty of brown algae, or diatoms or whatever, and a depper red algae is now appearing, pics above.

I'm only planning on using meds in the QT tank, but need to know what meds are good first, what do you mean by hyposalinity? is that freshwater dips?

So no turbos? okays looks like I'm just getting astreas then, I haven't been able to find ceriths or nassarius snails any where.
 
I'm sure I'm just being thick, but whats the difference between alkalinity and pH? I can calcium, magnesium and phosphate test kits easily enough, but all I'm getting when I search for alkalinity is pH test kits.... Lil help? LOL

Just wait is alkalinity the same as carbonate hardness?

If it is would this be a suitable test kit?
http://www.thereefshop.com.au/index.php?ma...roducts_id=1447
Then just get a magnesium test kit as well?
 
Wowzers, what makes a magnesium test kit so expensive? half the ones I looked at were more then $50, hmmm think I might skip that liverock I was gonna get and get some more test kits instead, I've enough liverock in the tank for filtration as is, just thought it'd look cool if the pile went higher, might leave that till later now LOL.
 
Alkalinity is carbonate (or bicarbonate) hardness, same thing. The pH will determine if the solution has mostly carbonate or bicarbonate (more bicarb the higher the pH and more carb the lower the pH).

API kits are OK. IME, their calcium and carbonate test kits are actually more reliable than I would have expected. Their nitrate test kit is pretty much junk for accuracy but will indicate the presence of a problem (just not it's severity). Keeping the corals you're planning on (easier LPS), I'd say its fine to use that test kit for those parameters. Just know your limitations :)
 
I'm using the API master test kit at the moment, and so far it's doing whats expected, thanks for the heads up though.

Oky dokes will get that group of test kits and is the salifert magnesium okay? it has the best price of all the ones I've looked at.

Just going over prices, and ahve noticed I can get it all slightly cheaper if I get the
API calcium test kit
API Carbonate hardness test kit
Red Sea Phosphate test kit
Salifert Magnesium kit

Are those all good? This is still gonna cost me like $90 LOL, do they need to be used often? or only now and then when you think their may be a problem or just want to check like the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate kits? because otherwise they aint gonna last long.

I won't need this test kits until I get corals though right? as I'd like to begin adding snails/livestock in before I get the corals, as it's gonna take me a while to get the money put aside to pay for all the test kits as well.
 
Ummm okay, weird tests today, the pH has rocked up suddenly, the ammonias dropped and for some reason the nitrate is dropping too? wha?

s.g. 1.023
temp 26 degrees
pH 8.3 (?)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0-0.25
Nitrate 15 (?)

Explanations please? I'm also assuming that since even though that shrimp is stinking the place out, the ammonia reading hasn't gone over 0.25 that tank was already cycled? I was told the rock was cured, but wasn't sure if that was true...
 
Definitely sounds cured/cycled.

Remember, pH can and will fluctuate a lot early on in the tank's life. 8.3 is not a problematic level and unless you're dosing anything, it'll never get too high :). I could list a whole host of reasons, but don't exactly have the time tonight. Suffice it to say, nothing's wrong at this point

Salifert is an excellent magnesium test it. Matter of fact, their entire line is great.

And the salt mix, IMO, salt is salt is salt. It's exceptionally rare to find a mix that comes with everything PERFECT and not forking over your first born son in the process ;). As you get more advanced into reefkeeping, you can consider purchasing different salts, but when starting a tank, its exceptionally rare to have problems with just "any old sea salt mix"
 
Oky dokes, I know the 8.3 level is better then the 7.9 I was just surprised it jumped up so quickly. I'll just leave the shrimp in for now, as I'm not planning on stocking the tank yet (living way out in the country as I do, I need to wait till school starts up again before I'm able to get to the LFS, since thats generally the only time we're in town).

Oky dokes, when I do plan to get corals, will make sure I have the test kits before I get em, until then I'll just keep looking for some cheaper test kits.

Will get the salt then, just wanted to make sure there isn't anything hideously wrong with the brand since it's so cheap.
 
Oooh forgot to ask, now the tanks virtually cycled can I switch the skimmer back on? or should I leave it off till I'm not getting any ammonia reading? and with doing a water change to lower nitrates, I leave that until I actually get some stock for the tank right? To tell you the truth, I really like all the interesting algae I'm getting, and also want to see if the nitrates keep dropping (dropped 5ppm over night)

As for fish food for the dry food would a combination of Hikari Marine S pellets and Omega One Marine flakes work? then supplement with a variety of frozen foods (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, bloodworms etc)
 
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