newbie on-the-road

dear brothers,

another newbie here have been keeping freshwater fishes for at least 6 years and now i am exploring the new challenge into marine.

i have been reading the posts from here to prepare myself and my future tank. have converted my 4ft fw tank to marine last month - still cycling with live rocks. my intention is to keep my tank simple - at least for the time being going for one-species clownfish-only tank with no coral first...and definitely no anemones

parameter update as on today:
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 10
PH: 7.5

though my 1st post, i have 2 curious questions:

1) if the NO3 is going to remain about 10 in the future, is that good enough to keep corals - just mushrooms, buttons and lps?

2) i always thot that if the water has the right salt level, the PH will be normal. read somewhere that PH should be 8.0 - 8.4, why is mine so low - only 7.5 ? tested twice same result - but tested but in the evening.

thank you so much for reading the post

regards,
clown

[KaLiB]

1) if the NO3 is going to remain about 10 in the future, is that good enough to keep corals - just mushrooms, buttons and lps?

For mushrooms and buttons, 10ppm of nitrates won't be a problem. Not sure about LPS. However, without proper systems in place, nitrates are definitely going to rise once you add in fishes.

Originally Posted by KaLiB

For mushrooms and buttons, 10ppm of nitrates won't be a problem. Not sure about LPS. However, without proper systems in place, nitrates are definitely going to rise once you add in fishes.

thanks i am using a weipro 2011 skimmer now, do hope to see the NO3 drops further. will try to add in the fishes slowly, allow the tank time to handle the bioload.

Originally Posted by clown

dear brothers,

another newbie here have been keeping freshwater fishes for at least 6 years and now i am exploring the new challenge into marine.

i have been reading the posts from here to prepare myself and my future tank. have converted my 4ft fw tank to marine last month - still cycling with live rocks. my intention is to keep my tank simple - at least for the time being going for one-species clownfish-only tank with no coral first...and definitely no anemones

parameter update as on today:
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 10
PH: 7.5

though my 1st post, i have 2 curious questions:

1) if the NO3 is going to remain about 10 in the future, is that good enough to keep corals - just mushrooms, buttons and lps?

2) i always thot that if the water has the right salt level, the PH will be normal. read somewhere that PH should be 8.0 - 8.4, why is mine so low - only 7.5 ? tested twice same result - but tested but in the evening.

thank you so much for reading the post

regards,
clown

i presume in the evening your lights are still on??
if the lights are still on...low pH means something is wrong...but if the lights are off then having pH at that range is normal...though it shldnt fluctuate till 7.5 that much also

do check your kH and ca lvls

Originally Posted by decentkid

i presume in the evening your lights are still on??
if the lights are still on...low pH means something is wrong...but if the lights are off then having pH at that range is normal...though it shldnt fluctuate till 7.5 that much also

do check your kH and ca lvls

thanks for replying

not yet, i thot KH and CA is not the highest priority lor, especially CA - since I am not keeping corals yet. what is the relationship between them?

kH is actually the buffering capacity of your tank
In other words, higher kH would mean lesser pH swings

There are as many fieds of study in marine reefkeeping as there is in freshwater systems. So as a start, maybe you could give us detailed specs of your tank, including equipments and type of filtration method used.

This way, we can help you better and teach you more stuff along the way

Originally Posted by blueheaven

kH is actually the buffering capacity of your tank
In other words, higher kH would mean lesser pH swings

ic...I will check my KH soon but in any case the PH is already below ideal condition perhaps shld buff it up?

any idea what is good for this purpose? thank you

2011 is definitely way to small for a 4footer. try to get 2013 , or at least 2012.


but if you have low bioload (ie a very small amount of fish only),even without skimmer will do. skimmer wont be able to bring down ur NO3 efficiently. Get more LR for the nitrification and denitrification.

do you have sandbed ? or crushed corals ? i'm wondering why ur ph is so low.

Originally Posted by angmoh

2011 is definitely way to small for a 4footer. try to get 2013 , or at least 2012.


but if you have low bioload (ie a very small amount of fish only),even without skimmer will do. skimmer wont be able to bring down ur NO3 efficiently. Get more LR for the nitrification and denitrification.

do you have sandbed ? or crushed corals ? i'm wondering why ur ph is so low.

yes, about 3 - 4 inch sandbed. no, didnt use any crushed coral chips.

Originally Posted by clown

ic...I will check my KH soon but in any case the PH is already below ideal condition perhaps shld buff it up?

any idea what is good for this purpose? thank you

When you add buffers, you are actually beefing up your kH so it's sort of inter-related
Another way to increase pH is to dose kalkwasser but be sure not to overdose as calcium hydroxide is quite alkaline with pH of about 12