tizapolgar
Zymurgist
Well, just in case anyone is interested:
10 Gallon
10 lbs. live rock
65 watts coralife 50/50 daylight/blue actinic light
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0 (or darn close)
Nitrate: was very low, now around 10-20 ppm (but I know why...grr)
(1) Yellow tail damsel
(1) peppermint shrimp
(2) blue-legged hermits
(3) Trochus (one is actually a turbo) snail
(1) small colony of button polyps
and some polyp things whose name I forgot =( But they're green and look like anenomes...some kind of soft bodied coral. Pardon my ignorance, I'll get picks up eventually.
Well, the tank cycled some time ago and I've been slowly adding livestock (the damsel has been there since near the beginning to help the cycle...later added the hermits, then the snails once the diatom bloom started).
Everything seems to be going quite well, and everyone is thriving and eating.
My question at this point is: with such a small tank and my regular (usually biweekly) 10% water changes (with RO water), how closely should I monitor elements such as calcium, and should I use an additive for trace elements? I use Red Sea Salt.
If I do need additives, I would rather use a good "all in one," if such a thing exists, because the low volume of water makes accurate measurements difficult for individual additives, and the last thing I want to do is OD everything!
The only issues I'm dealing with now are a diatom bloom which is associated with the elevated nitrate level. Nitrates will be resolved shortly, as I just last night discovered that my top-off bottled water IS FULL OF NITRATES!! Foolish not to have tested it it before hand, but I just assumed...lessons learned.
Any comments, suggestions, or snide remarks are welcome =) Thanks again for all the advice I've gotten so far!
10 Gallon
10 lbs. live rock
65 watts coralife 50/50 daylight/blue actinic light
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0 (or darn close)
Nitrate: was very low, now around 10-20 ppm (but I know why...grr)
(1) Yellow tail damsel
(1) peppermint shrimp
(2) blue-legged hermits
(3) Trochus (one is actually a turbo) snail
(1) small colony of button polyps
and some polyp things whose name I forgot =( But they're green and look like anenomes...some kind of soft bodied coral. Pardon my ignorance, I'll get picks up eventually.
Well, the tank cycled some time ago and I've been slowly adding livestock (the damsel has been there since near the beginning to help the cycle...later added the hermits, then the snails once the diatom bloom started).
Everything seems to be going quite well, and everyone is thriving and eating.
My question at this point is: with such a small tank and my regular (usually biweekly) 10% water changes (with RO water), how closely should I monitor elements such as calcium, and should I use an additive for trace elements? I use Red Sea Salt.
If I do need additives, I would rather use a good "all in one," if such a thing exists, because the low volume of water makes accurate measurements difficult for individual additives, and the last thing I want to do is OD everything!
The only issues I'm dealing with now are a diatom bloom which is associated with the elevated nitrate level. Nitrates will be resolved shortly, as I just last night discovered that my top-off bottled water IS FULL OF NITRATES!! Foolish not to have tested it it before hand, but I just assumed...lessons learned.
Any comments, suggestions, or snide remarks are welcome =) Thanks again for all the advice I've gotten so far!
