water quality in question

[brackish10]

my main guy for reference warned me not to over treat my water in my 5g pico because future corals will need some minute readings of nitrates and nitrites. this confused me because I've read mostly about needing 0 readings for both... comments, suggestions, or personal experience please....

 

[PSU4ME]

What kind of corals are you adding? There is some truth to your friends statement though. Some corals do better with some nutrients in the water.

 

[Tigersref]

I have heard that some corals do feed on nutrients such as fish poo, and that seems to agree to your friends statements

 

[brackish10]

i plan in an anemone and some zoas... maybe some other soft later. i have the fluval spec v so almost no Mech filtration... mostly all bio. and only stock lighting 7500k whites led and i put the blues on for a few hours a day

 

[Mike Johnson]

The current trend towards having a tank with 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates is overemphasized and has gotten out of hand in my opinion. I have personally suppressed or damaged corals with too clean of a tank.

A nitrate level of 10 and under would be good for the corals you listed. None of them would grow in a 0 nitrate tank.

I asked a few questions of a person with a magnificent SPS tank and one of his answers was to not let phosphates go below .04. Everywhere you read it says to keep levels below .03.

http://www.marinedepot.com/reef-tank-parameters.html

I would also like to stress again my belief that there is a big difference in the nutrient levels in a SPS tank and an LPS tank and a soft coral tank. There are multiple reasons to support this, but the easiest to understand is that they grow in different areas in the ocean for a reason.

I was told by an importer once about some LPS corals, "There's an abundance of them that are easy to get to, close to the city; and, you wouldn't believe how "dirty" the water is." Do you think those corals would fare well in a sterile tank?

 

[DaveK]

While we are on the subject, when you test for nitrates and phosphates, you usually want to be using test kits that can detect these low levels you may want. Most of the time when someone posts a level of 0 for nitrates, it's often a new tank or the test kit being used just doesn't detect a low amount.

Naturally these low range test kits cost more (grin).

 

[brackish10]

I'm actually using stick tests for my daily and i take a water sample to my lfs that uses the high end liquids 2x a week. i haven't added the anemone yet and the zoas will be after i get it and the clowns in there.

 

[DaveK]

The test strips are just about useless as far as any serious water testing goes. Get yourself your own test kits, so you'll know for sure.

I wouldn't recommend an anemone for a tank that size. Anemones require high quality water, and excellent lighting. This is just about impossible to do in a small tank.

I would also only add one small fish to a tank that size, and even that is pushing things.

 

[whippetguy]

+1 on the anemone. If it does do well in a new tank, it possibly would take up all the space in a 5g. I'd try and get some anemone looking soft corals instead for a 5g. They will look cool and are more forgiving.

 

[brackish10]

what corals look like an anemone but arent? i was going to pick up a pin tip anemone bc theyre so cheap and pretty ($7), but i have to hold off.... i had to do a 50% water change 2 weeks in a row due to moving and moving back.... so im going to let the bio build back and normalize before adding anything.

 

[whippetguy]

By looking like an anemone, i was referring to the swaying motion. There are several leathers that will fit the bill and are much more tolerant of poor water quality and less intense light. Also the torch, frogspawn, hammer types of LPS corals are very hardy and have tentacles that resemble anemones.

 

[brackish10]

will the clowns i add later host such leathers? or Frogspawn? what leathers could i add that look like one?

 

[cah73]

I used to have a 12g nano...had 2 clowns and were both hosting a medium sized hammer coral...heres a pic circa 2010!! keep the bio load in that tank LOW!

 

[brackish10]

do corals increase or decrease bio load? do they produce waste?

 

[cah73]

corals do produce waste. It also depends on the kind of coral i believe. The waste produced, however, is much less than that of a fish. Make sure you keep a close eye on water parameters and water changes!