What would you do next?

[Pat-O]

Im pretty new at salt water and my tank has been running/cycling for just under a month now. The past two days my brown algae turned to a bright green both days of testing showed that my ph finally got to 8.4-8.8 and my ammonia nitrite and nitrate all fell to zero. I have a couple ideas myself but I like to learn as much as I can and I would like to see the different ideas everyone has for the next step. I would like to start with fish and live rock and make my way into coral. What steps do you guys recommend to start getting on my way?

[XSiVE]

If your pH is spiking up to 8.8 you might want to look into that before you consider putting anything alive in there.. that's pretty high.

Once you get that in line and you're looking into fish, start small and non-agressive. What size is your system?

[Pat-O]

I was treating my tank for a super low ph with buffer I would say its at about an 8.4, do you think i should try and bring it down now? Its a sixty gallon tank.

[larryandlaura]

8.3 is were I run my tank. I would stop using the buffer for now and see what your ph does. Remeber it swings a bit from night to day.

[rmalone]

You were mainly seeing that low ph from the cycle. Stop adding any ph buffers it should swing down a bit. I wouldn't even worry about ph until it gets below 7.8.

[jimsflies]

The algae going from brown to bright green seems like something is happening there. Did you just turn on the lights? Adding anything else to the tank...food, etc.? Just want to be sure to keep the algae in check. Maybe cleanup crew might be enough to get it under control and would be a good place to start stocking.

[Pat-O]

I haven't changed much I got the brown algae when I started using my light it increased when I started setting the times on my t5ho, then after a couple days it turned the green color. I was actualy plaining on going down to keys to pick up a cleaning crew this weekend.

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

It turned green almost exactly the same time my nitrate nitrite and ammonia levels went down to zero.

[jstan]

Clean up crew would be a good idea.

Then if your getting fish, first look at what kinda of fish you want, and also will said fish coexist with the corals you want to keep.
Example- you want angels, but they pick at corals, not the best choice or you want clowns and a nem. Well make sure you add the nem first, then the clowns, then start adding more coral.
It's a process, but it'll pay off in the long run. The more you plan the future of your tank, and try and factor in all the what if's and maybe's, the better your tank will develop. Try and think if I do/add this, how will that effect everything else.


Jason's phone

[Pat-O]

My girl deffinatly wants a clown and nem. Are nems a pretty tuff coral to start with? What are the extra steps to prepare a tank for coral?

[Pat-O]

So I just got back from Keys, and the owner recommended I take home a mixture of 15 astrea snails and Margarita snails, 15 I cant remember what type but they are basic looking hermit crabs, and an emerald crab. It was kind of a small start up cleaning crew. I also took home a small piece of xenia which was also recommended as a good starter soft coral. I just had to talk the girl out of taking home some fish just figured it would be better to wait a little longer.

What do you guys think is there anything else I should of taken home?