Hi there,

New to the forums so any advice will be usefull.

Just purchased a D&D 28g HQI set up and looking to fill it tomorrow. Getting RO from a local store and using Red Sea Coral pro. How much salt should I add??

Will the system have settled enough for mature live rock by Monday??

Looks like I also need a heater. Any recomendations?

Thanks in advance...

welcome to our little forum..

depending on the specific gravity you have chosen to run at you will need approx 35 graps per litre, however you must account for displacement from rock and sand (roughly 20%) you should be using a refractometer/hydrometer/salinity meter to accurately measure the final salinity.

hope that helps

Okay, so I added RO water and 3Kg of coral pro salt. Let it stand and mix for about 6 hours with the heater on.

Initial readings are:

S.G. 1.020
pH 8.4
Alkalinity 3.4

Are these numbers about right?

ok the sg is low .. i would be shooting for 1.024-1.026

ph is fine

alk.. depends if it is meq/l then it is fine if it is DKH the it is way low

Thanks for the response.

Alkalinity is meg/l so it's good. I'll add some more salt and get a refractometer.

The hydrometer that came with the salt is pants. Should have bought the one I saw this morning when getting the RO, that will teach me to be a cheapskate...

Okay, So I added 500g of salt and SGup to 1.026.

Now there is a fine particulate scum on the surface....

Thats fine, just a little precipitation... do you have sand in yet ??


the surface scum should get removed as the water gets sucked through the weir

Okay thats fine then.

10-15kgs LR and then sand going in tomorrow.

Did a baseline of various tests...
sg 1.026
pH 8.4
alkalinity 3.6
NO2 0.1
NO3 0
NH3 0
Mg 1080
Ca 475

As far as I can tell that all looks okay

Okay 10kgs of LR in the tank and a few freebies





Two small green corals?


A large pink coral?

Any help with id would be great

ok the green corals look like ricordea yuma, type of mushrooms, the pink thing... who knows, the way it is balled up it could be an anemone, when the lights are on and it opens up take a picture and post it...

The 'pink thing' looks like it maybe an anemone, although still no real evidance of any tentacles...



On the advice of a friend with a marine tank, I fed it a chunk of raw prawn which it appeared to eat with relish...

Did a water check last night, nitrates seem to have risen as did the SG, so swapped out 5 litres of tank water for 5 litres of RO.

On a side note, how do others ensure change water is the correct temperature? A heater in the carboy? A separate tank to prep RO to the right salinity / temperature?

Also found this little anemone, and identified it as aiptasia.



Removed it immediately by knocking off the portion of LR it was attached to. Also removed the bubble algae.

Great advice and feedback so far, thanks all.

well done on the id of the aiptasia... they can b a PITA if they get a hold ...

the unknown coral/nem could be a large rhodactis , they roll up like that... it hasnt opened up fully yet, the hqi cube has very intense lighting so it may take it a few days to open up fully...

when changing water i ususally heat some ro in a big pan on the stove then add it to the cold to get it ro an approx temp, i use the redsea pro coral they claim it is ph stable within 1/2 an hour so i mix and go... never had a problem with it

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