Troubling conditions of my tank...

I have an RO unit that we removed to trade up to the RODI unit that it replaced. You can add an inline DI unit to it for around 35 bucks. Would come with a 2 gallon storage tank. Its a Watts premium unit. I think for your tank size it would work great. Just couldn't keep up with our volume anymore.

 

Supernate (that cloudy stuff) would be better suited for smaller inhabitants, I think these guys would be happier with some of the brine shrimp itself! But either way they would eat it.
I think conditions are not as radical as originaly thought. I would still contact jazzybio13 and stop by for a water test to double check,

As with any corals its safer to remove them without exposing them to air. I doubt a quick trip will kill it, and a fair shake will help to drive them to retreat as much as they can.

Look to this as a base line for now, Its about the same price as an API set.

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Marine-Care-Master/dp/B008DI5YW0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402476076&sr=8-2&keywords=red+sea+test+kit

And once the reefing starts add on this
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Reef-Foundation-Test/dp/B004FUJ5NE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402476115&sr=8-1&keywords=red+sea+test+kit

 

I'm assuming your die off could have been do to shock of adding the new live rock to a tank with different parameters. Did you acclimate the live rock before you added it to the tank? From the above, everything seems to be moving okay now (within reason, again). Just take your time and try not to do anything drastic very quickly.

 

Great help here Zach. Keep it up and I might add that a small tank is one of the hardest to keep. You have too keep on the maintenance so much more, because you don't have a big body of water. I started with a 29gal standard tank and did well, but had too keep on the water changes and maintenance, but after the first 30day i too had an algae issue not much less then you have. In most cases if your water parameters are on track its just nature taking it course. I have read most of your posts on your testings and findings. It seems to lead me to just plain old new tank normal stuff. Some times as a new person to saltwater we tend to over react at the first thing that changes or what we think looks bad, but maybe just normal balancing of the tank. After we panic and make too many changes at once we then ask questions. Remember never over react and always do your research as you seem to be doing for the most part. If you don't you may do more harm then good. Sending it farther into in balance. Saltwater is all about balance and as long as its balanced most of the parameters mean nothing. I know contradicting, but seems to be true from what I have learned. I have been doing Freshwater keeping and breeding for over 20 years before I started my Saltwater and its easy to get a fresh water balances, but in saltwater it can be tricky if you mess with your tank a lot or try starting out with a small nano tank.

Just keep on going you will survive to enjoy this great hobby and forget all about the pains of growing.

KP

 

I will always tout stability over chasing a number, you can keep fish in 1.021 water and they will live for years, is it ideal? No, but if it is stable they will do all right ( I don't suggest this at all BTW)

The smallest tank I have kept was a 20 long, and it was difficult. For starters I would suggest a 20 long with a canister filter to learn about water chemistry and how things work in the marine aquarium... Once you don't kill things upgrade to a 40 breeder. I personally will not own a DT a smaller than a 40 breeder just because of dimension for aquascaping.. Once you start getting lower than a 40 breeder the tanks just look like rock walls. And a 55 is right out. Terrible DTs good sumps.

The average reef tank for a new reefer lasts about a year. Maybe two if you are REALLY patient. But at that point, you have learned enough about the hobby to know that you want to change a good deal of things in your tank from substrates to rockwork to layout. At this point, is when you should upgrade to a larger tank and keep all your old equipment.

Long and short of it, the best way to stabilize is volume. Our 40b DT is ~130 gallons system. The 75 DT which looks at about 120 System wide A sump is a great way to add on another 20 gallons or so. and usually pretty quick and easy to get going. Our 33 long frag tank is... About 85-90. My QT is our smallest system at 20 tall with an additional 36 gallons so around 56 in total.

I dont think there is a 'minimum' that I would consider in my book you can have a 5 gallon DT if you want a micro reef, and have 40+ gallons in volume. The consensus of most people are floating around 20% of DT size for sump as a starting spot. But the more volume you can add the longer it takes for things to swing from could be an issue to tank death.

 

I think that is well said Zach, your ending statement there... there really isn't a minimum volume and if you want a 5g pico display reef you better know what your getting into! I personally have kept everything from a 1g (freshies) 14g (reef) on up to a 90g (and seemingly everything in between) and 20% volume of tank is a good starting place for a sump as well. The larger volume of water allows a greater room for error, this is particular useful to new folks just starting out on a reef (well heck, any tank for that matter).

I typically recommend someone who wants to start out, but not too large to go with a 40 breeder if they can, if not that then a 29 but I typically don't suggest much lower...

 

My 220 I have a 40breeder for a sump.

 

Whats the status of the 30 now? No fish, but what have the levels looked like recently?

Nitrate spike is alright, Nitrite spike not alright. Water changes will help to bring down the nitrites for the fish, which will keep them alive, but putting it into the sump/tank will not do any good. In fact it would probably lead to trouble.

Remember the water column is relatively vacant in terms of biofiltration bacteria but full of the chemicals that they feed on. Adding in freshly mixed salt water from the sump at the same temp as the tank (or darn near) is your best bet. Adding volume will never hurt a tank unless the water is different parameters and done very quickly. A water change in the tank, and saltwater mixed at the same time into the sump will be the best way to go. I recently added 55 gallons to my current 40 set up and the only thing I was weary of was the shear volume of the increase being greater than the system volume, making sure it would not shock the system. To prevent this I did a water change on the 40 (Roughly 35%) and then added the water from the new reserve tank in slowly over two days.

I know it is difficult, but remember that nothing good comes fast in salt.