 New to this. Need a little advise.
I am new to the hobby and am getting a little frustrated with my numbers. My livestock is not suffering at all. Everything has been healthy since the wave of death that started and ended during the first three weeks (four damsels died)
I have 75g, 260W act/dl lighting (fixture is inexpensive variety), 75 lbs LR, 2 inches LS, 10g Sump w/ cheap skimmer and filter sock (I clean 2x/wk). My livestock includes 14 inches of fish (yellow tang, maroon clown, 3 damsels, lawnmower blenny, longnosed hawkfish and a coral beauty), Cleanup crew consists of 4 TS, 1 Linkia SF (Big), 1 CBS, 1 CC SF, 1 Brittle SF, 5 small HC, 1 lg HC and 1 Pink tipped SA for the clown. My total system flow rate is about 800GPH. The tank has been up for two months now. My readings are
pH 8.0, NH4 0.5, NO2 0, NO3 80, Temp 78, SG 1.020.
pH and nitrate: I figure a few healthy water changes will adjust these numbers back to 8.2 and 10ppm as they were a few weeks back. Also, I have started cleaning the filter sock 2x/week instead of 1x/2wks.
NO2: No problem
NH4: The problem here might be overstocking? Maybe? I only feed twice daily as much food as they can eat in three to five minutes. They stop, I stop. Also, I am thinking about getting a Berlin PS rated at 250g. Maybe this would help. My current PS is a piece of junk. Even I can tell. It is the $50 variety that is rated for 100g but I believe that is and unstocked 100g. It's not my fault.....it came with the aquarium....I bought the setup used.
SG: Low. I am going to slowly adjust this to 1.025 over the course of a month or so. I was reading 1.023 without accouting for temperature. The floater gave me the real reading (I presume)
Since I started the tank, the numbers have remained the same. Low NH4, zero nitrites, and nitrates that have had to be controlled with water changes. It seemed that the system was "born conditioned", as I added LS and LR immediately and slowly added livestock.
Currently, I am investigating the new PS and replacing my 10g sump with a 30g DIY refugium.
Let me know if I am on the right track. Thanks. John. | 
