Need help badly...

Question
I have a 20gal saltwater tank in my room that's been running for about 1 month and 2 weeks now. It has 9lbs of LR, 13lbs of LS, an airstone skimmer and no sump, with just an overhead filter and foam in it. My livestocks are, 3 fishes- (1 small mimic tang, cardinal and small fox face), 3 feather dusters, 3 mushroom coral and 1 leather coral. My problems are, first, my mushroom corals are starting to peel its polyps from the liverocks where it were attached, and the remaining polyps were not expanding fully. I don't know if its was due to the moderate water curretnt they were receiving from the power head. Some of the polyps were now scattered on the sand bed. Second, I have an outbreak of Diatoms in my tank, my phospate level is 2.0mg/l. I do a weekly 10% water change, but still the phosphate level remained the same. Third, I have a high Nitrate level which was 80mg/l. I did 50% water change, hoping that the Nitrates level will go down. After a day, I test again the the nitrates level and is now 10mg/l. This was supposedly good, but after that water change,the ph level dropped from 8.2 to 7.4, where supposedly it will retain its ph level? Do you think the high Nitrates and  phosphate level got something to do with what's happening in my mushroom coral now? Do you think I need a sump to a have better filtration and exchange of gases for more stable ph level? Can my nano reef still have the chance to have a stable water parameters even without a sump? Need help badly...My water parameters now are: SG-1.021, Amonia-0, nitrates-10mg/l, phosphate-2.0mg/l, Ca-160mg/l, ph-7.4, temp- 26C. Lighting 4 x 24watts T5.I dont have a test kit for nitrites and alk.

Answer
Hello Waim

I will start off by saying that you RUSHED this way too fast...

for fish and corals to survive and grow, you need to have an 'adequate' BIOLOGICAL filter.  this is nthing more then biological organisms that grow in your tank and filters to be of sufficient quantity to handle the waste and stuff from the quantity of fish you plan on keeping.

This process usually takes about a month or so, (there is not precise forumula or time frame)

During this pprocess of 'cycling' it is a good time to practice the routine maintenance so as you can become comfortable and talented enough to do this maintenance without distrubing the fish and corals...

At this stage of the game, I would sugest to do water changes every two to three days.  and hopefully you will catch up to the quantity of biological organisms without losing any fish or corals...

You should also be testing for Ammonia and Nitrities.

after you learn and practice all the test kits you have now, and ALK, you probably wont need to do all that much testing, (affter about 1/2 year or so.)  You will need to test when things dont look right or if you have suspicions  But if you do regular water changes, (every other week), then you should be golden on water conditions.

But give it time...

Also, your salinity is on the low side, you should shoot for 1.026

Dont add any more fish or corals for a while, actually you are maxed out on fish already, actually your foxface is too big for this tank as is the mimic, and also btw, the mimic is not an easy fish to keep, I will keep my fingers crossed for you


you can do some online research for fish compatibility, etc.


www.liveaquaria.com

good luc, and please keep  me posted at my new forum locat5ed at


www.thelittleocean.com



It has a live chatbox so we can communicate via live typing, and you can get and caht with other members

You can also keep a 'journal/BLOG' and others can contribute to it as well