Parameter Thread

[SteveDola]

Salt: Tropic Marin Pro 1.0255
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: 0.05
Alkalinity: 8.8
Magnesium: 1325
Calcium: 475
Daily Dosing: trace elements and aminos

 

[Reef2Sanity]

Salt: Reef crystals 1.026-1.025
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.12
Alkalinity: 9.4
Magnesium: 1280
Calcium: 430
Daily dosing: Ca reactor pegged at 7.1 Ph, 30ml distilled vinegar biweekly or if noted excess algae buildup on glass
Water Change: minimal, about 20gal in 100 gal system bimonthly when bad and monthly when being good

 

[Reef2Sanity]

Salt: Reef crystals 1.026-1.025
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.12
Alkalinity: 9.4
Magnesium: 1280
Calcium: 430
Daily dosing: Ca reactor pegged at 7.1 Ph, 30ml distilled vinegar biweekly or if noted excess algae buildup on glass
Water Change: minimal, about 20gal in 100 gal system bimonthly when bad and monthly when being good

 

[MichaelJ]

40 Breeder
Salt: Red Sea blue bucket
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.05 - 0.1
Alkalinity: 8 - 9
Magnesium: 1350-1400
Calcium: 400-425
I run the reef moonshiners program and haven’t done a water change in over 2 years. I run GAC 24/7.

View attachment 188977

GAC?

 

[JohnK]

Granulated activated carbon

 

[chadfish]

50 Gal Acrylic Mixed Reef
2yrs, 5mo old

Salinity: 1.026 - Hanna
Alkalinity: 9.6 dKH (up from 9.0 last month) (Salifert)
Nitrate: 2.5ppm (down from 5 ppm) (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0-0.04 ppm (Hanna)
Calcium: 420 ppm (Salifert)
Magnesium: 1320 ppm (Salifert)
pH: ?? (Hanna)I need to calibrate my pH meter, but it's been pretty stable at 8.1-8.3 since Aug 22

My Alk is creeping up and my Calcium is creeping down. Does anyone know what causes this?
Monti caps bleaching out, encrusting montis have retracted polyps, and digis whither/bleach

 

[chadfish]

How are you measuring, and how are you maintaining levels? (how consistent?) Are you running a calcium reactor? (they tend to keep alk up better than Ca - could explain the drift you are seeing?)

I use Salifert and Hanna as per my newly edited post. I dose Alk & Calc.
Alk part = Randy part A (dehydrated baking soda)
Calc part = Anhydrous calcium chloride in RODI water

I mix my own 2-part so maybe there is variability there, but I am under the impression that Alk and Calc go up and down together.

Should I dose nutrients? Feed more? Add more or less light! Or simply increase the calcium doses each day?

 

[chadfish]

Sounds good. Do you add 2 part daily or via automated dosing? (If not, then you may be seeing some unaccounted for fluctuations in levels between doses. Keep in mind that a change of more than 1 dkh is considered pretty stressful, AND it’s not unusual for an established reef tank to consume that much daily)

Two part is normally dosed in equal parts as it roughly matches consumption that way, but systems do vary and it’s not uncommon to have to make an occasional correction.

To make said corrections- the easiest approach is to just add some additional alk or ca solution to make the correction. (Look up how much is needed by using the “reef chemistry calculator”)

Another approach could be to make your DIY alk solution slightly less concentrated to correct over time (just be sure you keep track of how much you dilute the original recipe for when you need to make more in the future). In this case you would increase your dosing volume a bit.

*note, I still wonder if other issues are behind your troubles? Do you have a regular water change routine? Temp fluctuations?

I use an auto doser to administer 19ml of each solution over the course of the lighted hours. I space Alk and calc by 30 min. I typically measure prior to first dose in the morning, but now that you mention it, this layers measurement was taken around 9:45.

Temp is held steady at 78 by Inkbird (although “steady” is hardly the word for Inkbird)

Salinity held stable with an ATO
10% WC per week or 20% every 2 weeks depending on real life, but currently going on 4 weeks w/o due to 4x Reef Flux treatment for bubble algae. (Worked really well). Planning on 40% WC this Saturday

Going to try to do nothing but WC and see where I get. (Note: “try”)

 

[JohnK]

Good luck.

I see you described only montipora suffering. Any chance of monti eating nudis?

 

[DylanCameron]

Just checked for the first time in a while. NUVO 10 w/ minimal livestock at the moment. I use a media basket w/ filter floss (changed every 1-3 days) and ROX carbon (changed weekly). Been doing about 2.5-3gal water changes weekly with Fritz RPM blue (roughly 30%).

Levels as of today, 6/12/2023:

Salinity: 34.9 ppt (Hanna Salinity Tester)
Temp: 76.77 - 78, average 77.32 (apex data as of this past week, heater turns on @ 76.8 and off @ 77.2, I've been gradually decreasing the tank temp hence the larger than normal swing. Temp is cross referenced with Hanna Salinity Tester)
pH: 7.73 - 8.22, average 8 (apex data as of this past week, though the probe has gone a few months without calibration. Low values are at night when I am sleeping in the room with windows closed, huge buildup of CO2. Nights when I am gone the low value only hits 7.9, and last night with the window open it only hit 7.99)
Nitrate: 4.36 ppm (Hanna LR Checker)
Phosphate: 0.04 ppm (Hanna ULR Checker)
Alkalinity: 6.9 dKH (Salifert)
Magnesium: 1600 ppm (RedSea)
Calcium: 390 ppm (RedSea)
Daily Dosing: 8 mL limewater (just hooked up the doser, going to bump this up a bit)

My thoughts: I would definitely like to increase the alkalinity and calcium a bit. If I had to pick a number, I would shoot for 8.4 dKH and 420 ppm calcium. I do believe consistent numbers are better than chasing, but I would like to increase alk for pH buffering. Calcium is less important but I've got the time and supplements so why not lol. I had been doing small daily doses of RedSea's A, B, and C components because I figured they were on the low side, but I didn't realize how high the magnesium was so I'll definitely cut that. Ideally the limewater will meet the calcium and alkalinity demands. Phosphate I'm fine with, and I might try to get the nitrate down a bit but I'm definitely not stressing over these numbers.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Haven't tested any parameters since August, but looking to hopefully have water in the new build in a few weeks, fingers crossed everything makes it.

Anyone else want to add their parameter findings to this thread?

 

[Chris.Reef]

Salt: IO 1.026 AWC about 10% of total volume weekly.
Nitrate: 50ish
Phosphate: 0.10-.15
Alkalinity: 9.0
Magnesium: 1350
Calcium: 450
Dosing: Chaetogro, 2 part with Tropic Marin trace elements along with with part C, Vinegar carbon dosing.