Carlos 60 gallon new tank

[Krish]

Are you supplementing anything in your tank? I know for me, I use to use the 2 part B-Ionic which supplemented calcium and alk with 2 different bottles. So if alk was too high or low, I was able to adjust with my doseages...

 

[carlos_fb]

Nope, I am not supplementing anything yet. I plan to use 2 part B-Ionic as needed.

 

[carlos_fb]

So do I need to lower my Alk or just leave it alone? am I ready for corals yet?

 

[carlos_fb]

Web server up and running

Yesterday I finished setting up a small dedicated computer to log the stats of my tank with the Reefkeeper 2.

Check out the web server:

http://aquarium.dnsalias.com

 

[Krish]

So do I need to lower my Alk or just leave it alone? am I ready for corals yet?

I'm not sure how you will lower it seeing you aren't supplementing anything. I'd probably posta thread in Boomer's section asking how to go about it and see what he says. As for the web server, it wouldn't load for me

 

[Scooterman]

Carlos your not adding anything & you have High ALK? What brand salt mix are you using? I know some have issues because of this, like Oceanic!

Would not load for me either

 

[carlos_fb]

I am not adding anything and I am using Reef Crystals.

Try the webserver again, I just changed the ip address.

 

[Scooterman]

Cool!!
What are your CA, ALK & MG levels? I'd leave it alone If that is how the salt is mixing up, you may be just right. Have you used the reef calculators to see what is in balance?

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

 

[carlos_fb]

Parameters are the same as last week.

pH 8.05
Alk 14
Calcium 480
Magnesium 1350

I noticed that my pH fluctuates from 8.0 to 8.25. Does that mean that I need to start dosing?

 

[Scooterman]

Carlos that is as good as you will ever get it, actually your ca is on the high side but that is probably normal with that salt mix. I would start putting corals in there & when your ca starts getting lower than 400 or 380 then start supplementing. You would not believe what just doing wc's will do to improve a tank, many ways including replenish traits & your ca. Don't try & fix it if It ain't broke

 

[Scooterman]

Oh yea, heck If you checked your PH all day it would vary a good bit, man you don't really need to worry about it unless your using a ca reactor or dosing something like Kalk & even then it would take something to really big mess with it, normally it will be good to go.

 

[Reeferdude]

I don't think calcium at 480 will hurt a thing. I keep mine at 450. Oh btw the tank looks awesome I like that blue background...Looks familiar.

 

[carlos_fb]

What I noticed is that pH is very steady when the lights are off (8.00 - 8.05) but as soon as the lights come on, it jumps to 8.10 and starts raising until it gets up to 8.28 and once the lights are turned off, it starts droping to 8.05 again.

This is one of the reasons why I want to add refugium with reverse lighting but I was wondering if I should do something in the meantime.

 

[Scooterman]

Carlos that swing is so small your crazy trying to make it better, you can go into the ph of 7 & still not worry about it. Calcium around 500 will precipitate, clump up on pumps, plumbing etc, it will be a big problem at that point, you over do it you will throw you tank out of balance, stop looking at that Ph monitor

FYI 450 isn't natural & not even a good goal unless your having a huge demand & trying to keep up with it manually.

 

[Reeferdude]

FYI 450 isn't natural & not even a good goal unless your having a huge demand & trying to keep up with it manually.

I couldn't agree more. It's not natural for corals to be growing in little glass boxes either. LOL

 

[carlos_fb]

Good to know it is a normal thing. As I mentioned before I don't know why my Alk, Calcium and Magnesium are so high because I have not dose anything. All I'm doing for now are water changes every other week and toping off about 1 gallon a day because of the heat.

The tank has been running for almost 7 months already. Today I'm getting a couple of SPS corals to give it a try.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Scooterman]

Reefcrystals is a beefed up Instant Ocean, same people but they put more into it for Reef tanks vrs Marine to accommodate higher ca, alk & mg needs, it is that simple, so right now you need some CA demanding corals to start putting all that to use.:lol:
Reeferdude, as long as your keeping it stable there isn't an issue with 450 many people keep it that high, but as Anthony pointed out your corals will do as good or better from a range of 380 to 420, trying to hit spot on usually isn't recommended because it is too easy to throw things out of whack & that isn't a sarcastic remark but fact, go look it up!

 

[carlos_fb]

Oops I did it again!

Please ignore the parameters I posted Yesterday. I just re-tested and this is what I got:

pH 8.02
Alk 8.6
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1230

I know, I am dumb with test kits. :doubt:

 

[Reeferdude]

Please ignore the parameters I posted Yesterday. I just re-tested and this is what I got:

pH 8.02
Alk 8.6
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1230

I know, I am dumb with test kits. :doubt:

It''s very easy to make common calculation or comparison errors when testing. That's why ranges (and wide ranges at that) are typically used.

 

[carlos_fb]

As I mentioned before I plan to add a refugium to my tank. I was wondering if it would be safe to get some cheatomorpha from a fellow local reefer or if I am better off getting it from liveaquaria.com or any other reputable online seller.