Crucial factors to maintaining a successful SPS tank

[joker577]

Since sometimes I'm not always able to give the tank 24/7 attention (as im sure almost everyone else isn't either!) I like to try and keep things as maintenance free as possible...cleaning the glass,lights, cleaning the collection cup are basically the only things I do to the tank aesthetically but I now need more help determining if I'm doing the right thing as far as feeding and dosing. From what I know the most crucial factors are calcium/alkalinity/magnesium and keeping all undesirable levels at 0, for feeding the tank I do flakes once a day (formula one) and at night around 8 pm 2 hours before the lights go off ( i run a 11 1/2 hour photo period) I take a piece of Rod's food, Cyclopeeze (freeze dried), and Mysis shrimp and use that for my last meal. Do the SPS benefit from that type of hodgepodge smorgasbord of a meal? I generally keep my salinity around 1.025-1.026 My test kits were a little bit off on my calc and alk and I accidently had my calcium at 500 and my alk was 7, generally I like to keep calcium about 460-480 and alk 10-12 to factor in how much is absorbed by coralline/SPS/clam/etc. and have recently picked up ESV B-Ionic for my dosing and use Seachem Fuel for trace elements. Sorry for such a long post I just wanted to hear from outside sources to make sure I was doing the right thing.

 

[mmn_usn]

Is everything alive and healthy? Does the tank look good to you?(you are going to be the biggest critic of it, I know mine never look good to me) Is there an over abundance of algea growth, on the glass, sand equip?

IMO if the tank looks good, everything is healthy and everything is not over run with algea... they you are doing the right thing.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Your going to want to dial in your alk so that it doesnt fluctuate, You want a solid 10(or s a solid 9 or a solid 11 depeending ywho you ask =P) as opposed to a 10-12 fulctuation which is quite large. Your SPS will do much better.

 

[joker577]

That's what I was trying to do, I took my water to a good LFS around here to get it tested, and thats where I switched my product to B-Ionic. I kept running out of the reef builder and reef complete and that gets pretty expensive at 9$ every 3 weeks a piece. I left my calcium at 500 and am not adding anything for that until my reef builder runs out. I'm dosing alkalinity once a day right now because it depletes extremely fast and sunday i will get it tested again to see what my consumption rate is so i can "dial in" the b-ionic. Everything looks fine and I'm getting good growth but there's always that what if question.

 

[returnofsid]

The fact that your Alk depletes as fast as it does would maybe cause a little concern. Alk is your tanks buffering capacity. It's what helps keep your pH steady. A pH swing can be one of the most lethal things that can happen in your tank. It is important to have a balanced Ca, Alk, Mg ratio. But it's also very important to keep your Alk up. Do you use Kalk water for your top off? I would suggest doing this, ONCE you're all balanced. Doing it while unbalanced will put you further out of balance. If you have a high Ca/Alk demand in your tank, you could probably benefit from ALL of your top off water being Kalk. It's easy enough to do by mixing 2 tsp of Pickling Lime to every gallon of RO/DI water...then dripping it into your tank. To stay away from pH swings, drip it at night, after lights out.

 

[joker577]

Well I'd add 4 tbs of reef builder = 12 grams, which is the highest they recommend adding in one day. I'd test it before and it was 5, so I figured if I add 12 grams a day to raise it up one dkh then it'll be back up in 5 days...well the next day i tested it its still at 5 so to say the least I was a bit frustrated. I have been adding much more SPS to the tank and am up to about 3 colonies and about 20 frags or so.

 

[joker577]

 

[kevinpo]

What is your magnesium level? Sometimes when it's hard to maintain the alkalinity/calcium relationship it is due to low magnesium. A magnesium level about 3 times your calcium ppm is a good target.

It can also be more of a challenge to maintain such high levels as you get closer to saturation/precipitation point. In nature calcium averages about 400ppm, magnesium about 1200ppm, and alkalinity about 7.0 dKH. They are at these levels because they are in ionic balance. In the home aquarium a slightly higher (7-10dKH) is recommended IMO/IME with calcium and magnesium + - 5% of natures values.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[joker577]

The reef complete contained calcium and magnesium so I probably assumed it was in the right range, I'll go get a test kit soon!

 

[jezzeaepi]

The problem with the way your dosing your alk now, is that its all in one shot, and hard to add that much without shocking your system. If you had a ph probe in your tank, you would be able to see the PH start climb really high almost immediatly after dosing your alk product. That was always my problem with Bionic. Id put in the dosage and watch my Ph climb almost immediately from 8.20-8.45 in a matter of 20 seconds. This is why they only recomend that you add so much of it per day. As your usage goes up and exceeds the level that they recomend daily, youll ahve to look towards other means of alk/calc suplimentation that tohers have mentioned. The easiest imho is to use kalk dosed slowly with something like an aqualifter hooked up to your topoff auto top off. This way it is added very slowly throught the day and keeps your tank from having too large of swings in your PH(Which it does already every day, just you cant tell unless you have a electronic PH monitor). Kalk must be added very slowly or else it can quickly shoot up your PH. I made the mistake once when I messed up the timer I used to dose my kalk, and it ran for an hour isntead of the 5 minutes it was supposed to. Well by the end of the hour my ph was at 8.8 =(

So in summation.. Once you are able to maintain your alk without swings, your corals will really take off. Just find a alk/calc dosing regiment that works for you.(Kalk dosing, Randys 2 part doser, calc reactor)

 

[returnofsid]

I would recommend using Randy's 2 part DIY recipes. It's actually 3 parts. The recipes include DIY ingredients for Ca, Alk and Mg. There's a link in my signature for the site. I'd also recommend using the other link in my signature for a great reef chemistry calculator that will do a great job in helping you determine how much you need to dose, based on your current parameters and your goal parameters. This will help you get balanced in a short time. Once balanced, start dripping Kalk water for all or most of your top off water. Don't dose any store bought supplements. This 3 part DIY will work much better and be a lot less expensive!!

 

[joker577]

I'm looking for the best way and simplicity and it seems that a kalkwasser drip would be best? But I need a little more info on how to do it...the recipe was mind boggling

 

[returnofsid]

2 tsps of Pickling Lime per Gallon of RO/DI water is mind boggling? LOL. It really is that simple. Mix it, shake it...let it settle and drip.

 

[joker577]

No not that, making the recipes for the randy's 2 part, Lol gotta heat in the oven and do all that! Now the 2 tsp of pickling lime (kalk?) will keep everything in check once my levels are balanced?

 

[kevinpo]

Now the 2 tsp of pickling lime (kalk?) will keep everything in check once my levels are balanced?

Calcium hydroxide (kalkwasser) additions will only work a short time (six months at the most) until the stony corals get some size. Then you will need to add calcium, buffer, and magnesium. The easiest way to do this is to use a calcium reactor but additives will work too.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Scooterman]

Kevin how do you feel about using those Two Part types as a regular supplementation, is it really much more to deal with?

 

[kevinpo]

A friend of mine in Portland who had a 300 gallon SPS tank used the Kent drip dosing devices and two part additives for years. Many of my corals came from him. He owned SPS Frags.com. I will see if I can find some pictures of his tank.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[kevinpo]

I found the pictures but I don't want to highjack this thread. I could start a new thread if anyone is interested. The pictures aren't that great quality because they are from March 2002 with my old Sony 1.3mp Mavica camera. I still have the dozen or so coral frags I bought from him on March 23, 2002.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[jmp21677]

Pickling Lime, where do you get that?

 

[joker577]

Kevin if a calcium reactor is out of the budget right now what would be the next best thing