sc18702
Well-known member
I understand although not certain as to the effect of hard water on inhabitants. Is everything implicitely bad ?
Dosing Alk supplement question
- Thread starter saltfishlover
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scytale
Caladanman
Trace minerals aren't implicitly bad (in fact many of us have to supplement our water with trace minerals lost due to WCs, skimming, etc.)
The problem is there's a whole periodic table of elements out there and when the hard water is coming out of your faucet you don't know what minerals you're adding (unless you send your water to a lab)...you may slowly buildup undesirable minerals or have too much of a "good" mineral....
You may get lucky and the extra minerals might just make deposits and buildup on your equipment...
Or you may have heavy metals (or copper
) in your water and then you'll have fatalities...
An RO/DI filter will strip all the minerals from the water--then a good saltmix (+occasional trace mineral solutions) add back the right minerals....
The problem is there's a whole periodic table of elements out there and when the hard water is coming out of your faucet you don't know what minerals you're adding (unless you send your water to a lab)...you may slowly buildup undesirable minerals or have too much of a "good" mineral....
You may get lucky and the extra minerals might just make deposits and buildup on your equipment...
Or you may have heavy metals (or copper
) in your water and then you'll have fatalities...An RO/DI filter will strip all the minerals from the water--then a good saltmix (+occasional trace mineral solutions) add back the right minerals....
I agree on the statements concerning Purple Up and Oceanic salt mix. Purple Up isn't going to do anything that simply maintaining your Ca, Alk and Mg at proper levels won't do in the first place. In addition, Purple Up contains iodine, which is tricky stuff in a reef aquarium, it's pretty easy to overdose it. On the Oceanic, I agree, it's not a very good salt...it's inconsistant from batch to batch and IME I've found it to be pretty high in phosphate and nitrate. Some people mix it with IO in an attempt to "fix" it...but I fail to see the point in this, why not simply use a "better" salt like IO or Red Sea in the first place?
On alkalinity supplimentation...IMO, you are better off using baking soda than most commercially available suppliments, if nothing else than for the savings in cost....also, many commercial alkalinity suppliments contain borate salts at a much higher ratio of total alkalinity than you will find in natural sea water. This isn't really a good thing, because borate alkalinity isn't used nearly as much by calcifying organisims, and can actually become toxic at certain levels.
MikeS
On alkalinity supplimentation...IMO, you are better off using baking soda than most commercially available suppliments, if nothing else than for the savings in cost....also, many commercial alkalinity suppliments contain borate salts at a much higher ratio of total alkalinity than you will find in natural sea water. This isn't really a good thing, because borate alkalinity isn't used nearly as much by calcifying organisims, and can actually become toxic at certain levels.
MikeS
sc18702
Well-known member
Thanks, I will follow that advice and ditch the purple up as well as upgrade my salt mix.
Now for phosphates. I have never tested them. Why don"t standard test kits or strips have a test for phosphates ? The same for iodone ? Are they as important as the nitrogen cycle ?
Now for phosphates. I have never tested them. Why don"t standard test kits or strips have a test for phosphates ? The same for iodone ? Are they as important as the nitrogen cycle ?
several test kits contain tests for phosphates. On the iodine test kits, a few companies make them, but generally they are difficult to read and only test for certain ionic forms of iodine.
Are they as important as the nitrogen cycle? In some ways, yes....phosphates can impact algae and cyanobacteria populations, so maintaining low phosphates is a good idea. Iodine can be bad if overdosed. However, normal feeding and water changes usually provide the reef tank with plenty of iodine, making supplimentation and testing for it unecessary in most cases.
MikeS
Are they as important as the nitrogen cycle? In some ways, yes....phosphates can impact algae and cyanobacteria populations, so maintaining low phosphates is a good idea. Iodine can be bad if overdosed. However, normal feeding and water changes usually provide the reef tank with plenty of iodine, making supplimentation and testing for it unecessary in most cases.
MikeS
sc18702
Well-known member
Thanks for the information. I find it very useful. I'm still trying to understand why my xenia somtimes looks great and other times is shrivels, gets wrinled and gray and then gets smaller and almost dissolves. I thought it might be chemical related. Strange how some items in the tank look great such as many species of mushrooms and other things (xenia, hairy mushrooms) don"t thrive.
