chemistry made easy

[Greg manton]

Hello all i have kept a reef roughly 1 year and am getting good results with shrooms and softies. but now i would like to get a litle more serios with hard corals i have read the chemistry pages and am very confused i have not tested ca ka or phos just nitrate nitrite and amonia which are staying very low. i am just about to install a 90 gallon aga megaflow with 35 gallon sump/refugium and am wondering how to tackle chemistry in this tank. in my 45 gallon i do ten % water changes with kent marine salt and my coraline is really coming along. any help would be greatly apresiated I just dont know where to start, thanx in advance

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Start with calcium and alkalinity. Pick a balanced method of some sort and use it. Once that is down, and any pH issues associated with it, just make sure phosphate isn't too high (it is likely OK if coralline is growing well) and you are good to start.

These articles would be most useful at this point:


How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Reef Chemicals Calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html