Do I control the nitrate before dealing with calcium and alkalinity?
- Thread starter fixingstill
- Start date
hkgar
Active member
tank is too small for your fish load, particularly the tangs will not do well long term.
But as for your question, double check the alk level. IO is rated at 11 dKH (https://www.thatpetplace.com/salt-mix-guide) and you have nothing in your tank that needs Alk. or calcium so don't worry too much about them.
What are your phosphate levels? I didn't see that number.
But as for your question, double check the alk level. IO is rated at 11 dKH (https://www.thatpetplace.com/salt-mix-guide) and you have nothing in your tank that needs Alk. or calcium so don't worry too much about them.
What are your phosphate levels? I didn't see that number.
fixingstill
New member
I will remove the tangs and watch the nitrate. I will post my water test result. Hopefully once I have nitrate under control, I will put back in some zoa.
fixingstill
New member
Removed Koran and Yellow. Cut down feeding 50%. 3 weeks later, nitrate is around 10 to 20 ppm. However, coral still has not come back to life much yet. Hope things will get better.
McPuff
New member
You don't have a softie tank, you have a mixed reef. SPS need stability!
You have to keep ALK from varying too much. Week to week you want to keep it within 0.5 dkh swing. If you can do better than that your corals will start to look a lot better. Dosing pumps are very good! Calcium swings are not as much of a problem but you should still try to keep it above 420. I would also reduce the amount of water changes (i.e., do smaller changes, 10%). Let the tank stabilize for a while. Test your saltwater to see what the ALK level is as well as salinity. Do your best to match it with your DT water.
When you do water changes focus on removing the water from the dirtiest places in your system (sump, sand vacuum, etc.). If you're just pulling water out of the water column it's just a light dilution each time. If you pull out lots of crud with your water it's much more efficient and will do a much better job of reducing nutrients... you're diluting the water column and removing the source of nutrients that go into the water column.
You have to keep ALK from varying too much. Week to week you want to keep it within 0.5 dkh swing. If you can do better than that your corals will start to look a lot better. Dosing pumps are very good! Calcium swings are not as much of a problem but you should still try to keep it above 420. I would also reduce the amount of water changes (i.e., do smaller changes, 10%). Let the tank stabilize for a while. Test your saltwater to see what the ALK level is as well as salinity. Do your best to match it with your DT water.
When you do water changes focus on removing the water from the dirtiest places in your system (sump, sand vacuum, etc.). If you're just pulling water out of the water column it's just a light dilution each time. If you pull out lots of crud with your water it's much more efficient and will do a much better job of reducing nutrients... you're diluting the water column and removing the source of nutrients that go into the water column.
+1. Alk consistency is most important thing. Worry about the No3 down the road.
Ive had good success with Red Sea NO3 Po4x for nitrates but would be more of a long term solution. As for ALK stability i've found the best (i.e. cheap) way is to use Ms.Wage for Kalkwasser and a dosing pump. I use one of BRS's (50ml/hour) and dose from a saturated solution of kalkwaser every hour. (you can look up think is 2 teaspoons per gallon) Use a multitimer or controller and test every day to find what your system needs for consistency.
This is in ADDITION to top off, not a replacement. Initially I tried adding Kalk to top off but requires changing the concentration and is terrible. Using saturated solution means it is the same every time and adjusting the amount added is much easier. Honestly, every time I test now dKh is 8.4... never changes. Pump $60, timer $10, Ms. Wage $3.
I do about 1000 ML per day on my system, I would think 600 ML per day would be good place to start but thats just a guesstimate based on the pics you uploaded. Don't add it all at once.
Also, DONT use Kalk to raise dKh, is just a way to keep consistent. You may need something like Reef Fusion to bring up from 5.0 or whatever you had to 8 something. Doing that with Kalk would spike CA and PH too high.
