Five Pieces of Equipment That Made Me a Successful Reefkeeper

[jminick2]

and when you start your third decade, you discover pH is just as important as alkalinity!!!

no matter what I do I cant get my ph above 8.0 and at night it swings as low as 7.6 which is bad. I've tried everything except for bringing a line from outside to the tank. I dose kalk in my ato and it still won't go higher than 8.0.

 

[CHSUB]

no matter what I do I cant get my ph above 8.0 and at night it swings as low as 7.6 which is bad. I've tried everything except for bringing a line from outside to the tank. I dose kalk in my ato and it still won't go higher than 8.0.

outside air to my skimmer got my pH to 8.18 and above. i also use a reverse lit fug, and a dosing pump adds kalk when pH goes below 8.2. yes, i agree, 7.6 is too low for stone corals, imo.

 

[ca1ore]

and when you start your third decade, you discover pH is just as important as alkalinity!!!

Or maybe the fourth decade ....... will let you know next year.

 

[CStrickland]

Ohh 4-5 a Awesome Wife who Loves the tank as well......

Word.
My hubby is currently tank sitting, I'm lucky he doesn't have expensive taste

 

[m0nkie]

I say this all the time and people think I'm crazy.

I think chasing PH is a freshwater thing.. not so much in saltwater.. my lab grade PH probe was completely useless...

5 things that make or break this hobby for me, excluding the basics:

- Quality Skimmer
- RODI
- Auto Top Off
- Auto Doser
- A competent friend that can occasionally feed your tank

 

[ericarenee]

Word.
My hubby is currently tank sitting, I'm lucky he doesn't have expensive taste

We have well Bonnie started it a 72 Gal BAY Front Acrylic Simi Planted tank... Its full of smaller schooling fish like bloodfin tetras and so on..
Guess we Both are Addicted to more then Just each other.. Those who are passionate about the same things are more passionate about each other i guess.. 28 years together Her and I...

Just you Keep the Check book from the hubby. I hear those men have less Control over money.. hehe....

 

[CHSUB]

Why I monitor pH.

1) Calcium reactor is controlled in part by pH; 6.70 or above co2 is injected to dissolve media.
2)If pH in dt goes too low Calcium reactor co2 is turned off
3)If pH in dt goes too low Sulfur reactor is turned off
4)If pH goes below 8.2 kalk drip is turned on.
5) Monitoring pH gives a general feeling of how the tank is doing, if pH is "out of range" one can look for a problem?

There is always a parameter that someone will find "œuseless". I hear reefers say all the time "œI don't test for that and my tank is great"; whether it's pH, no3, po4, etc. With pH being so easy to monitor, I say why not monitor it? pH is more info we can use to make our reefs better.

 

[kenpau]

1. ATO
2. A decent skimmer
3. Refractometer
4. Decent lighting
5. Neptune Apex

Bonus answer.....good quality test kits

 

[tennesseebob]

Just you Keep the Check book from the hubby. I hear those men have less Control over money.. hehe....

I'm offended, if i could afford stationery after blowing my last paycheck on my skimmer and fish and coral, i'd send you hate mail :frog:

 

[Isaacs55]

1. RODI
2. Refractometer
3. Any test kit besides API
4. Big Wallet
5. Patience

 

[jason2459]

1. Patience
2. Consistency
3. Eyes
4. Automation
5. A comfy viewing spot

 

[jminick2]

outside air to my skimmer got my pH to 8.18 and above. i also use a reverse lit fug, and a dosing pump adds kalk when pH goes below 8.2. yes, i agree, 7.6 is too low for stone corals, imo.

I also have a reverse lit fuge. I have literally tried everything it will not come up. except the outside line to the skimmer. I just don't know. my town is spraying pesticides cause all the rain their saying mosquitos have been insane this year.

 

[jason2459]

Take care that the outside air you intake is not polluted with chemicals that could harm your tank.

 

[monkey4life]

1. patience
2. skimmer
3. ato
4. reefkeeper
5. more patience
Bonus- Reefcentral search function

Found that almost anything can bounce back from a mistake with a little bit of time and a good water change. Knowing when you need to make changes and how long to leave things alone have been the two biggest things I've learned.

 

[jason2459]

+1 to bonus Reefcentral is definitely a huge part to many people's success. It has been at least for me.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Why I monitor pH.

1) Calcium reactor is controlled in part by pH; 6.70 or above co2 is injected to dissolve media.
2)If pH in dt goes too low Calcium reactor co2 is turned off
3)If pH in dt goes too low Sulfur reactor is turned off
4)If pH goes below 8.2 kalk drip is turned on.
5) Monitoring pH gives a general feeling of how the tank is doing, if pH is "out of range" one can look for a problem?

There is always a parameter that someone will find “useless”. I hear reefers say all the time “I don’t test for that and my tank is great”; whether it’s pH, no3, po4, etc. With pH being so easy to monitor, I say why not monitor it? pH is more info we can use to make our reefs better.

IT seems to me in each and every case you typed out that you should have been taking care of something else that affected PH Not the other way around IMO. If your parameters are correct the PH will be as well IMO, IME

I'd like to add that I don't have enough stoney's to affect any of my parameters so my biweekly wc's take care of all of my waters needs for the health of my tank and it's inhabitants. So NO I don't check PH because everytime that I do it's 8.1-8.3 range

 

[Dkuhlmann]

OH yeah and Petco is having their $ per gallon tank sale now until Aug 8th. This would be the time to go tank shopping. A 40b and 20 sump is a hard combo to beat especially for $60 for the pair. They only have up to 55 gal on this sale and the 40b would be a much better reef tank because the 55 is too narrow for placing rock.

 

[laga77]

LiterMeter. Once you add a AWC to your system, watch the peaks and valleys of your parameters flatten out. I all ready had auto dosing pumps to add the two part components to help control ALK and CAL. But after a couple of months of AWC, I was able to reduce the amount of testing required and the amount of two part needed to maintain the desired values.

 

[SteelerMike]

For me, the purchase of my carbon doser electronic regulator was a huge benefit. I run a CA reactor and played around with the cheaper regulators and things have been soooo much better since purchasing the electronic regulator It is rock solid consistent which has made running my calcium reactor much easier and in turn my tank has done much better.