Need a list

[grendl]

I am running down the last of my equipment for my tank.

1) I have to figure out my sump/refugium, the design of which will hopefully be finalized once I see Essops. (read, if it looks easy enough for my dumbarse to put together)

2) I need my RO/DI which may or may not be a week or two away... depends on finances.

3) I need to reinforce the floor somehow. The tank housing the aquarium is over a crawlspace, with I wold guess around 3' of clearance. The tank will be crossing a few joists, but I am not confident in them at all. All that water, along with me sittin there as well on my computer... I dont want the floor to move at all... Right now there is some shaking when even my wife walks through.

4) One more MJ mod.

5) The two bulkheads, & the steady hand of Wayne & his drill.

That is the easy stuff. The things I am having trouble figureing out is :

1) Test kits. I have posted on this before, but not sure what all I will need. Basically I dont want someone to ask me what XXX is and not beable to provide them with that parameter. What all would I DEFINITELY need?

2) Additives is another that has me. Strontium, Calcium, blah blah blah. What all additives will I need to provide for a healthy ecosystem?

 

[snowstar]

well --good question... for test kits you will get a wide variety of responses from folks as to what to test and what brand. Personal experience, I like the seachem and salifert brands. Both are reliable - I personlly think the seachem tests are easier to perform ie you have clearier defined color shifts but that is just me -

Starting out the fast test kits for ammonia, nitrite, ph and nitrate are gonna be your most ecconomical - since you will go through a bunch of those during the tank cycle - but they do not necessarily have the precision I prefer - that some of the other test kits have. If you could spare the money for a ph monitor you can drop the purchase of the ph test kit...

After the cycle is complete - what you need to check changes...

You will always need (IMO) to check at least monthly or even better is twice a month: ph, and nitrate. After that it will depend on what you keep. If you choose to keep lots of SPS/LPS then you definitely need to check your alk, ca, and magnesium. If you keep lots of softies then checking your iodine level is good - although I know iodine poisoning is possible I don't ever remember seeing a test number that anyone pointed to saying oh your iodine level caused the problem. But still - since I do not dose Iodine I haven't done a lot of research on it - so iodine might also be a handy test to have - reseach it here on the chemistry forum.

A TDS meter would be a handy test tool to have so you can know what your water coming out of the tap is like, RO/DI water is like, and your fresh make up water is like. That might be the one time I would ever reccomend using a phosphate test - is on your make up water. Testing your water after it is in the aquarium for phosphate - if you have a algae problem is worthless. I don't know how many times I have seen threads where people are be-moaning algae problems and saying but my phosphates are 0. That is becasue the phosphates are being utilized as fast as they are introduced to the tank - and so are not in the water column to be tested.

So all that to say - I test for ph (monitor), alk, ca, magnesium, borate (part of the magnesium kit I use) and a TDS meter to keep an eye on my make up water twice a month - I also test fresh make up water for those same things occasionally to make sure nothing has really shifted in how salt company x is producing the synthetic sea salt mix I am using.

As for what to add, at the start, the water changes should do it for additives - until you really start adding lots of sps/lps will you need to really supplement anything and then a kalk drip will get you where you need to be - for a while. If you add lots of softies then you can think about adding iodine but I would do a lot more reasearch on the chemistry forum here before adding iodine. The whole additive thing though also is contingent upon the salt mix go go with.... about my only reccomendation there is do some reasearch. All brands of salt have their problems/deficenies - you just need to understand what they are and be prepared to compensate for them. I really like the Tropic Marin Pro salt but the one vendor in the area that carried it is not longer able to get it - so I may be going back to IO.


Lisa

 

[grendl]

Thanks again for another fantastic response Lisa, you are a great boon to the club! I am sure to have more questions as time passes, but I really wanted to get the basics covered with the test kits, & I had no idea where I stood with additives.

In regards to salt, I know Fujis carries Tropic Marin, but not sure if its pro or not. I do know that I could get the 200gallon bucket shipped from bigalsonline.com for cheaper than he sold it over the counter though.

That being said, I really hope to be able to buy my salts at Jo-Mars. I have bought all my equipment used, & want to give back to the shop what I can, in exchange for the help he & Ron have been to me personally, & just because Barry is a damn good fella. I think that he carries IO & IO Reef Crystals. I dont know what the difference is, but from what I gather, opinions on salts vary widely.

 

[snowstar]

yeah they do ---- I know that salt is different strokes for different folks - I would probably go with IO or RC over standard Tropic Marin. The pro is pretty expensive but so far has tested out fairly well. The IO is fairly balanced is fairly cheap and to my knowledge is only deficient in magnesium. So as you begin keeping LPS/SPS you may have to supplement with magnesium - I try to keep my magnesium levels between 1120 and 1150. It's a crucial piece in the corals ability to use the available calcium in the water. I really do not want to start a salt war becasue it is so subjective but here goes be aware that if you choose to use oceanic salt the last time I knew anything about it, it was horribly over balanced with calcium - to the point that may folks had problems with maintaining proper alkalinty balance to the calcium. Some folks have had problems maintaing Ph using oceanic.... It was just never worth it to me to try it to save a few pennies- there were to many documented problems - but what can you expect when the salt was testing out at over 500 for the Ca test?

Again this is all IMO your milage may vary...

Lisa

 

[mcox33]

I used the Instant Ocean, decided to change to Reef Crystals. But My next salt purchase will be Instant Ocean. Coral looked better before I changed salt.