How NOT to have interlocked, messy problems...water quality. Do ALL of this: it won't hurt you and it may fix your problems.
1. use ro/di: fahgeddaboudit! use ro/di for setup AND maintenance: you don't need the grief.
2. once you've cycled, you need a different sort of tests applied once weekly at least, and once daily when you're about to add a fish or coral. What I use, should anybody care, is all Salifert brand: Alkalinity, No3, Phosphate, Calcium, Magnesium. If I were keeping softie corals or fish-only I'd skip the calcium and magnesium. What I use will keep a stony reef OR clams.
3. get supplements for alkalinity (buffer); magnesium; calcium, if stony reef; for alkalinity buffer if fish-only or softies. The brand I use is Kent Turbo Calcium, Kent Tech-M (magnesium); and Kent Alkalinity Buffer. There are others just as good.
4. These are readings that will keep you out of trouble:
a) temperature 78-79;
b) salinity 1.024 [this is the salinity that many salt mixes go for, at the rate of one knife-leveled half cup of salt mix per 1 precise gallon of water. But test: fish only salt will come in lower. Some reef salt (Reef Crystals, thank you HL) and Instant Ocean comes in lower. Watch overactive skimmers and such that can throw your salinity balance by removing salt water and causing your ATO to jet in fresh water, so test weekly.]
c) alkalinity between 7.9 and 9; I find 8.3 a real nice resting spot, right in the middle of that range.
d) calcium no lower than 420 for stony coral or clams. up to 480 is fine. It's a fairly fussy range. Stick to it.
e) magnesium at 1350 for stony coral or clams. It can go a shade higher; but if your mg (scientific abbreviation) drops below 1200---your alkalinity will sink like a stone and cannot be raised no matter how much buffer you add until you FIRST raise your mg past 1200. It's ocean magic. Water chemistry. And it can get your tank in a REAL mess (not to mention your pipes) if you don't know this.
f) will it hurt a fish-only or softie tank to maintain stony coral-class water? Not at all. Water with 8.3 alk, 420 cal, and 1350 mg can hold steady chemistry with NO fuss or supplement at all until the mg drifts lower than 1200...if you add calcium powder (kalk) to your ro/di water at 2 tsps per gallon of ro/di. Magic, I tell you; and a big work-saver. It doesn't take a controller to do this: it's just chemistry. An ATO makes this addition automatic and, given an autofeeder, lets you leave your tank unattended for weeks on end (vacation.)
[WHEN DOSING SUPPLEMENT: test before adding, add according to instruction, then wait 8 hours to test again, add more according to instructions, wait 8 hours [time to fully dissolve and work.] Start with mg, then alk, then cal, always that order. If only dosing alk, just proceed, same 8 hour wait---but if alk will NOT rise, something's wrong with the mg...get it tested.
4. Keep a little logbook, any piece of paper: and test daily for your first week or two to learn how your tank behaves. After that, go every 3 days; then once a week. ALWAYS DOSE BEFORE it hits the 'bad' level, and the log book
will show you the rate at which it's changing. If it's 'bad' it's, yes, bad for your fish and corals, and you need to prevent that EVER happening.
5. Re nitrates: rock, sand, skimming and water changes lower nitrates. If your water changes don't do it, you need a better, fancier skimmer OR your sump has become so gunky all over with brown fluff it needs cleaning. Take a flashlight and look. For stony coral, keep nitrate under 5. For softies and fish, under 20. Fish can survive over 50 but it's like living in toilet water. Nicer for them if you can fix it. Corals absolutely cannot tolerate high nitrate.
6. re ammonia: lethal to fish in most any amount. Corals actually tolerate it better than fish. But it's death in the water.
7. re phosphate: you need a trace. But no more than that. Nothing likes it in high amounts but algae you don't want. If you have more than a trace, GFO reactor can remove it---you MUST change the medium monthly, because it can saturate in a week, in a bad tank, and beyond that you're just spinning your wheels uselessly.
8. flow: the ocean moves. Big. for a 50 gallon tank, 950 gallons per hour flow throughout the tank. Most coral doesn't like its polyps blown sideways, so find them spots where this doesn't happen, but your fish will probably like having more oxygen and exercise.
9. light: T5, REEF LEDS, or metal halides for stony corals and clams; less for softies and fish. Shelter from the brightest light is needed for fish and some corals. Consult on specifics. I keep a 12 hour photoperiod, with 10 hours of sunlight ramping up from a blue dawn and down to a blue twilight, an hour each.
10. oxygenation: the cleaner your water, the more oxygen it can carry. The foaming action of the skimmer also oxygenates, and it should not be turned off even if it keeps you awake at night. If you have a crisis of cooling, that's ok: cooler water at least holds oxygen better; heating is the opposite: warmer water can't hold oxygen as well as cooler. And that's kinda important to know.
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Yes, these are 'absolute' answers with a little wiggle. But if you do these right, you will have FAR less trouble with your tank, with the one chance parasite getting a hold, with your fish coming down with stuff, and with your corals failing mysteriously. This kind of covers the whole gamut of reef conditions and how you handle the water conditions that make it 'like home' for things we keep. No fish is going to complain about water corals like.
1. use ro/di: fahgeddaboudit! use ro/di for setup AND maintenance: you don't need the grief.
2. once you've cycled, you need a different sort of tests applied once weekly at least, and once daily when you're about to add a fish or coral. What I use, should anybody care, is all Salifert brand: Alkalinity, No3, Phosphate, Calcium, Magnesium. If I were keeping softie corals or fish-only I'd skip the calcium and magnesium. What I use will keep a stony reef OR clams.
3. get supplements for alkalinity (buffer); magnesium; calcium, if stony reef; for alkalinity buffer if fish-only or softies. The brand I use is Kent Turbo Calcium, Kent Tech-M (magnesium); and Kent Alkalinity Buffer. There are others just as good.
4. These are readings that will keep you out of trouble:
a) temperature 78-79;
b) salinity 1.024 [this is the salinity that many salt mixes go for, at the rate of one knife-leveled half cup of salt mix per 1 precise gallon of water. But test: fish only salt will come in lower. Some reef salt (Reef Crystals, thank you HL) and Instant Ocean comes in lower. Watch overactive skimmers and such that can throw your salinity balance by removing salt water and causing your ATO to jet in fresh water, so test weekly.]
c) alkalinity between 7.9 and 9; I find 8.3 a real nice resting spot, right in the middle of that range.
d) calcium no lower than 420 for stony coral or clams. up to 480 is fine. It's a fairly fussy range. Stick to it.
e) magnesium at 1350 for stony coral or clams. It can go a shade higher; but if your mg (scientific abbreviation) drops below 1200---your alkalinity will sink like a stone and cannot be raised no matter how much buffer you add until you FIRST raise your mg past 1200. It's ocean magic. Water chemistry. And it can get your tank in a REAL mess (not to mention your pipes) if you don't know this.
f) will it hurt a fish-only or softie tank to maintain stony coral-class water? Not at all. Water with 8.3 alk, 420 cal, and 1350 mg can hold steady chemistry with NO fuss or supplement at all until the mg drifts lower than 1200...if you add calcium powder (kalk) to your ro/di water at 2 tsps per gallon of ro/di. Magic, I tell you; and a big work-saver. It doesn't take a controller to do this: it's just chemistry. An ATO makes this addition automatic and, given an autofeeder, lets you leave your tank unattended for weeks on end (vacation.)
[WHEN DOSING SUPPLEMENT: test before adding, add according to instruction, then wait 8 hours to test again, add more according to instructions, wait 8 hours [time to fully dissolve and work.] Start with mg, then alk, then cal, always that order. If only dosing alk, just proceed, same 8 hour wait---but if alk will NOT rise, something's wrong with the mg...get it tested.
4. Keep a little logbook, any piece of paper: and test daily for your first week or two to learn how your tank behaves. After that, go every 3 days; then once a week. ALWAYS DOSE BEFORE it hits the 'bad' level, and the log book
will show you the rate at which it's changing. If it's 'bad' it's, yes, bad for your fish and corals, and you need to prevent that EVER happening.
5. Re nitrates: rock, sand, skimming and water changes lower nitrates. If your water changes don't do it, you need a better, fancier skimmer OR your sump has become so gunky all over with brown fluff it needs cleaning. Take a flashlight and look. For stony coral, keep nitrate under 5. For softies and fish, under 20. Fish can survive over 50 but it's like living in toilet water. Nicer for them if you can fix it. Corals absolutely cannot tolerate high nitrate.
6. re ammonia: lethal to fish in most any amount. Corals actually tolerate it better than fish. But it's death in the water.
7. re phosphate: you need a trace. But no more than that. Nothing likes it in high amounts but algae you don't want. If you have more than a trace, GFO reactor can remove it---you MUST change the medium monthly, because it can saturate in a week, in a bad tank, and beyond that you're just spinning your wheels uselessly.
8. flow: the ocean moves. Big. for a 50 gallon tank, 950 gallons per hour flow throughout the tank. Most coral doesn't like its polyps blown sideways, so find them spots where this doesn't happen, but your fish will probably like having more oxygen and exercise.
9. light: T5, REEF LEDS, or metal halides for stony corals and clams; less for softies and fish. Shelter from the brightest light is needed for fish and some corals. Consult on specifics. I keep a 12 hour photoperiod, with 10 hours of sunlight ramping up from a blue dawn and down to a blue twilight, an hour each.
10. oxygenation: the cleaner your water, the more oxygen it can carry. The foaming action of the skimmer also oxygenates, and it should not be turned off even if it keeps you awake at night. If you have a crisis of cooling, that's ok: cooler water at least holds oxygen better; heating is the opposite: warmer water can't hold oxygen as well as cooler. And that's kinda important to know.
--------------------------
Yes, these are 'absolute' answers with a little wiggle. But if you do these right, you will have FAR less trouble with your tank, with the one chance parasite getting a hold, with your fish coming down with stuff, and with your corals failing mysteriously. This kind of covers the whole gamut of reef conditions and how you handle the water conditions that make it 'like home' for things we keep. No fish is going to complain about water corals like.
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