TESTING how-to, the lazy man's guide to same...

[JaySchulz]

Great info. Thanks!

 

[SFish]

Good info

Can they sticky this?

 

[Sk8r]

They don't like us to sticky too many things. I can tack this one up for a while. Suggest, however, to print it out and keep it as sheet #1 in your personal logbook. Or tape it to your sump door.

 

[hkgar]

Are there negative effects to a higher Mag? I keep mine at 1400. Ca and Alk are 450 and 7.5.

 

[Sk8r]

1400 is fine. I'd say you might have pretty strong coralline growth, but no problems. I like the alk just a little higher, if you have a topoff with much play in it.

 

[fishkeeprian]

Should i run kalk in my ato as a matter of courae if my levels remain stable?

 

[Butch01]

Right click - save as...

 

[Sk8r]

Fishkeeprian, if you're stable, nobody's using mg or cal at a rate that exceeds your water changes. You do not need kalk, but continue to test, because fish do use up minerals over time, and because if you have a clam or stony coral and that creature begins to build skeleton, (it can sleep quite a while, then wake up hungry) you'd be surprised how very fast it can strip-mine the water of calcium, throwing other parameters off. The basic sense is: stony corals and clams use more calcium than your water changes can supply, and once it goes deficient, a lot of things happen to the parameters. And b) do tests weekly: slow changes left unexamined can go critical-short eventually and cause you headaches. The simplest, easiest to run, and most predictive of all mineral tests you run is alkalinity: if it's right and stable, so are other things.

 

[schnebbles]

Perfect for a newbie. Thanks!

Sent from my SM-T377V using Tapatalk

 

[zKRYt]

First, Awesome information, this will be printed and reviewed often since I'm new to the hobby and is great explanation of what is effecting what.

As for kalk in the ATO (Currently I have nothing in the tank atm but CUC, but do plan on having fish and corals eventually. Right now my tank looks like my front yard with all the GHA so trying to get that under control first.) It's pretty warm in my office and probably go through about a 1/2 gallon a day in ATO. If I add kalk, with this amount of evaporation, could I potentially overdose these elements? Or is that pretty typical for a 34g tank?

Thanks again for the great info.

 

[Sk8r]

About typical evaporation: my 54 gulped down a gallon a day. Perfect for a kalk feed.
For GHA, use a GFO reactor, good thing to have on hand, really effective if you change the media monthly: it can 'saturate' with what it absorbs real fast.

 

[zKRYt]

About typical evaporation: my 54 gulped down a gallon a day. Perfect for a kalk feed.
For GHA, use a GFO reactor, good thing to have on hand, really effective if you change the media monthly: it can 'saturate' with what it absorbs real fast.

Thanks for the reply, GFO just arrived today. Going to swap out my carbon for that in my minimax reactor and run carbon in a bag for a bit. Also have Chemipure elite in the sump that I added a few days ago. As much as it is a nuisance algae, it does look cool waving in the water :lmao:

 

[Sk8r]

THere is a certain beauty to it. But it does overgrow corals and generally threatens clogs in your overflow teeth or drain, which is zealously to be avoided!