10 Gallon Nano Chemistry

[iMi]

I have a question about chemistry in a nano reef. Does fresh seawater have all the minerals and trace elements needed for a nano reef to thrive? If so, is there really a need to use any additives if the 20% or more of the water is replaced with fresh water each week?

If dosing is necessary, what would be the easiest way to maintain proper balance?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have a question about chemistry in a nano reef. Does fresh seawater have all the minerals and trace elements needed for a nano reef to thrive? Yes.

If so, is there really a need to use any additives if the 20% or more of the water is replaced with fresh water each week? Probably not.

If dosing is necessary, what would be the easiest way to maintain proper balance?

Maybe a bit of Ca or alk and I'd just do it manually. Heck, I manually dose my 90g DT twice a week.

 

[iMi]

Maybe a bit of Ca or alk and I'd just do it manually. Heck, I manually dose my 90g DT twice a week.

Thank you. When you say “manually,“ are you saying without measuring the levels first? like doze based on a schedule?

Edit: I’m thinking something like Seachem Fusion 1/2

 

[Ron Reefman]

I test my Ca and alk levels, then I go to a reef calculator and find how much I need to dose, the measure it out and dump it in the tank.

This is the one I use:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[iMi]

I test my Ca and alk levels, then I go to a reef calculator and find how much I need to dose, the measure it out and dump it in the tank.

This is the one I use:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

That is exactly what I plan on doing. Awesome.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I have a question about chemistry in a nano reef. Does fresh seawater have all the minerals and trace elements needed for a nano reef to thrive? If so, is there really a need to use any additives if the 20% or more of the water is replaced with fresh water each week?

If dosing is necessary, what would be the easiest way to maintain proper balance?

A good quality salt mix (most of them are these days) typically has more than enough trace elements. 20%/wk water change is definitely sufficient for the average nano reef (I have been doing 10%/wk for over a decade on a 12g without any additional trace element supplementation). Trace elements are also supplied by the food that is fed.

Dosing alkalinity, calcium and magnesium should not be necessary in the first few months after startup and may not be necessary at all if you keep just soft corals, zoanthids and mushrooms. Dosing typically becomes necessary when a decent number of stony corals are added and then start growing.

There are many different ways to provide these 'Big 3'. I use a saturated Kalkwasser/RO water solution for Alk and Ca and a separate Mg additive. Alk is used up the fastest by far, followed by Ca and lastly (and slowly) by Mg.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have a question about chemistry in a nano reef. Does fresh seawater have all the minerals and trace elements needed for a nano reef to thrive? If so, is there really a need to use any additives if the 20% or more of the water is replaced with fresh water each week?

If dosing is necessary, what would be the easiest way to maintain proper balance?

20% (even daily) may not alleviate the need for rapidly depleted things such as alkalinity:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

Figure 23. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a low rate of 0.2 meq/L per day.

Figure 24. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 15%, 30% and 50% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a moderately high rate of 1 meq/L per day.

 

[iMi]

20% (even daily) may not alleviate the need for rapidly depleted things such as alkalinity:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

Figure 23. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a low rate of 0.2 meq/L per day.

Figure 24. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 15%, 30% and 50% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a moderately high rate of 1 meq/L per day.

Very interesting!

 

[Nano sapiens]

Should also add that different salt mixes have different alkalinities. A high alk salt like RC (Reef Crystals) is around 12'ish dKh when freshly made and it would take longer to deplete to around 7'ish dKh (natural alk in the ocean) than a lower alk salt would. A caveat is that large alk swings are not desirable for stony corals, but should not be an issue for a softies only tank.

Now that you have the basic ideas, a bit of experimentation would be required to see what is required for your particular system (no two reef tanks are exactly the same).