A Water Change A Day...
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OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Still no salt....hopefully today. :playball:
Retested Ca/alk at 420/2.5 which is still nicely balanced....dripping 200 mL of Recipe 2.
Who else is towing the line while I'm out of action besides Tim, BTW?
Tim, way to keep it going - no salt shortages or anything! ;)
Anyone have some photos to share that would illustrate your progress or how you do your water changes, etc?
-Matt
Retested Ca/alk at 420/2.5 which is still nicely balanced....dripping 200 mL of Recipe 2.
Who else is towing the line while I'm out of action besides Tim, BTW?
Tim, way to keep it going - no salt shortages or anything! ;)
Anyone have some photos to share that would illustrate your progress or how you do your water changes, etc?
-Matt
bknapp
Has been left unattended
I'm still chugging along with the daily changes!
I've got new RO/DI stuff from Spectrapure coming today and hope the new 99% Rejection rated RO membrane will keep my DI resin active longer.
I really need to get to testing, I went and bought refills for my test kits but couldn't find the rest of the things needed to complete the tests. (I'm not the most organized.) :banghead:
I've got new RO/DI stuff from Spectrapure coming today and hope the new 99% Rejection rated RO membrane will keep my DI resin active longer.
I really need to get to testing, I went and bought refills for my test kits but couldn't find the rest of the things needed to complete the tests. (I'm not the most organized.) :banghead:
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OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Water change #34!
Retested and it appears I am still on track for 200 mL of Recipe 2 for alk, but I've fallen behind on Ca by an additional 200 mL (aka 400mL of Recipe 2). Hrm.
alk 2.5 meq/L
Ca 400 ppm
Think I'm gonna dose 200 mL of each part tonight and try to retest in the morning to see if I get agreement on the second 200 mL of calcium chloride.
-Matt
Retested and it appears I am still on track for 200 mL of Recipe 2 for alk, but I've fallen behind on Ca by an additional 200 mL (aka 400mL of Recipe 2). Hrm.
alk 2.5 meq/L
Ca 400 ppm
Think I'm gonna dose 200 mL of each part tonight and try to retest in the morning to see if I get agreement on the second 200 mL of calcium chloride.
-Matt
I'm in the planning stages of a new build. Plan is to lightly stock with fish and probably some zoa's at first and after several months start adding LPS & SPS. At what point should I start the daily water changes?
James
James
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
It's still hanging in there! Although I'm sure crashing my alk twice (see posts above) didn't help anything, it doesn't really seem to have hurt anything either. Colors are staying bright, growth continuing. I was actually forced to go in last night and break off a 5" chunk of the red M. cap. because it was about to grow onto another rock. (Only have two cap-free rocks left!!!)
I really need to get more time together soon for that major fragging I keep mentioning....Really, reallly.
Typically I recommend you start water changes based on nutrient accumulation - so watch for nitrates and/or phosphates. When you get to 10 ppm (or whatever cut-off you want to have) I'd start.
Eventually, you will have to do more water changes to maintain alkalinity (thanks, stony corals!!) than for nutrients - at least if you're doing it right. ;) So, be watching alkalinity too!
* When you see alk get down to natural seawater levels (or maybe not quite that low) you want to increase your water change regime to compensate.
* When it gets to a point that you are changing as much water as you practically and easily can, then you will have to begin dosing. I would start with two-part dosing and I wold select Brightwell's Calcion and Alkalin8.3 to begin with - they have by far the best, most correct instructions on the bottle to get you started. Don't worry about saving money on this stuff until A) you're spending enough to actually be worth worrying about and B) you have a firm grasp on what you are doing.
* When you start to notice that you're spending more money on two-part dosing than you'd like is when I'd suggest adding a limewater (kalkwasser) reactor in-line with your ATO. It will carry a little setup cost, but it will knock your two-part dosing back down to negligible levels and is totally automated so it makes things easier for you. Look at the TLF Kalk 300 and the Tunze 5074. The Tunze is simpler design, so is my favorite, but both will get the job done better than traditional kalk reactors and cost a heck of a lot less.
* When you have the limewater reactor running at maxium and you once again start to notice you're spending too much on two-part chemical you will want to look into adding vinegar to your ATO reservoir to boost the reactor's output as described here.
* Another option (either in addition to the above, or instead of) is to consider switching to DIY chemicals. At least switch to baking soda for the alkalinity part. Baking soda is available for sale everywhere, so this is easy. The ingredient for the calcium part is usually a bit more of a quest unless you're lucky, and you really can't get anything better than driveway salt - if you can find the right stuff - for cheap. I'd put off switching to DIY calcium until demand is very high. Pure calcium chloride at Bulk Reef Supply is easy to get and not all that pricey.
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Water change #35!
I think the best side effect of this regime isn't necessarily even inside the tank. Having this many repeated visits to the tank has kinda forced/allowed me to re-engage with the tank on a lot of levels without taking any significant time from the rest of my schedule.
I never have large blocks of time anymore, and my dosers were on a ~8 month reservoir of Two Part, so I just wasn't doing anything with the tank for a while, really.
That is over. :) :) :)
BTW, for anyone keeping track, my Hydnophora seems to be hitting a growth spurt. Sweet! Ordinarily a medium-slow grower.
-Matt
I think the best side effect of this regime isn't necessarily even inside the tank. Having this many repeated visits to the tank has kinda forced/allowed me to re-engage with the tank on a lot of levels without taking any significant time from the rest of my schedule.
I never have large blocks of time anymore, and my dosers were on a ~8 month reservoir of Two Part, so I just wasn't doing anything with the tank for a while, really.
That is over. :) :) :)
BTW, for anyone keeping track, my Hydnophora seems to be hitting a growth spurt. Sweet! Ordinarily a medium-slow grower.
-Matt
SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
Sounds like everything is going well. I'm strongly considering going to a similar regimen for my tanks.
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Calcium reads at 400 ppm this morning, so gonna drip the second 200 mL of Recipe 2 and hopefully I'll have time to retest when it's done. I'm a little surprised to get an identical reading.
Alkalinity reads at 2.73 - about where I'd expect, I think.
Alkalinity reads at 2.73 - about where I'd expect, I think.
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
If you are as out of time as I am, I can't recommend it enough. :)
It's also a big step in making water changes physically easier - 5 gallons isn't much to carry. And with a bucket-dolly (see US Plastics and similar) you don't need to carry, just lift to empty or use a pump.
-Matt
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OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Water change #38!
Still getting 0 TDS form my RODI but starting to get a few small patches of cyano that are reoccurring.
Since feeding hasn't changed from close-to-zero, I've siphoned out just about every scrap of detritus and water changes are up 100%, it's probably time to change the DI cart. in my system.
I may also try to get Tunze 6045 into action to increase flow in a couple of relatively dead spots...at least until that big frag session, which will pretty much eliminate all the flow-challenges in this tank once and for all. I've got the 7095's in wave mode and they're doing great, but they are still only two points of flow in a tank that's way over-packed.
-Matt
Still getting 0 TDS form my RODI but starting to get a few small patches of cyano that are reoccurring.
Since feeding hasn't changed from close-to-zero, I've siphoned out just about every scrap of detritus and water changes are up 100%, it's probably time to change the DI cart. in my system.
I may also try to get Tunze 6045 into action to increase flow in a couple of relatively dead spots...at least until that big frag session, which will pretty much eliminate all the flow-challenges in this tank once and for all. I've got the 7095's in wave mode and they're doing great, but they are still only two points of flow in a tank that's way over-packed.
-Matt
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