First Saltwater Tank

[jitgobbler]

Hey guys so I first got into fish tanks last april, and got my first saltwater tank in december. My tanks about 6 months old now and I have lots of softies, few lps, and one sps. All the softies seem to be doing great…i’ve lost one gonis and one torch just recently. To skip all the yata yata someone at my LFS told me that alk and calcium would good good in my 20 gallon with just weekly 15% water changes(which I do) but my torch and gonis looked strange after a couple weeks and I finally ordered all the test kits i should of have had and found that my alk was at 4. Yes 4 dkh. I’ve finally brought it up to around 8.5 but lost these two corals, and hoping that could be sole reason. I’ve also upgraded my lighting and flow recently so I don’t think it’s that. Anyway this is my first post here as I just discovered this forum so here’s some pics of the tank lmk what yall think!

 

[whalewhalewhale]

I'm not sure why they told you water changes were sufficient for keeping up with CA and Alk usage. Salt mixes vary so widely and 15% weekly is not going to keep up with certain LPS/SPS that like to vacuum up 15% of calcium, trace minerals, etc. DAILY. One of my previous SPS tanks used up 100ppm daily and there is no way a water change would keep up with that. Maybe a 100% water change everyday, but even that's dangerous as your levels are basically just sawtoothing.

 

[c4haskett]

I'm not sure why they told you water changes were sufficient for keeping up with CA and Alk usage. Salt mixes vary so widely and 15% weekly is not going to keep up with certain LPS/SPS that like to vacuum up 15% of calcium, trace minerals, etc. DAILY. One of my previous SPS tanks used up 100ppm daily and there is no way a water change would keep up with that. Maybe a 100% water change everyday, but even that's dangerous as your levels are basically just sawtoothing.

It appears he doesn't have enough coral to justify dosing alk/cal yet and water changes should be more than sufficient to replenish what little has been consumed. He only has one sps, the rest of the corals don't uptake alk like sps. The problem is likely that he added too much alk at once causing a spike. 4 dkh to 8 is quite a jump. I would consider switching to a higher alk salt mix. The change in flow, and most definitely the light change added in the stress of the coral. You had an SPS tank, so naturally your tank would consume much more elements than his. Each tank is different speaking to element and nutrient uptake. With his tank, I would say water changes are definitely enough to keep up the element demand.

 

[JumboShrimp]

This is my no-nonsense-coral-fool-around tank. Basically softies that I just let grow themselves. A 20 gallon all-in-one, with one Blade light. Top-off only, virtually NO WATER CHANGES ever, no dosing. However, if I ever 'do' want to get serious about things, I know I would probably dose All For Reef.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can you tell us what test kit you are using? How frequently do you test? Can you advise all parameters? What is your light? What do you have for flow?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hey guys so I first got into fish tanks last april, and got my first saltwater tank in december. My tanks about 6 months old now and I have lots of softies, few lps, and one sps. All the softies seem to be doing great…i’ve lost one gonis and one torch just recently. To skip all the yata yata someone at my LFS told me that alk and calcium would good good in my 20 gallon with just weekly 15% water changes(which I do) but my torch and gonis looked strange after a couple weeks and I finally ordered all the test kits i should of have had and found that my alk was at 4. Yes 4 dkh. I’ve finally brought it up to around 8.5 but lost these two corals, and hoping that could be sole reason. I’ve also upgraded my lighting and flow recently so I don’t think it’s that. Anyway this is my first post here as I just discovered this forum so here’s some pics of the tank lmk what yall think!

Water changes are good for keeping up with parameters until your tanks demands can no longer handle it, that’s when you need to start dosing.

What are you using to test?
I would start dosing either kalk or AFR (all for reef)