How do you take care of your reef???

[nissanrs]

This is deff. gona help me and many noobs like me...
i like this hobby a lot, but sometimes i feel as if i need a degree in chemistry.. anyone feel the same, dont have to answer haha
for a healthy reef how important is supplementing iron magnesium calcium, did i forget anything?
what do you use how much do you use and why do you use it?

is ther a supper all in one supplement. reef crystals salt mix, it still needs supplement right?

 

[shapermike]

I find that each tanks has a different prams due to the different bio loads. I am finding that keeping the PH stable it the real key to keeping your small reef going. I have found that keeping my PH at 8.0 to 8.2 is working. I am finding that simple things like letting fresh air in to you house helps to reduce the co2 that is entering you tank via the skimmer does help. I see that when I keep my garage door closed my PH does get to 8.0 and when I open the door to let fresh air in the PH will rise to 8.03.

 

[MikeB]

It's really not that hard to understand and you don't need a degree in Chemistry. You have to tackle it one piece at a time to understand it.

Basic Chemistry: Salinity
The How To Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 1: The Salt Water Itself by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

What Chemicals Should Be Supplemented
The How To Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

pH
The How To Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 3: pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

All about the Chemicals you will need to know for you tank
The How To Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

You should take your time and read through those. Don't skim them, read them.

The main thing I dose is a 2 part, Alk and Calcium. You dose this by using a doser. I use the Aquamedic 3 stage doser. I also supplement Magnesium in my water change water. I always bring it up to 1500 ppm before doing water changes. Water change water in my mixed saltwater not top off water.

 

[cherokee_dude]

If you do regular water changes you can throw most of the 'Chemistry' confusion out. Iron and Mag are more or less trace elements that can be supplemented, although I suspect most people are not adding them too regularly.

In addition, most necessary levels are replaced with water changes with a good salt, like Reef Crystals {Not the ONLY decent salt}.

If you are keeping corals, Calcium/Alk/Nitrate/Phosphate levels are the major elements to monitor/keep most stable.

Again, water Changes are your friend.

edit: There is also no substitute for learning all you can so that things 'Make Sense' R2R is a great site to ask specific questions.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

you should check out what the diff is between 'reef' salt and the normal stuff. i know that for tropic marin that i use the reef blend actually has less in it than the normal blend (this seems counter intuitive). the reef blend has less alk so you can use a calcium reactor or dose a two part and not raise your alk too high. so if you use the normal stuff you actually have to add less!

ok so to answer your question this would be my advise. you can just do weekly water changes instead of supplements (using supplements correctly will benefit your reef but as a newbie you might want to just k.i.s.s. initially until your more experienced) your reef will grow well with only decent sized weekly water changes.

what i would focus on if i were you would be nutrients. here it is real simple. if you add food (nutrients) to your tank you must remove nutrients from your tank. its like a balancing act to not pollute your tank but feed your reef and fish enough. Import nutrients and export nutrients. this is where you need to do some reading to understand how you can export nutients. here are some of the things i do on my reef that work for me and my likes. there are many ways to accomplish this export and you must learn them and design a system that incorporates the ones you 'enjoy' doing the most, lol.

water changes
protien skimmer cleaning
siphoning of poop and uneaten food from my barebottom low flow tank
harvesting algae from my algal turf scrubber
my 2 + lbs of live rock per gallon contains bacteria which export for me
use rodi filtered water instead of nutrient laden tap water (this is a way to reduce the import)

g luck!