New to Marine

AquaSixAquaticsReef · 2026-07-16T20:29:54-0400

I may be posting in the wrong area but this seemed the closest. I recently inherited a salt water setup from my mother. She had a 150 gallon tank with a single clownfish. It sprung a leak and she asked me to take the fish. I went out and bought a 32 gallon biocube and I took enough water, sand, and rock from the leaking tank and moved it to the biocube. This tank has been going for years. After a few days of it sitting I decided to test the water and this was the following results.

Salt - 1.020
PH - 7.9
Alkalinity - 8
Calcium - 240

The fish store gave me seachem reef buffer to raise my PH. I have since gotten my PH to 8.2. My wife wants to eventually add some soft corals so I know I need to increase some other things. What is the best way to do this? Any help is appreciated as I come from the freshwater realm so this is all new to me.

Randy Holmes-Farley · 2026-07-16T21:29:41-0400

The calcium test is suspicious. Did you test it, or the store, and how?

Don’t get advice just from that store. Never add pH additives without needing alkalinity since all must be alkalinity additives, and often fail to attain the desired pH before alkalinity gets too high.

kevgib67 · 2026-07-16T21:31:27-0400

AquaSixAquaticsReef said:
I may be posting in the wrong area but this seemed the closest. I recently inherited a salt water setup from my mother. She had a 150 gallon tank with a single clownfish. It sprung a leak and she asked me to take the fish. I went out and bought a 32 gallon biocube and I took enough water, sand, and rock from the leaking tank and moved it to the biocube. This tank has been going for years. After a few days of it sitting I decided to test the water and this was the following results.

Salt - 1.020
PH - 7.9
Alkalinity - 8
Calcium - 240

The fish store gave me seachem reef buffer to raise my PH. I have since gotten my PH to 8.2. My wife wants to eventually add some soft corals so I know I need to increase some other things. What is the best way to do this? Any help is appreciated as I come from the freshwater realm so this is all new to me.

Welcome, I’d suggest watching BRS 52 weeks of reefing on YouTube, good luck!

AquaSixAquaticsReef · 2026-07-16T21:44:24-0400

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The calcium test is suspicious. Did you test it, or the store, and how?

Don’t get advice just from that store. Never add pH additives without needing alkalinity since all must be alkalinity additives, and often fail to attain the desired pH before alkalinity gets too high.

The store did all of the tests. I bought the Fritz calcium test.