New to Marine

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

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 Verified Community Expert]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

Best of luck!

 

[Fish Fan]

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

Did the store measure calc at 240 or did you measure calc at 240 with the Fritz test?

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

The store measured the calc at 240. I haven’t done the Fritz test yet. I can now.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

I just did the Fritz one and after the initial 10 drops from bottle one, it took 13 from bottle two to make it blue. The chart says that’s 260.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

if it is that far off, other things may well be far off and just dosing calcium may not be best. At some point, I’d consider making some new salt water and doing some water changes.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

Ok how big of water changes should I be doing? And of what salinity? Since it’s at 1.020 I didn’t want to harm the clownfish.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’d use 35 ppt normal seawater (sg = 1.0264) and change 10% or less several times.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

Ok. Is it safe to do daily? Also what salt would you recommend? I bought 5 gallons from my local store and their water is 1.023 so I’ll either need to add to it or make my own.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Using an LFS source implies a level of trust, which I would not have, but others may trust their LFS more.

I would look long term to make my own.

Yes, you can do that daily. If it really is a sg of 1.020, then a 10% change with 1.0264 only brings it to 1.0206.

That low salinity is also a large part of why calcium is so low. Raising it to 35 ppm with the same mix of ions brings calcium from 240 ppm to 317 ppm.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

Ok I will start doing that. Do you have a salt brand you recommend? I’ve heard instant ocean is good but then there’s also their reef version as well. If we want to eventually add soft corals I want to make sure I’m doing it right.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I use normal Instant Ocean for my reef. Without corals at the moment, anything more expensive is unnecessary.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

Ok so I have my salinity up to 34ppt. My calcium is now right around 360. What can I do to raise it a little more? My LFS was pushing for me to use Sea-Lab no. 28 but I wanted to check here first.

 

[fishface NJ]

I would not use Sea Lab 28.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

I would not use Sea Lab 28.

What would you recommend to up the calcium? And what else should I be testing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Unless you have hard corals in the tank, there's no need to boost calcium from the 360 ppm.

Sea Lab 28 dissolves and releases all that's in it, no matter what you need. Avoid it.

Any brand of calcium chloride is a fine way to boost calcium.

 

[AquaSixAquaticsReef]

I plan to add green star polyps, Duncan’s, zoas, magicians, and a hairy shroom. So soft corals.