Newbie Water Questions

[susan ingram]

Hi everyone. So i just did approx. 10% water change yesterday on my 75 gallon tank and replaced with 5 gals saltwater mixed to 1.027 sg. (I know this is high, I was trying to slowly bump the tank from 1.021 to a target of 1.024 since I have added some corals both sps and lps. I also added approx. 3 gallons of RODI water as the reading was 1.022 after 2 hours, I didn't want to shock the kids. Today my params @ 79.2F were:

TEST - My Target Value	VALUE	MANUFAC.	TEST - My Target Value	VALUE	MANUFAC
SALINITY - 1.025	1.020	HYDROMETER	CA++ - 500	320	API
AMMONIA - 0	0	API	dKh - 10	7	API
NITRITES - 0	0	SALIFERT	Silicate - 0	0	SEACHEM
NITRATES - < 80	160	API	PO4 - <.2	.5	SEACHEM
pH - 8.3	8.2	API	IODINE - .06	.02	SEACHEM
GH	125.3	API	TEMP - 78.0

I'm currently dosing Seachem Reef 1 & 2 weekly on Fridays with the Cemora HOB skimmer off for two hours.
I think I may have, after typing this realized my first error.. I have been running carbon in the Tidal 110 HOB along with their matrix media. I am NOT taking out the carbon before or after dosing.

Q1. Would this cause a drop in the Ca++?? I am not running a reactor. Do I need to manually dose the carbon or can I continue to dose the reef 1 & 2 to maintain levels? Should I be dosing anything else?
Q2. If I want to switch over to the "blue bucket", can I do this through my weekly water changes? I figure this would be approx. 10 gallons per week, over 7 weeks to fully cycle through. Is my thinking correct?
Q3. I will be adding ROWA phos to remove phosphates and have cut back feedings to once every two days. Little buggers eat everything I am feeding (dried brine shrimp pellets handfed). Currently there are 5 chromis; 6 clowns, a goby and an urchin in there along with 2 cleaner shrimp. Should I keep it in the HOB until I see PO4 rise & then replace OR should I only use until I hit my target?
Q4. I have learned the painful lesson of less is more when it comes to this hobby, so I am wondering what your thoughts are. We are on month 7, so still in that cycling phase from what I have read. Any recommendations? I am mixing salt at home with RODI that measures at max a TDS of 2 ppm. I am using RODI as my top off as well... all done manually.

Finally....what do you do with your RO water? I am using it to water the plants & top off the pond but I still seem to produce A LOT of it... I have about a 3:1 ratio of RO to RODI. Anyone use the RO to top off? This seems counterproductive but I just hate wasting water (I do use the RO to make beer... but even I can't drink that much!).

Thanks for all the help everyone. Feel free to answer as many or as few of the above questions as you like. I am in a holding pattern until you all weigh in.

Susan

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Ok,
First, get a refractometer (and calibration solution) to measure salinity. Hydrometers are are usually a little off at best.
Second, carbon doesn't remove any minerals from the water, or else you wouldn't need a RO/DI filter.
Third, switching salt is easy, just do water changes, eventually it will be whatever salt you are using.
4th, Chromis are planktivores and need to eat at least twice a day, if you can't feed them that often, probably not the best choice for your tank.
5th, I would run the Rowaphos until you get PO3 down to .1ppm and then remove, once it goes up, add some new Rowa.
Sixth, take your time, nothing good happens quickly in reefing, but lots of bad things do. If you have any TDS in your RO/DI water, then something is doing its job.
As for your final question, I'm not 100% clear. Are you asking what to do with the waste water, or ??? If you would like less waste water, you can do 2 things, 1 add a booster pump, this increases the efficiency of your RO membrane.
2 add a second RO filter after the first one. These two things can often give a yield of 1:1.