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:
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
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