Poll: Stability - Which is most important?

[andrewkw]

My reasoning for alkalinity over salinity and temp is simple. Everyone starting up a tank be it an experience reefer or a newbie is measuring salinity when they setup the tank. I'd guess 99% are checking temp too and 99.9% should fall into some sort of acceptable range even if slightly outside the recommended level say 70-86. Unless you are in an unheated cabin or a non air conditioned tropical apartment temperature should be uncomfortable for you just as quickly as for your reef.

Heaters do explode and fail, chillers although less common today are still in use a lot and can fail too but you are much more likely to notice this vs alkalinity either dropping or spiking unless you are using a calcium reactor. Additionally if you started with 1.026 salinity or something close to that it should in theory take a long time for that to leave the range of acceptable assuming you are at least measuring your freshly mixed saltwater even if you aren't checking your water change water with a calibrated refractometer or salinity probe each and every time.

If you are doing nothing, using a dosing pump or even manually dosing alk is going to swing one way or the other unless you are monitoring it. With the exception of the seasonal changes your house and tank temperature shouldn't swing too much nor should your salinity but alkalinity requirements will change based on how many corals you have.

 

[revhtree]

Every system is different, but I've had temp swings with no noticeable effects, with one exception. Temp hit 89 due to Irma a few months ago - not good! On the other hand, I've had alk swings (primarily when I get lazy) with disastrous consequences!

Oh wow I looked at the poll the wrong way! I was thinking way too hard on this one! LOL! I was thinking like if you didn't have a heater or ever watch the temp. Or you never kept up with the salinity. Not swings! Ok I can go vote now!

 

[MnFish1]

I think it varies by how big the swings are. In large swings they alk, ph, temp and salinity are all important!
I went with Alk assuming we are talking about day to day reefing where salinity and temp are easy parameters to control without much monitoring

Yes - doesn't it depend on 'what stability means?' To me unstable doesn't mean a 'small change' it means something that happens that causes damage to the aquarium (or potential damage). The thing is (to me) is that none of these parameters become 'unstable' unless there is a big problem (heater, ATO, power failure etc etc etc) without human error none of them change significantly enough to be 'unstable' - or if the person managing the aquarium is not following proper procedures ... Or?

I guess the only ones that will change without human error are Alk, Ca and Mg - and of those Alk seems to be the most important. (and most of the daily changes barring a problem with dosing, etc are not big enough to be 'unstable')

 

[NY_Caveman]

I voted salinity. Alkalinity is very important for coral, especially heavy SPS bioloads, but not for all aquariums (like FOWLR). Temperature is important, but I assume everyone has a heater and their home is a reasonable temperature. Temperature issues result typically from heater failures or rare events that are not daily chores.

Salinity however is crucial to all saltwater tanks. It must be monitored and addressed daily and must be addressed for many events like water changes and livestock acclimation. I think an ATO is one of the most important pieces of equipment on a saltwater aquarium and would not run a tank without one. It allows constant control without ever straying too far. Adding manually every day leads to fluctuations and makes it very difficult to leave your tank for even one day.

 

[Steved350]

If we are talking about my take specifically I’d bite alkalinity. If I’m choosing for the masses it would be salinity.

 

[fragit]

I vote temp. On the heals of a power outage for 6 days early last month. The temp in my tank dropped to 56 degrees. With coral bleaching events all over the world due to increasing ocean temperatures I think the most important parameter is temperature. There obviously is a wide range here, but too hot or too cold livestock dies no ifs ands or buts.

 

[Fishhands]

I killed many corals with alkalinity swings. Before i got my hanna checker I couldn't tell if the color had reached end point or not. A few more drops or a few less drops is a big difference in the reading. I added so much 2 part my alk hit almost 15dkh. Nothing but the fish and hermits survived. Not even the snails. That's why its the most important to me.

 

[RussiReef]

IMO all of them are important . I will vote for ALK in SPS tank because instability leads to a disastrous result. .
Also I would include in a poll a quality of RODI water. I think it is equally important as all others

 

[BoomCorals]

Well to me the question is about stability. Not a single parameter being way out of line. Salinity swing isn’t going to affect much. And it’s easy to control. Temperature same thing. A couple degrees F swing won’t affect anything generally. Also pretty easy to control.

So, alkalinity. A swing of alk even within the “acceptable parameters” range of 7-11 can be a coral killer. So to me that’s the answer. Plus alk can be more difficult to control. Not to mention it naturally fluctuates about .5 dkh every day up and down. But changes have to be slow so as to not cause an alk swing too high and it causes issues with coral. Plus demand will change as coral and coralline growth changes.

 

[Salty_Box_Reef]

Depends on how you define "stable". Is a fluctuation in alk .5 stable to you? Over how long? A day, a week?

Is a fluctuation in salinity from 1.026 to 1.030 in a month stable?

Personally I think alk is the most important by how I define stable but ultimately they all kind of work together. If your alk is unstable it's going to cause your calcium to be unstable. If your salinity is unstable it will throw everything out of whack too.

My tank goes from about 76* to 84* throughout the course of a day during the summer since it's in my garage. Ive run my alk from 7.0-10.5 and had it swing from 8.0 to 9.6 over a three week period with no major issues. Ive run my salinity from 1.022 to 1.030 without any major issues. Ive had calcium from 350-550, mag from 1100-1500. The tank can adapt to a pretty wide verity of peramiters but there will always be something that suffers if the tank swings too quickly.

My personal experience leads me to believe more things suffer when alkalinity swings quickly more than any other perameter. I'd feel safer in letting temp go from 75* to 85*, calcium from 350-500, or salinity from 1.022 to 1.030 in a 24hr time frame than I would my alk going from 7.0-10.0 in the same time frame.

 

[van7271]

For a reef tank light should also be highly considered.

 

[Shigshwa]

It's hard to pick one to keep stable and forego the others, since some of these are critical life support parameters. I would say it's a nose to nose tie between salinity and temperature, and alkalinity falling slightly behind. If I had to pick one of the 3, salinity eeks out slightly more importance over all the kinds of tanks, because a salinity swing will stress everything out, and temperature swings aren't too bad, because I notice that my livestock tolerate 5 degree swings in temperature when I take them home from the store without insulation. Rush a salinity match or forego it though, and I rarely get good results. This is assuming that we are talking about a case where one of these parameters swing rapidly.

 

[mucky1957]

where I go for my salt water I know for certainty that the mag/cal/salinity are always spot on ( I do test them every 6 wks or so just to be sure ) and I never dose for mag/cal. The ph however does go up and down a lot so it is tested and dosed

 

[Bryn]

@dbl I have a controller for my temp, have an ATO for my salinity, and measure my Alkalinity every morning, and watch my pH via an electronic monitor. What I have not been able to find is a good suggestion on how much Alkalinity can change during a day. Is it ok to have .5dKH swings, or should it be .3dKH, or maybe less than 1dKH. If we know roughly the Alkalinity uptake per day, then an automatic dosing would reduce the swings even more by staggering the dosing.

So what do people think is an acceptable Alkalinity swing in a 24 hour period?

 

[dbl]

@dbl I have a controller for my temp, have an ATO for my salinity, and measure my Alkalinity every morning, and watch my pH via an electronic monitor. What I have not been able to find is a good suggestion on how much Alkalinity can change during a day. Is it ok to have .5dKH swings, or should it be .3dKH, or maybe less than 1dKH. If we know roughly the Alkalinity uptake per day, then an automatic dosing would reduce the swings even more by staggering the dosing.

So what do people think is an acceptable Alkalinity swing in a 24 hour period?

That's a very good question. Let's try to get you an answer via today's poll.

 

[BoomCorals]

@dbl I have a controller for my temp, have an ATO for my salinity, and measure my Alkalinity every morning, and watch my pH via an electronic monitor. What I have not been able to find is a good suggestion on how much Alkalinity can change during a day. Is it ok to have .5dKH swings, or should it be .3dKH, or maybe less than 1dKH. If we know roughly the Alkalinity uptake per day, then an automatic dosing would reduce the swings even more by staggering the dosing.

So what do people think is an acceptable Alkalinity swing in a 24 hour period?

Under 1 dkh is fine. Your average system swings around .4-.5 dkh in a day. But even finicky acros are fine with close to 1 dkh in a 24 hour period.

 

[Bryn]

@BoomCorals @dbl TY

 

[cracker]

I'd like to know how important " You " think No3 & Po4 stability is ? Off topic I know.