Question: 32gal Reef to 75gal Reef - easier water chemistry?

[Braincandle]

We have a 32gal Biocube, it's been up for about 1.5 years. 2 clowns, some inverts, a richordea yuma that keeps making babies/copies (yay), and other LPS and softies.


We're struggling with water chemistry. I just got back from two work trips that lasted two weeks each, with a week in between, and there's more of that in the future. The water chemistry ends up swinging drastically within a short window if we don't keep tight control on the parameters, especially alkalinity.


Would shifting to a 75 gallon tank be a measurable difference in those swings? Could we go, say, two weeks between water changes instead of having to do them weekly? And maybe test water chemistry once every two weeks instead of weekly right now? Everything we’ve read has indicated a 125gal tank is the way to go for stable water parameters, but we aren’t really willing to spend that kind of cash right now. Other things in life are taking priority. But we’ve found a 75 gal tank that may be in the price range of spending money to take it. But, we don’t want to spend that kind of money if the difference won’t be substantial.



Thank you for your time!

 

[fishski13]

What are the water parameters you are having trouble with? Are you dosing anything right now?

I think every case is different, and its all about what you do and what your livestock is. For example, depending on what salt you use, you can have better chemistry that can go a week without depleting and you can be fine with just water changes.

For example if you go to the 75 gallon, you will probably want more livestock which means more elements and parameters taken from the water form the corals. This means you still have to test and replenish those elements.

 

[Braincandle]

Really it's our alkalinity that is giving us the most trouble, and our nitrates. We use Tropic Marin's Pro Reef salt, and we're doing 20% water changes usually every week. When we do the changes, we add BRS's calcium/magnesium/soda ash supplements to bring the new water up to our desired values. Our tank is sucking down alkalinity every day, so we've recently ordered a dosing pump just for that, but we're hoping that by increasing the volume and liverock that we'd be able to worry less about nitrate accumulation, and maybe do less water changes a month. We don't mind doing a 10-15% water change every few weeks on a larger tank, but it's the constant clockwork of this 32gal that we're struggling with with my work schedule now. We just weren't sure if upgrading to the 75 would allow us some leeway on when the changes could be done.