- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
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I thought I would start this thread and by no means am I anywhere near an experienced chemistry reefer but I've tried to consume as much knowledge and personal experience as possible. I wanted to list what I thought would be in order of magnitude of importance the different parameters you want to keep stable and some thoughts behind it in order to start a discussion. The reality is that the magnitude of importance is probably very small in that so much of this is tied so closely together and different corals have different importances but I thought it would be fun to try.
#1 The No-Nos / tank killers
Ammonia
Nitrite
#2 The must haves- always stable
Salinity - 1.025-1.026 / 35ppm
PH 8.1-8.3*
Temp**
KH 8-12***
* PH may fluctuate at night but stable PH seems to be very important
** Temp actually swings pretty wide in the wild from day / night and times of the year but stability in a small tank system is high importance
*** this one confounds me the most. I don't have experience with SPS but most of what I read shows that KH gets consumed with MG and CA and can vary widely based on salt, dosing, and corals. From what I understand keeping stable is a goal (and depending on coral necessary) but from my experience variations from 10-12 don't seem to affect the tank
#3 For a healthy growing coral
CA -450+
MG-1350+
NO3*- 2-5
Pho* 0-0.03
*depending on low nutrient system and type of coral
#4 Trace elements and feeding
Water changes
Coral feedings
So with my tank I've managed to have stable across the board except:
Pho -.16
KH- 10-12
In fact my CA and MG is 500 / 1450 with no dosing and just water changes weekly.
My NO3 is stuck at zero but I feed the coral daily and mix it up between
Reef Roids
Oyster Eggs
Coral Frenzy
Reef Bugs
Polyp Booster
Ocean Magik
I've seen definite growth and so far no issues from the Pho and KH.
Would love to hear feedback.
#1 The No-Nos / tank killers
Ammonia
Nitrite
#2 The must haves- always stable
Salinity - 1.025-1.026 / 35ppm
PH 8.1-8.3*
Temp**
KH 8-12***
* PH may fluctuate at night but stable PH seems to be very important
** Temp actually swings pretty wide in the wild from day / night and times of the year but stability in a small tank system is high importance
*** this one confounds me the most. I don't have experience with SPS but most of what I read shows that KH gets consumed with MG and CA and can vary widely based on salt, dosing, and corals. From what I understand keeping stable is a goal (and depending on coral necessary) but from my experience variations from 10-12 don't seem to affect the tank
#3 For a healthy growing coral
CA -450+
MG-1350+
NO3*- 2-5
Pho* 0-0.03
*depending on low nutrient system and type of coral
#4 Trace elements and feeding
Water changes
Coral feedings
So with my tank I've managed to have stable across the board except:
Pho -.16
KH- 10-12
In fact my CA and MG is 500 / 1450 with no dosing and just water changes weekly.
My NO3 is stuck at zero but I feed the coral daily and mix it up between
Reef Roids
Oyster Eggs
Coral Frenzy
Reef Bugs
Polyp Booster
Ocean Magik
I've seen definite growth and so far no issues from the Pho and KH.
Would love to hear feedback.