Water Changes In SPS Tanks

[lilchris_357]

As I'm reading about sps tanks and learning that stability is key to maintaining sps tanks, I wondered how you sps gurus conduct water changes on your systems without spiking any of your parameters, more so alkalinity? I am trying to keep an ULN system so the recommended levels of Alk is 7 to 7.5. Many salt mixes have high levels of Alk with the lowest I've seen mixing around 9. (that I've seen)

 

[2Wheelsonly]

This is why I'm so against ULNS. Your alk pretty much has no play at all and you're borderline starving corals. On top of that I see very little benefit vs the cons.

That being said if you still want to go that route invest in Red Sea (non pro) salt. Mixed alk in the 7 range.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

A good habit to get into with low nutrients would be to do a small 10-15% WC biweekly with the sole purpose to replenish vitamins/ trace minerals etc. Introducing 5g of water with an Alk of 9 will have little effect on a tank with an Alk of 7.5

Which method are you using to maintain your nutrients?

 

[Husker]

My dKH sits naturally around 7.5. I don't attempt to have 0 nitrate/phosphates, but my nitrates are always undetectable with infrequent water changes. I second the Red Sea (non pro) for this purpose. However, I am not an SPS guru (only about 1 year in, but things are doing well).

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

My nutrients always remain undetectable and all of my corals have excellent growth

 

[happyhourhero]

I change 5 gallons every weekend from my 65. Dose alk and cal daily after lights out, mg as needed. Havent tested Nitrate or Phosphate in a couple of years. Test SG sometimes with a water change.

 

[Waters]

The key is to just use salt that matches your numbers. For example, I use Red Sea Blue which mixes up at a lower ALK, which matches what I keep my tank at.

 

[joseserrano]

Salts with low numbers, don't remember the exact numbers, but google can answer that for you .

Tropic Marine Pro
Red sea blue bucket (non pro)
Fritz
ESV- you can mix to your exact numbers.

 

[lilchris_357]

A good habit to get into with low nutrients would be to do a small 10-15% WC biweekly with the sole purpose to replenish vitamins/ trace minerals etc. Introducing 5g of water with an Alk of 9 will have little effect on a tank with an Alk of 7.5

Which method are you using to maintain your nutrients?

Zeovit

 

[lilchris_357]

Does anyone use regular Instant Ocean in their SPS tanks? What are things good or bad you see with that salt?

 

[joseserrano]

Does anyone use regular Instant Ocean in their SPS tanks? What are things good or bad you see with that salt?

I use it, and lots of local guys use it here as well. If you are going to run a zeo system, I would not use IO.

 

[lilchris_357]

I use it, and lots of local guys use it here as well. If you are going to run a zeo system, I would not use IO.

Because of high levels of Alk? I've noticed zeo heads are using Red Sea (blue bucket).

 

[vic5hands]

I do 50 gallon water changes weekly on my 210 gallons SPS tank , I check all my parameters before I change the water to insure they are the same. I use Instant Ocean reef crystals with no problems . I do have a calcium reactor and a Kalkwasser stirrer which help keep my levels steady. Alk 11.2 Cal 450 and mag 1500. I feed phyto feast 3 times weekly twice at night and once during the day. I do dose acropower 5 ml daily. The growth is good. I have been doing this for 2 years with little or no problems ,

 

[dunc101]

I use HW-MARINEMIX REEFER salt. It mixes up to around 7 dkh as well.

 

[joseserrano]

Because of high levels of Alk? I've noticed zeo heads are using Red Sea (blue bucket).

i think i would start with what are your shooting for/trying to accomplish, and then research what others have done to get those results.

 

[reefwiser]

I use blue bucket Rea Sea but I have a smaller size tank currently I am mindful of Alk spikes. People with much larger tanks can get away with higher alk salt as they are dealing with larger volumes of water. I dose five times a day spread across the day to keep my levels constant and I also change out a gallon of water via my AWC. I do this in 2 cup intervals over 8 hours to make the process less intrusive.

 

[ksfulk]

Ive been using IO salt since I started my tank with the ZeoVit products. I dont wotty too much about the Alk differences for water changes, but I will say that it is harder to manage 2 part dosing with IO, as the parameters seem to drift from batch to batch. I check my Alk everyday so I can keep an eye on trendings, but the size of your WC is going to have a bigger impact on the parameters than the parameters of the water you use to replace it - meaning that a 5 gallon WC with 10 dKH water on a 100 gallon tank with 8dKH wont have near the impact on parameters that a 30 gallon WC with the same saltwater mix.

I did recently purchase a small container of RedSea blue bucket salt and I found that Im not tweaking my 2 part dosing as much because the salt is relatively stable throughout the whole mix. I may move to it in the end, but IO does work with ZeoVit - you just have to know what the trade offs are :)

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Does anyone use regular Instant Ocean in their SPS tanks? What are things good or bad you see with that salt?

My only salt but my last box was in 2012.

 

[lilchris_357]

Ive been using IO salt since I started my tank with the ZeoVit products. I dont wotty too much about the Alk differences for water changes, but I will say that it is harder to manage 2 part dosing with IO, as the parameters seem to drift from batch to batch. I check my Alk everyday so I can keep an eye on trendings, but the size of your WC is going to have a bigger impact on the parameters than the parameters of the water you use to replace it - meaning that a 5 gallon WC with 10 dKH water on a 100 gallon tank with 8dKH wont have near the impact on parameters that a 30 gallon WC with the same saltwater mix.

I did recently purchase a small container of RedSea blue bucket salt and I found that Im not tweaking my 2 part dosing as much because the salt is relatively stable throughout the whole mix. I may move to it in the end, but IO does work with ZeoVit - you just have to know what the trade offs are :)

Thanks for the response. I'm thinking of using the RS blue bucket salt, hopefully I can keep the parameters stable. I have a 200 gallon net volume tank, 180 w/30 gallon sump. I'm thinking for water changes, 10 gallons at a time. No fish yet, just a few pieces of SPS frags. That's why I want to try and keep the params as stable as possible.

 

[lilchris_357]

My only salt but my last box was in 2012.

:confused::confused: In 2012...lol Is your tank still running?