What are you keeping your tank parameters at?

[Gumbies R Us]

Alrighty, everyone, I'm just curious to hear what all of you are keeping your tank parameters at. Are you running a dirtier tank with higher nutrients, or a cleaner tank with lower nutrients? Just want to see what is working for everyone!

 

[EnterName]

Parameter	Usual range
Alkalinity	7 - 8dKH (still dialing in AFR)
Ca	420ppm
NO₃	< 1ppm
PO₄	< 0.05ppm (± 0.02ppm due to testing limitations)
Salinity	35ppt (PSU)
Temperature	25°C (77°F)

No water changes.

Why? Because it's what my tank does when I'm not messing around with it anyway. So it's the easy way to maintain parameters.

Would I recommend it? Only if your corals still look happy while doing it. I'm constantly experimenting with nutrient levels to get better images of dinoflagellates, so I would recommend most people to go with Randy's suggested nutrient target ranges instead.

I still don't think having 0 readings is an issue. Nature has lower levels than we can detect and if you are offering food to your corals they certainly won't starve.

 

[ScionFRSguy]

Here are my parameters:

Salinity 1.025 to 1.026, I try to keep it around 1.0255
Temp: 78 to 79, you can go down to 77 with no issues, however, try not to go to 80 or above, it should be 79 max.
Alkalinity: 8 to 9.5, I try to keep it around 9.5
Calcium: 425 to 430 (you will start seeing loss of color when you get down to around 390
Magnesium: 1350 to 1400, I try to keep it around 1350 which is plenty.
Nitrate: 20 to 25, 30 max
Phosphates: .17 to .20

As you can see, I keep my nutrients elevated. They're much higher than most people would recommend.

In my opinion, for the best coloration nitrate should be around 20 to 25ppm and Phosphates around .17 to .20. You want to have these two parameters elevated because they will always, in most cases, bottom out unless you have tons of fishes. So it's better to keep them on the high side, in the event they start to bottom out, your nitrate won't be at around 2ppm to 5pp or your Phosphates at around .02 to .03 which are wayyyy too close to bottoming out all the way. Those are the numbers I suggest the same with alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium, you want them all elevated. It's better to have your parameters slightly or noticeably elevated than to have them dangerously low

Sam Sam

 

[BryanM]

I'll know more this evening when I test... But here's the last set of numbers:

Nitrate 3.3 (want 10, increased dosing)
Phos .06 (stopped GFO!)
Alk 9.2 (trying to maintain 9, so this is a happy number)

Previous:

Nitrate 10.1
Phos .35
Alk 9.0

That is all I test for... Oh, accept for salinity, forgot. 1.024-1.026, depending on how well I keep up with testing.

 

[BriDroid]

• Nitrate (NO₃): 2–3 ppm
• Phosphate (PO₄): 0.05–0.06 ppm
• Salinity: 35 ppt
• Calcium (Ca): ~410 ppm
• Magnesium (Mg): ~1,400 ppm
• Alkalinity (Alk): 8.0–8.2 dKH

I didn't realize how much my alk was swinging daily until I got my Alkatronic hooked up and letting my Hydros dynamically dose my 2-part. It was swinging at least 1dKH a day if not more some days. My tank looks so much better with my alk stable!

 

[exnisstech]

I run both, high and low nutrients but that's because it's where the tanks have settled and I find it's easier to relax and let them do their thing as long as everything does well.
I target 8 dkH temp, 24.5 Celsius, 1.025 salinty on all tanks. Calcium 425 - 475 but I don't do anything to maintain it, just test every few months. I don't test anything else and never do ICP. N and P is a different story. My 330 runs N 40-50 and PO4 over 0.9 sometimes never lower than 0.4 but the tank looks good.

My my 100 requires dosing PO4 and ammonium for NO3 to keep levels detectable. I don't fret high levels but zeros make me nervous.

I started my IM20 back up Friday and have to dose N and P.

I have a 40g breeder that had 31.2 N and 0.74 P last test.

I like to let my tanks settle into a normal state and if they look good and coral grow I don't fret the levels other than salinty temp and alk.

 

[get-salty]

My 4' WB Parameters:

Salinity = 1.025-6
Alk = 8.2-8.5
Cal = 420-30
Mag - 1300 ish
No3 = 0.5 dosing slowing trying to bring it up a tad
Po4 = 0.1 ish

No3 is the only thing that is a tad low currently.
Overall, its solid... not much going in our out, also i try very hard on keeping my hands out of the tank !

 

[vlangel]

75g with canister and no skimmer:
I only test salinity- .025, alk- 7.8, NO3- 10, and PO4- .07
I dont fret over high PO4 as long as the coral look happy.

 

[Boehmtown]

What they were the day before

 

[EricR]

40 gallon tank, mostly soft corals with a couple LPS, running 5 years -- no sump, no skimmer.

Alkalinity 8.0-8.5 dKH
Calcium 400-440 ppm
Nitrate 10-15 ppm
Phosphate 0.15-0.20 ppm

I used to run lower NO3/PO4 but like higher better now, especially with mostly soft corals and easy LPS.

 

[Shnetts]

Nitrate = 40-50
Phosphate = .5-.6
Alkalinity = 8.2-8.4
Calcium = 390-410
Magnesium = 1300 dead on

I’d like to get my calcium higher but this is just where my tank has leveled out at

 

[christinna77]

75g mixed reef with a sump. I feed heavily 4-5 times a day, so my nutrients always run a bit high, but everything is thriving, corals are happy and fish are growing fast. I only really get the occasional bubble algae here and there.

I usually do 10% WC every week (I use IO purple bucket salt), dose 17ml of AFR and 40ml of vinegar daily and use Phosbond/Phosguard in my sump whenever phosphates start approaching 0.4 ppm.

Salinity	35
Alkalinity	9-9.5
Nitrates	15-25
Phosphates	0.3-0.4
Calcium	400-420
Magnesium	1300-1350

 

[GHOSTLY]

20g
Nitrate 5 (water change at a little above 10)
Phosphate .15-2
Alk 7.9
Calcium 460
MG 1440
Dosing soda ash/afr Everyday + aminos

Really solid results coming from red sea blue bucket

Tanks just recovering from a phosphate drop

 

[Paul B]

I can't even spell paramxeters. But my tank has always been what most people would call dirty.

In the 80s (or 90s, I forget) many people argued with me telling me that I couldn't keep SPS due to my nitrates which was about 160. I stupidly added a bunch of SPS and they not only thrived, but they filled my tank. Now, many years later I enjoy much easier soft corals and leathers better and am more interested in the health of the creatures and their ability to spawn.

I am much to old to have to prove anything so I just say to people who want to argue to have a great day and go and cut my toenails.

 

[Gobiidae]

First post on the site! This place has been invaluable in my saltwater adventure!

75G display with 20G sump, mixed reef
- WC: 10G weekly, Accurasea
- Alk: 7.3
- Salinity: 1.025
- Nitrates: 15-20ppm
- Phosphates: 0.5-0.6ppm

I do not test calc/mag often as there is no weekly alk movement greater than what is in my WC (plus all the feedback about the tests on this site make me cautious). Heavy feeding (dartfish are hungry as hell) keeps nutrients on the higher side but algae output/demand is balanced so I choose to focus on minimizing variance, not chasing a value.

32G Biocube, soft coral
- WC: 5G weekly Accurasea
- Alk: 8.0
- Salinity: 1.027
- Nitrate: 5-10ppm
- Phosphates: >0.6ppm
High nutrients with ambient light from plant racks made this a nightmare but got it moved and stable again last month.

30G, firsts tests next week. Trying the serious reef 90/10 method. Curious if my high phosphates pop up here too, only tank not to get FB marketplace uncured rock…

 

[strich]

Salinity: 34.4ppt
Temp: 26-26.5c
Alkalinity: 8.4ppm
Calcium: No idea never tested it
Magnesium: No idea never tested it
Nitrate: 60ppm
Phosphates: 0.5ppm

Tank has been up for almost a year now. I'm just barely starting to get a proper hold of the NO3 and PO4 but it's been a constant battle. My softies look pretty fine. The few test SPS frags I've put in browned off pretty quick (except for one of them) and the monti test frag has died. I am assuming its dirty water but no idea.

 

[FMF0331]

• Nitrate (NO₃): 10
• Phosphate (PO₄): 12
• Salinity: 35
• Calcium (Ca): 455
• Magnesium (Mg): 1450
• Alkalinity (Alk): 8.5