Advice needed about reef parameters and testing

[reefofthenorth]

After adding our first few fish and cycling the tank, I am doing research and preparing to start my mixed reef in the JBJ 45. It seems to me that this hobby is really about keeping good water parameters so that is what I have focused on these past two months. I want to keep Zoas, Softies, LPS, and a BTA (Will either be added with plenty of room to roam or will not be added at all but want to accommodate the potential of one). I will NOT be keeping SPS as they seem to require more care and they do not interest me. That being said, I want to know what testing is necessary and what parameters I should keep my tank at.

Currently (Stable for over a month)

Salt: Purple Instant Ocean
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78 degrees
Nitrate: 5-10 PPM (I have a skimmer, carbon, phosguard, and purigen and not sure how to lower more)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Alk: 7 (only tested once at LFS)
Calcium: 400 (only tested once at LFS)
Phosphates: 0 (tested at LFS)

I currently do not have any reef test kits or a phosphate test kit. I test nitrate using Sailfert.


My question is do I even need to be testing for the corals I want to keep? Am I going to have to dose or will weekly 5-10 gallon water changes work fine? I am looking at maybe getting a red sea reef test kit and maybe a phosphate test kit, how often should these be tested if at all?



I would love any input or advice as I will be attending a frag swap in early March and would like to make some additions to my tank.

 

[SPR1968]

You basically need to try and keep the water parameters as stable as possible and below is a guide on numbers etc.

Your alkalinity at 7 is a little on the low side in that it doesn’t really want to go any lower so personally I would raise it to a around 8-8.5 to give you room in case it drops a little.

You should test weekly for

Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium (this is important because of it’s interaction with the above two)
Phosphate
Nitrate
pH if you want but this shouldn’t change much - I don’t test anymore for it

Once a system is running and cycled you don’t really need to test for nitrite and ammonia unless your having issues.

You might get away without dosing if you use salt for your weekly water changes with raised levels such as Red Sea Coral Pro but dosing elements daily is the best way in the long run.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[reefofthenorth]

That's super helpful. I had read that Instant ocean and reef crystals have some of the higher alkalinity for salts so I was expecting my alk to be higher. Tank is about 2 months old, low bio-load, no corals, is it possible that this is what my alkalinity will be with IO or is it possible that something else is causing it to be artificially low?

 

[SPR1968]

That's super helpful. I had read that Instant ocean and reef crystals have some of the higher alkalinity for salts so I was expecting my alk to be higher. Tank is about 2 months old, low bio-load, no corals, is it possible that this is what my alkalinity will be with IO or is it possible that something else is causing it to be artificially low?

It could be the salt yes, ive just done a quick search and can’t find what the alkalinity mixes to but you’ll find it somewhere

There‘s nothing wrong with 7, it just doesn’t give you much ‘wiggle room’ if it drops lower. It could of course be test error so get a good alkalinity test kit. I use Hanna but there expensive compared with other kits