Chem questions

[wjugovich]

Currently I have a 56g reef tank with a pair of clowns and a half dozen small frags.

If I have a dead or dying coral, clam, snail, starfish, etc does it produce ammonia similar to distressed or dead fish?

I have always kind of ran a random mix of chemicals, according to dosage recommendations, but it is always a random changing mix of products. I have a tendency to go overboard and over do things. What do you use/need to run a reef tank?

Do you recommend 10% weekly water changes and 25% every month like fresh water tanks? Do you test all parameters every week?

 

[JOKER]

I test parameters weekly. I change about 10 gallons a week right now on a 120 or so total gallon system. Irun gfo now to reduce phosphates and my nitrate runs between 5 and 10. Iuse as little chemicals as I can. I prefer to be as natural and easy as I can get. The more enjoyable and less work makes having the tank a blessing rather than a pain. The problem with chemicals is you never know just how much is in the system. I have used chemiclean once in this tank and it took forever to get it all out. I only used that as a last resort to a cyano problem I was syphoning out weekly and it just kept coming back. Patience and stability are the most important things to me the stability helps all the inhabitants and the patience keeps me from doing things to fast and changing stuff so fast. You will battle algae most likely but you can beat it with time.