Comments please on these parameters .. thank you.

[peterhos]

Morning All. The new Red Sea Reefer is now 6 months old. Tank has around 15 small Zoas and 4/5 small SPS frags. Zoas mostly growing - SPS starting to colour up, or brown out! After a short trip away dKH had dropped, so now a week later I have … (all numbers pretty stable…) …

Salinity 1.025
Temperature 80
Nitrates. 8.9
Phosphate. 0.15
dKH. 7.5
Calcium 500 on Salifert ... How to/should I let this drop
Magnesium. 1500 on Salifert

Does anything here strike you experts, especially the balance between the various numbers which I know little about?

Thanks all.

 

[doubleshot00]

Temps a bit warm but not crazy.
I would get that DKH up another point just to get it on a safer level. (8.5)

Are you dosing anything?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think it looks fine to me.

 

[peterhos]

I think it looks fine to me.

Thank you Randy

 

[peterhos]

Temps a bit warm but not crazy.
I would get that DKH up another point just to get it on a safer level. (8.5)

Are you dosing anything?

Have just started with sodium carbonate and/or bicarbonate to get back to 7.5 from my recent drop to 6.3 after a few days away. Tropic Marin only mixes to 7 - 7.5 dKH and I suspect I came cross a ‘bad patch’ in the bucket or maybe my alkalinity drops around 0.2 - 0.4 a day. I am now wondering after your and Randy’s comments whether I should settle the dKH at 7.5 or aim at the LFS‘s 8.5. They sell good frags there so should I match their 8.5 or do corals acclimate pretty well with a couple of hours drip of the DT water?

 

[fodsod]

I didn't see your PH posted. any idea where that's at?

 

[X-37B]

Those paramezers look good.
Alk of 7.5 is fine. Been running alk of 7 for years. No issues if it drops to 6 except slower growth.
Just put the frags in no float.
I learned this recently from Adam at BattleCorals.

Get to know your numbers. Only way to be successful, imo.

 

[peterhos]

I didn't see your PH posted. any idea where that's at?

Ah yes .. pH is. 8.2… maybe 8.1 … must get an easier test kit …

 

[peterhos]

Those paramezers look good.
Alk of 7.5 is fine. Been running alk of 7 for years. No issues if it drops to 6 except slower growth.
Just put the frags in no float.
I learned this recently from Adam at BattleCorals.

Get to know your numbers. Only way to be successful, imo.

Also common sense suggests why bother trying to push a salt’s natural dKH up. Think I will stick at 7.5. Thank you.

 

[doubleshot00]

Have just started with sodium carbonate and/or bicarbonate to get back to 7.5 from my recent drop to 6.3 after a few days away. Tropic Marin only mixes to 7 - 7.5 dKH and I suspect I came cross a ‘bad patch’ in the bucket or maybe my alkalinity drops around 0.2 - 0.4 a day. I am now wondering after your and Randy’s comments whether I should settle the dKH at 7.5 or aim at the LFS‘s 8.5. They sell good frags there so should I match their 8.5 or do corals acclimate pretty well with a couple of hours drip of the DT water?

My only recommendation to go 8-8.5 is to have wiggle room. I've had several instances for whatever reason my corals eat more and my doser has sputtered a few times. My dkh right now is around 7.8-8 and i want to get it to 8.5-9 to have that wiggle room.

 

[fodsod]

Ah yes .. pH is. 8.2… maybe 8.1 … must get an easier test kit …

8.1 is getting a little low but that could simply be due to the time you tested as PH fluctuates daily. I agree with everyone else, I don't see any obvious issues with your numbers. They all seem to be within the general accepted range for a healthy tank.

 

[peterhos]

My only recommendation to go 8-8.5 is to have wiggle room. I've had several instances for whatever reason my corals eat more and my doser has sputtered a few times. My dkh right now is around 7.8-8 and i want to get it to 8.5-9 to have that wiggle room.

Yes I get your point about wiggle room. Luckily I am now retired so at home all day so I can keep an eye on things nicely … as long as I can afford all the test reagents etc … lol.

 

[peterhos]

8.1 is getting a little low but that could simply be due to the time you tested as PH fluctuates daily. I agree with everyone else, I don't see any obvious issues with your numbers. They all seem to be within the general accepted range for a healthy tank.

My wife and I tend to agree on a pH of 8.2, though if I look at the colour in the vial with a naked eye and no colour chart I see … 8.4!

 

[doubleshot00]

Yes I get your point about wiggle room. Luckily I am now retired so at home all day so I can keep an eye on things nicely … as long as I can afford all the test reagents etc … lol.

Yeah its the reason why i want a trident but they seem like a pita to maintain. I check DKH once a week and some check everyday. Thats a lot of $.

 

[fodsod]

My wife and I tend to agree on a pH of 8.2, though if I look at the colour in the vial with a naked eye and no colour chart I see … 8.4!

My tank runs from 8.2-8.5 at times but mostly stays 8.3-8.4. Even at 8.4 you'd be fine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

for pH, I recommend 7.8 to 8.55 as OK. Higher in the range leads to faster growth of some hard corals. pH below 7.8 can stress some corals. Higher pH tends to increase abiotic precipitaiton as the main drawback.

 

[X-37B]

Ph 7.8-8.2 for many years now with zero issues.

 

[X-37B]

My only recommendation to go 8-8.5 is to have wiggle room. I've had several instances for whatever reason my corals eat more and my doser has sputtered a few times. My dkh right now is around 7.8-8 and i want to get it to 8.5-9 to have that wiggle room.

Wiggle room, lol. Have not heard that in a long time.
An alk of 6.5-7.5 is my prffered range for several reasons. Main one is its close to the average alkalinity of the ocean, 6.5.
If it goes down growth slows. If it goes up a couple points from 7 no issues.
Its more about keeping the number stable than the actual number itself, imo.