Parameters

[Newbie1]

I have a 60 gal reef with 40 gal sump. I have reef octopus 110, algae scrubber 50.

salinity - 1.021 maybe 1.022
Calcium - 340
KH - 4DKH / 71.6 PPM
Phosphate - .25
Nitrate - 0

Lighting is AP700.

everything in the tank appears to be going well. I’m slowly dipping my toe into SPS Corals. When should I get into the dosing game? How can I slowly raise my salinity? Any of you guys have a spare doser you wanna contribute to a good cause lol.

thanks for reading,

David -KCMO

 

[IslandLifeReef]

You can raise your salinity by topping off with saltwater instead of RO water.

You really need to raise your ALK if your dKh is at 4. Do this over several weeks.

Your tank looks nice. Your NO3 is too low for your PO4. That may cause you problems later.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have a 60 gal reef with 40 gal sump. I have reef octopus 110, algae scrubber 50.

salinity - 1.021 maybe 1.022
Calcium - 340
KH - 4DKH / 71.6 PPM
Phosphate - .25
Nitrate - 0

Lighting is AP700.

everything in the tank appears to be going well. I’m slowly dipping my toe into SPS Corals. When should I get into the dosing game? How can I slowly raise my salinity? Any of you guys have a spare doser you wanna contribute to a good cause lol.

thanks for reading,

David -KCMO

Nice looking tank David! How long has it been running?

Things to work on:

salinity - 1.021 maybe 1.022/ How can I slowly raise my salinity?
Add some salt to get the SG a little higher. I run mine between 1.025 and 1.027. It takes quite a bit of salt to raise 100g of water from 1.022 to even 1.023. So just take some of your reef salt and sprinkle it into your sump and 15 minutes later test the SG until you get it where you want it.

Calcium - 340
This is low but OK given your current corals. Stony corals will want a higher Ca like 400 or even 425ppm.

KH - 4DKH / 71.6 PPM
Am I reading this correctly, your dKH is at 4.0? That's too low. Alk should be at least 5.0 or 6.0dKH, even with soft coral. And for sps it will be even higher, like 7.0 or 8.0dKH. At 5.0dKH some sps corals will die!

Are you currently adding any Ca or alk manually?? Or are you keeping levels up through water changes? Have you ever used a reef chemistry calculator? This is the site I use:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

When should I get into the dosing game?
If you aren't now, you'll need to start checking Ca and alk every so often. I check mine once a week. You should do it more than that until things get stable at better levels. You can start by doing the dosing manually. I have a mostly zoa tank with a few lps and sps and I dose manually twice a week. Having a dosing pump is a nice benefit, but doing it manually and taking the time to do it, keeps you more involved in watching the stability.

If you need help knowing how to set up and start dosing with a pump, just ask. It's not hard, but it can be a bit tricky in terms of the math and calculating how much to dose.

One other thing to consider is flow. Most sps corals like somewhat higher flow. Do you know how many times your tank water turns over? Are you aware of just what 'turn over' is in a reef tank? If not, ask. I didn't know about it at first either!

 

[Newbie1]

first, thank you guys for the info. I don’t understand this statement “Your tank looks nice. Your NO3 is too low for your PO4. That may cause you problems later.”.

I was running a rock only tank since November of last year. And majority almost everything else came from another tank (I upgraded). So it was all put together and running since September (it’s just a baby).

I also do not understand “tank water turning over”. I have three jets on the right side of the tank. One large jet at the bottom blowing constantly. I have a small jet above the large one running inconsistently and a bigger one doing the same. All are blowing pretty good, so I would say my flow is high.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Yikes! Those numbers are all over. The salinity is good for an all fish system. You could get it up to 1.025-6 by adding salt in the ato. Calcium and alk are both low. Phosphate is high and nitrate is too low. What is mg? You’re already needing to dose imo. How old is the tank?

I have a 60 gal reef with 40 gal sump. I have reef octopus 110, algae scrubber 50.

salinity - 1.021 maybe 1.022
Calcium - 340
KH - 4DKH / 71.6 PPM
Phosphate - .25
Nitrate - 0

Lighting is AP700.

everything in the tank appears to be going well. I’m slowly dipping my toe into SPS Corals. When should I get into the dosing game? How can I slowly raise my salinity? Any of you guys have a spare doser you wanna contribute to a good cause lol.

thanks for reading,

David -KCMO

 

[IslandLifeReef]

first, thank you guys for the info. I don’t understand this statement “Your tank looks nice. Your NO3 is too low for your PO4. That may cause you problems later.”.

I was running a rock only tank since November of last year. And majority almost everything else came from another tank (I upgraded). So it was all put together and running since September (it’s just a baby).

I also do not understand “tank water turning over”. I have three jets on the right side of the tank. One large jet at the bottom blowing constantly. I have a small jet above the large one running inconsistently and a bigger one doing the same. All are blowing pretty good, so I would say my flow is high.

A balanced tank has a higher NO3 reading than PO4. A lot of successful tanks run NO3 between 3 and 5 ppm and PO4 at 0.05 to 0.12 ppm. While I doubt that your NO3 is truly 0 ppm, it is probably really low. If your PO4 is 0.25, that is usually considered high. This type of imbalance usually causes algae issues, such as GHA at best, or Dino’s at worst. Also, your coral growth become NO3 limited.

My tank has had success running at 10:1 NO3 to PO4 ratio. My tank has low nutrients, NO3 of .2 ppm, and PO4 of 0.02 ppm, but that number is only what is left over in the water column. I don’t try to keep those numbers, that is just where my tank settled in at without running anything but a skimmer.

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
What is the ALK and Calcium of the water that you use for water changes?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Tank turnover is an equation like this:
Total flow from the return pump (assuming it all goes to the tank) less the decrease due to head pressure; Plus the flow from any powerheads or wavemakers in the tank; take that totaland divide by the total water volume of the tank only. Here is an example: return pump at 4 feet of head is 600gph + a powerhead at 400gph =1000gph divided by a 50 gallon tank = 20 turns

Anything less than 20 or 30 is low flow, 30 to 50 is medium flow and 50+ is high flow. You can find lots of disagreements about what's low and what's high, but you get the idea and you have a ballpark number for your tank.

 

[Newbie1]

Ok small update, I took sample to LFS and they measured my DKH at 6. I already forgot the calcium and did not test magnesium. I purchased “Red Sea Foundation reef care program”. Which I imagine will be better than the API TEST KIT I USED. I also took the pump heater and jet out of ATO and put it in bucket with saltwater to slowly bring up salinity. I suspect within a few days (I hope it should be up where it needs to be).

Im gonna let you guys go right now and text my Dkh/ca and mag I’ll let you k ow what I find!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Just keep asking questions. It only took me about 3 to 5 years to get comfortable enough that I had a fair idea what I was doing! ;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[Newbie1]

Ok this test kit is confusing but this is what I got:

1. CA - 495
2. MG - 1700
3. Dkh - 5.3
4. Salinity - 1.023
5. Temperature- 79.7

I dosed 4 grams of Red Sea (B) into my sump return section.

I’ll retest tomorrow.

 

[Ron Reefman]

A) Why is that series of tests confusing to you?
B) You don't have to wait a day before testing again. And any dosing you do will be evenly spread through the tank in 5 minutes... i5 minutes for sure.

 

[SDK]

Raising your salinity is also going to raise your Alk. I would hold off on adding any more RS Foundation B until you get your SG up to 1.026 and test Alk at that point.

 

[Newbie1]

Ron, the steps were super simple. What was confusing to me was the coloration. The color change was so subtle I was unsure of the change. (No I’m not color blind) lol.

I thought when testing, you wanted to always do it at the same time? Please advise if I’m wrong as I’m still learning. But it only takes 5 minutes for the Dose ? That is good to know!

SDK: I have a RO reservoir, however I took the pump out and put it in a bucket filled with saltwater. I’m slowly attempting to raise the salinity. Or would I be ok adding salt directly to the sump? Or is that a big no no?

 

[SDK]

The way you are doing it is fine. I was just commenting on you possibly raising your Alk too fast or too high.

Since increasing the salinity will also increase Alk, wait until you are up to 1.026. Then test your Alk and slowly proceed with any further adjustments....

 

[Newbie1]

Ok so what has happened is this:
1. I added 15 gallon tank, that is using the same sump. Maybe 10-12 pounds of white sand.

2. been using salt water for ATO. Salinity is currently at 1.026

3. calcium 450

4. DKH 7

6. I added an additional heater to assist with the additional water. Temp in small tank 80 and display is at 79.

Should I expect a diatom process due to the sand/water added to tank? I’m using a MJ 1200 to pump the water and I’m using 9 foot of tubing. Which means low flow. Currently has a marine land led light. Has white and blues. Very cheap light with no timer. On my display I have. Kessil AP700. Is there a light that would be adequate for the small tank (frag tank) that would piggy back off AP700?

 

[Newbie1]

The way you are doing it is fine. I was just commenting on you possibly raising your Alk too fast or too high.

Since increasing the salinity will also increase Alk, wait until you are up to 1.026. Then test your Alk and slowly proceed with any further adjustments....

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Newbie1
Member

Ok so what has happened is this:
1. I added 15 gallon tank, that is using the same sump. Maybe 10-12 pounds of white sand.

2. been using salt water for ATO. Salinity is currently at 1.026

3. calcium 450

4. DKH 7

6. I added an additional heater to assist with the additional water. Temp in small tank 80 and display is at 79.

Should I expect a diatom process due to the sand/water added to tank? I’m using a MJ 1200 to pump the water and I’m using 9 foot of tubing. Which means low flow. Currently has a marine land led light. Has white and blues. Very cheap light with no timer. On my display I have. Kessil AP700. Is there a light that would be adequate for the small tank (frag tank) that would piggy back off AP700?