Simple chemistry advice to beginners #1

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 6, 2014

I thought I'd give a short series of threads involving very simple chemistry advice for beginners. This is the first.

Advice #1 : Supplementing in the early stages of a reef aquarium

1. Get an alkalinity test kit.
2. Measure your aquarium.
3. If the alkalinity is not below about 8 dKH (3 meq/L), and you are not already supplementing alkalinity, then you do not need to test for any other chemical (not counting salinity) and you do not need to supplement any chemicals at all.

The reason is that alkalinity will decline before anything else has significantly dropped, and if it has not dropped out of acceptable ranges, then neither will anything else have done so.

Happy Reefing!

Aqua fire/medic · Dec 6, 2014

As always, thank you for your wisdom

chefjpaul · Dec 6, 2014

Randy,
Saves on some test kits!

What is your opinion regarding this subject of ALK. & kalkwasser?

I have a fairly new tank with minimal fish and corals. I am slowly adding corals, nothing to consume a lot of calcium.

Chemicals are stable, does decline minimally, red sea coral pro water changes bring everything back.

Would this be a good time to start kalk. via the ato?

I would like to introduce sps soon, and was thinking to start this kalk regiment prior.

One reason of thinking to keep everything stable, but also to get the system used to it?

Thanks.

rayn · Dec 6, 2014

Now that is great news for beginners. Can't count the number of times I read, by all the test kits and give the parameters. Save money and still have a good start.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 7, 2014

chefjpaul said:
Randy,
Saves on some test kits!

What is your opinion regarding this subject of ALK. & kalkwasser?

I have a fairly new tank with minimal fish and corals. I am slowly adding corals, nothing to consume a lot of calcium.

Chemicals are stable, does decline minimally, red sea coral pro water changes bring everything back.

Would this be a good time to start kalk. via the ato?

I would like to introduce sps soon, and was thinking to start this kalk regiment prior.

One reason of thinking to keep everything stable, but also to get the system used to it?

Thanks.

A little bit of calcium hydroxide dissolved into the ATO water can be a good way to go at the start, as long as the ATO does not add the water too fast. You can add as little calcium hydroxide as you want/need to maintain alkalinity.

You can always begin too add some two part later, if needed.

FWIW, limewater is all I use for my system.

chefjpaul · Dec 7, 2014

Thanks Randy.
I have read every article on the net related, (plus everything you have written), just was wanting some reassurance that it was ok to start in a new system.

Im defiantly going to replace the Hydrofill pump with a BRS dosing pump for the ato.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 7, 2014

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing.

treemanone2003 · Dec 7, 2014

Thanks for supplying some of the essentials, Randy. So for discussion purposes, a reading of less than 8, with no dosing, what would be the next test(s) to begin with, or would dKH supplementation only be the advised route ?

tyler1503 · Dec 8, 2014

Been hoping you'd do a series of threads like this!

Thanks randy!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 8, 2014

treemanone2003 said:
Thanks for supplying some of the essentials, Randy. So for discussion purposes, a reading of less than 8, with no dosing, what would be the next test(s) to begin with, or would dKH supplementation only be the advised route ?

I'd say that as alkalinity begins to drop, the next thing to monitor is calcium. But, how important that is depends on how you supplement the alkalinity. If you use limewater, a two part, or a CaCO3/CO2 reactor, then you may not need to watch calcium much since such methods will maintain it about where it started, assuming you are using those methods to maintain alkalinity properly.

Testing for nutrients is, IMO, usually only necessary if you have an algae problem, and even then it is not strictly necessary, since the presence of algae indicates enough nitrogen and phosphorus somehow for growth. But testing nitrate and phosphate might be useful to help manage certain nutrient reduction method such as GFO or organic carbon dosing, especially to not go too far.

Dalmatia · Dec 8, 2014

Randy,,, thumbs up

jdeb101 · Dec 9, 2014

Am I reading this correctly... You are stating that only if alk falls below 3meq/l it is then necessary to dose for alk and test other params such as calcium?

d2mini · Dec 9, 2014

jdeb101 said:
Am I reading this correctly... You are stating that only if alk falls below 3meq/l it is then necessary to dose for alk and test other params such as calcium?

Basically, yes.

Here is a chart that shows the parameters of Natural Sea Water. (NSW)
Always a good place to start if you are wondering where your parameters should be.
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

3Twinklets · Dec 9, 2014

Thanks Randy. Very handy to know.

saltyphish · Dec 9, 2014

Never thought about it like that. Nice thread for beginners. Helps them save money.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 9, 2014

jdeb101 said:
Am I reading this correctly... You are stating that only if alk falls below 3meq/l it is then necessary to dose for alk and test other params such as calcium?

Yes. If alk hasn't fallen more than that, then calcium and magnesium are going to be quite close to the starting salt mix.

For a 1 meq/L (2.8 dKH) drop in alk, one would expect 20 ppm or less drop in calcium and only a ppm or less of magnesium. So most salt mixes will still be fine (assuming they were fine to start with).

Ebrown79 · Dec 9, 2014

I am very new to reefing and have just filled my tank three weeks ago. Levels are okay. I will enjoy your tips. Thank you. So if I am not supplementing alkalinity, I can do an alkalinity test and not test anything else if it is below 8. Just making sure I understand your tip. Thanks again

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 9, 2014

Ebrown79 said:
I am very new to reefing and have just filled my tank three weeks ago. Levels are okay. I will enjoy your tips. Thank you. So if I am not supplementing alkalinity, I can do an alkalinity test and not test anything else if it is below 8. Just making sure I understand your tip. Thanks again

If it is 8 dKH or above, I think you do not need to test calcium and magnesium, and most likely not anything else unless an unusual situation arose.