Tank Parameters LAST DITCH EFFORT

[Antman1198]

Hi,

I’m looking for help with my reef tank. I’ve had a Red Sea nano max for 4 years now and I’ve had my ups and down but never got crazy crazy growth. I’m trying to grow bounces and softies. I just got a new Red Sea led 90 and some bounce mushrooms ( infinity gauntlet, juggernaut, and Neptune). I will post pictures of my tank but right now I’m looking for help or suggestions with how to get my parameters in check. I feel like all my numbers are low excluding temp and salinity. Let me know.

thanks in advance,

 

[HuduVudu]

Alk in seawater is 7.7dKH. Many try to push this number up to give them room if something happens, but I find that sea water alkalinity works best, and that the higher you go the less coral like this. Low is a matter of perspective. If you are running fish alkalinity isn't as important. PH is more important there ot ensure that the tank outgasses CO2. If you are running stonies the absolutely most important thing about alkalinity is that it doesn't change ... AT ALL. You can get away with about a +-3% deviation, but the baseline must NOT move. Stability is the most important part of alkalinity in a stony tank.

PH is very dependent on when during the day that you test. If you are manually testing then you should test shortly after the peak of your light cycle and near the middle of your dark cycle. You can also test just as the lights turn on and just as they turn off to get a more complete picture. Using these numbers you can then test during one of those times that is more convient for you and estimate the other numbers with fair certianty.

If you PH numbers run low then you need to find the CO2 values in your room. Also if the CO2 room numbers come back low and you are still having depressed PH values then you need to investigate things that might be impeding gas exchange on your aquarium. There are many culprits here, but knowing room value CO2 should be your priority.

 

[mdb_talon]

For softies and shrooms your parameters look mostly fine to me other than needing to get nitrates up some. Phosphates could come down some but i would not consider it that big a deal where you are with a softy tank unless having algae issue.

A higher alk and a higher ph can definetely benefit with LPS/SPS but dont think you really going to see any impact with the tank you describe I would say if 7.8 is your highpoint of ph that would indicate very poor gas exchange or extremely high room co2(or a faulty test). If it is the lowpoint then thats pretty standard for many people.

Looks like your plan is using kalkwasser to increase it and that will work, but in a softy tank you wont be consuming much alk/calc unless you have a whole lot of fast growing coralline so the amount you will be able to dose(without spiking alk/calc) will likely be so small to be irrelevant to keeping your ph up.

Overall the only thing i would probably do is look to feed more and get those nitrates up....but probably look to gfo or lanthium chloride to get those phosphates down or at least prevent them from going higher.

 

[Antman1198]

Thanks for the input,
.
I am currently battling cyano and Dinos so I am trying to feed aggressively. I think I will add a small Amount of kalkwasser to my ato container. Or possibly buy buffer just to get my all up to 8-9 range slowly. I’ve invested heavily in some shrooms really trying not to kill them. Trying to find tune in my Red Sea 90 led. I have it set at the 100% blue and 10% white setting. I think I will dial it back to 60% blue and 5% white, this is a 90 led so it has more power got it longevity