The BEST water parameters!!!

[jm23]

I know many of you, like me, always want our tanks to have the ideal water conditions so our corals look great and grow quickly, but there is a lot of varying opinions on this subject. Well I put together a spreadsheet on over 100 TOTM tanks from 4 different forums, took the averages and out comes the best water parameters. Let me just note that some TOTM tanks did not have enough data, but were still included with a link so you could still check them out. I also did not included the parameters on NPS tanks as I didn't want them to skew the averages. The data on salinity for 35 ppm was recorded at 1.026 even though it is higher, so the average could probably be slightly higher. Also Nitrates and Phosphates were not included as the general trend amongst TOTM winners is to have very low numbers. I also included DT gallons, but not total system volume as I already had enough data to convert (thanks to the Brits) and didn't feel like crunching the numbers on each sump and frag tank attached. Some of these systems have larger sump and frag tank water volume then DT volume.

So here are my results:

DT Gallons: 201
Temperature: 78.76
Salinity: 1.0255
PH: 8.1
Calcium: 426.97
Alkalinity: 8.39
Magnesium: 1343

While we all know there is far more to having a successful reef tank, I hope this data can give people a number to shoot for and tweak their tanks parameters from there to best fit your goals. Here is the link: Tank of the Month Data 2010-2013

Happy reefing!

 

[scott9119]

Thanks that helps. What's the best kits or ways to measure those results


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[scott9119]

Thanks that helps. What's the best kits or ways to measure those resultsu


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[jm23]

Thanks that helps. What's the best kits or ways to measure those resultsu


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This would be a whole other thread. advancedaquarist had an article awhile ago about testing the test kits. I started off with API, but have since switch to Red Sea and like them much better as they are more accurate. I have no experience with any other kits, so I would either do a search or start another thread asking that question.

 

[karenvas2]

i I use the API for nitrates, phosphates, calcium, nitrite, ph, and Salifert for Mag. I have the Hanna for calcium and poshphate but do not like it as much.

 

[mike007]

Thanks for sharing this info. + 1 on the Redsea test kits.

 

[bct15]

This is some good info, I like the fact you took out the time to do this. I have a couple suggestions (or request depending on how you look at it), could you put the maximum and minimum values of each parameter and the standard deviation of each parameter?

I wish somebody would have done something like this a lot sooner, good stuff here.


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[montethemoster]

Awesome job, it's really nice to have the links as well.

 

[GHill762]

Do you have everything on a spreadsheet? I wouldn't mind seeing some of those numbers distributed on a graph..

excellent work putting this together! neat idea for sure!


edit: ooopss.. I just now clicked the link. I could create my own graph.. lol..