Water Changes + New Salt Mix

[VTek]

Sup guys,


Just wanted to write what i have going with the situation of my tank and hope for some feedback from others.


I have a 90g LPS dominate reef. It has been up for about 13 months now. Everything has been doing well for the most part. Some growth of a few specimens but have also lost a couple throughout the last year. Things started to shift slightly downhill in the past few months but not in a super terrible way. I have tried to diagnose the issue but having trouble pinpointing what i have going on (super hard as all changes are made slowly). Let me first tell you my current situation and the changes that i have made.


My LPS have been doing fairly well, some have grown, some have remained the same. The few SPS and monti's that I had, did not last long before bleaching out. I cant tell you how much I would like a mixed reed aquarium. With that being said, I had done some research and found out that a majority of SPS will not make it in the higher alk systems. I have looked into how to lower my alkalinity and pretty much found out that the main culprit is salt mix that is used. My LFS uses IO reef crystals that is known for its higher alkilinity levels. So my whole goal was to find something that i could get a lower alkilinty. My previous water parameters were as follows:


Ca:400

Mg:1320

Alk:14+

SG: 1.025

pH: 8.2

Nitrates: 1

Phosphates: 0

Temp: 79.3


Before my last water change that i got from my LFS, I tested the water that I got and was surprised with a SG on 1.020 and alk of again, 14+. All others were not too terrible, just a tad low. That is the time when I decided to make a switch and really get myself into "the hobby" by making all of my own water.


Again, I used to get all of my RODI and Mixed salt water from my lfs. Due to it being more convenient and more cost effective in the long run, I have invested in the BRS 4 Stage RODI Value unit rated 75GPD. I had started using this water about a week and a half ago. I have followed all of the instructions and youtube videos to get it set up, primed it and let it run for an hour before I collected any water from this system. I had verified by the TDS meter of 0 TDS before collecting water as well. I dont think that this is any issue and SHOULD BE NORMAL, even further so EXACTLY what should be happening.


I have also started to mix my own salt water. I chose the HW Marinemix Reefer Mix as the reviews have been outstanding. I would typically do an 18g water changed every other week when I was getting my water from my LFS. Since I have decided to mix my own water, I have changed it to 10g/wk (5g wednesday, 5g sunday).


Salt mix process: after having my RODI water at approximate room temperature I would begin mixing. From reviews, people have mentioned that they recommend approx 1/2 cup of salt mix per gallon being mixed. I started just shy of that and found that it was pretty much right on the money. (5)1/2cups (2.5 cups total) mixed right about 1.026 SG. As the reviews stated, it mixed clear in about 15 minutes. I let it mix for about 30 minutes total to make sure it was all in fact completely dissolved. My new saltwater was as follows (before adding to DT):
Ca: 410

Mg: 1380

Alk: 10.5

pH: 8


Since mixing my own water, I have only introduced about 10g into my DT. Since then, I have had some negative feedback from my purple tip Aussie hammer coral, frogspawn, and a few others. Is this normal based on the parameters i have? I know that LPS will not like the water that an SPS dominate tank needs to thrive and seems like SPS will not like the water necessary to keep a mojority of LPS happy...


I wouldnt think that 10g in my system would make much of a difference, especially since the numbers are pretty close to target range. So, I guess i am looking for some feedback on what people think of my situation and what they would do if they were me or if I should just continue with my game plan of slowly mixing in/out my water 5g on Wednesday, 5g on Sunday. W


NOTE: I am currently at work but will test my complete system when i get home from work as well as get some pictures of some coral that i think are struggling with the new change. In the meantime, you can see my system in this link: http://reef2reef.com/threads/new-to-r2r-brief-introduction.226706/

Not running any dosing as it seems to be unnecessary at this time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I do not agree that SPS will not thrive in high alk.

In fact, they usually grow faster in higher alkalinity.

What you do not want is very low nutrient levels (often called ULNS), and high alkalinity. One hypothesis why that is a problem may be that the skeleton grows faster than the tissue can grow.

 

[VTek]

FWIW, I do not agree that SPS will not thrive in high alk.

In fact, they usually grow faster in higher alkalinity.

What you do not want is very low nutrient levels (often called ULNS), and high alkalinity. One hypothesis why that is a problem may be that the skeleton grows faster than the tissue can grow.

Randy, thank you for some feedback. Always nice to hear from "the expert"!

in 14+ Alk levels? What exactly is "high" alkilinity? I guess for myself, I would consider anything above 11 to be high.
Randy, what are your suggestions on some things that i can do that may improve my situation? How do you test your nutrient levels? Which nutrients are you speaking of? Does anything stand out at you that i may be doing wrong/missing?

 

[tankstudy]

Which nutrients are you speaking of?

He is probably referring to Nitrates and Phosphates. Going to 0.00 on either of the two will cause a lot of things to not grow because many growing and living things will use these. I tend to see poor coral responses, over a period of time, from softies, LPS and SPS when I hit 0.00 for either. At the same time, going too high on either tends to cause problems too.

Can't have zero but can't have too much either.

 

[VTek]

So i need to rid my chaeto in my refugium to help build up some of these nutrients...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, thank you for some feedback. Always nice to hear from "the expert"!

in 14+ Alk levels? What exactly is "high" alkilinity? I guess for myself, I would consider anything above 11 to be high.
Randy, what are your suggestions on some things that i can do that may improve my situation? How do you test your nutrient levels? Which nutrients are you speaking of? Does anything stand out at you that i may be doing wrong/missing?

14 dKH is high (it should not be that high using Reef Crystals at the sg you mention, so maybe one of the measurements is in error, or the LFS added something else to it).

That said, I was primarily referring to the idea that LPS and SPS had different alk requirements and that SPS would not thrive in high alk (say, 11-12 dKH).

I do not know why some of your corals are responding negatively at the moment. I wouldn't think the small water change is the most likely answer, however, unless there was something wrong with the new water in a way you are not measuring.

 

[VTek]

Water measurements were done using Red Sea Pro titrations. The alkalinity test is a simple titration using 10ml tank water and titrating the water from blue to red. Very simple, hard to mess up and I am confident in my procedure (considering i studied chemistry for 4 years at the University of Iowa). I will use a full ml of dKH titrant before the solution even starts to turn. 1ml titrant used=14 dKH. So I am scratching my head on that.

With that being said, there must be some additives involved.

I hear you on the idea that LPS and SPS have different alk requirements which is why i have decided to try and do this myself. My thoughts were to try and lower my alkalinity a bit and hope to care for some SPS for more of a mixed variety in my system, rather than JUST LPS and Softies. My thought was to get my alk down to the 10 dKH and hopefully keep both LPS and SPS happy (for the most part).

Other than making my own water, I really havent had that much change in my system that i could look into. Have not moved any of the corals (especially the ones appearing to suffer)/powerheads in the past 3 months. The only thing that i have really added is the addition of some chaeto which has just started growing nicely.

 

[VTek]

On a side note, maybe this has absolutely nothing to with water parameter and more to do with livestock. I know peppermint and blood shrimp have been known to pick at some LPS on occasion. I have 1 blood shrimp and 2(maybe one) peppermint shrimp that have been in my system for probably 10 months. I have NEVER seen them messing with any coral i have.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I hear you on the idea that LPS and SPS have different alk requirements which is why i have decided to try and do this myself. My thoughts were to try and lower my alkalinity a bit and hope to care for some SPS for more of a mixed variety in my system, rather than JUST LPS and Softies. My thought was to get my alk down to the 10 dKH and hopefully keep both LPS and SPS happy (for the most part).
.

FWIW, I am claiming that you can keep them together at most alk levels. 10 dKH is certainly fine.

The more commonly encountered reasons for not keeping them together is flow and/or nutrient level requirements.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

VTek thanks for sharing experience and your experiment!
And yeah your system looks good!