Water parameters for a reef tank. . . Can be. ?

[Jonathan blackwood]

If I am running my skimmer 24/7, doing weekly 15-20% water changes, running carbon and purigen, and phosphate remove and all the basic normal required maintenance. .. will that be sufficient to maintain stable parameters to keep all kinds of coral ? Meaning I don't dose or add anything. I am running AI vega (×2) and have plenty of flow. And all the mention above is in my sump obviously.

 

[Sabellafella]

Looks good to me bud, except with 20% wc a week alone should be adequate enuff, you might have to add some kalk to your topoff eventually

 

[Jonathan blackwood]

Looks good to me bud, except with 20% wc a week alone should be adequate enuff, you might have to add some kalk to your topoff eventually

Kalk?? Sorry I'm new to these chems and what not

 

[Sabellafella]

Kalk?? Sorry I'm new to these chems and what not

Its ok lol, kalkwasser, give it a look

 

[Jonathan blackwood]

Will do! Thank you

 

[Jonathan blackwood]

Its ok lol, kalkwasser, give it a look

Any specific one or brand ???

 

[Sabellafella]

Any specific one or brand ???

Doesnt matter, from what i seen alot of people prefer the bulk reef supply brand

 

[Jonathan blackwood]

Awesome, thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here's a copy and paste of my response in your other thread:

Likely not. Alkalinity, and calcium won't be maintained by water changes alone in a tank with substantial growing hard corals or coralline algae. Calcium will deplete more slowly, and a few salt mixes start with so much that water changes may hold off the need for dosing for quite some time.

I show here that water changes would need to be 30-50% daily to maintain alk in a low to medium demand tank:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

from it:
Figure 23. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a low rate of 0.2 meq/L per day.

 

[cjd]

loaded question ... reef tank parameters? could go on for days. try to be simple but best to do some reading. Temperature should be kept constant +- 1 or two degrees. I run at 78 degrees. Salinity constant whatever you choose to run your system at. I run mine at 1.025 use a refractometer not a swing arm/ best reefer tool imo. PH ,your tank will settle in to what it wants to run anywhere from 7.8 to 8.4 . anywhere in-between is fine just as long as its constant. calcium ,alkalinity and magnesium these you will have to dose to maintain a constant value . there is a ratio that you want to keep things in so everything is in "balance" that would take pages to go over so..... best way to see what your tank "consumes" is after a water change with a good quality salt that mixes to a good ratio of ca/alk /mag .wait a few hours for things to settle and equalize. Test for all three components using good test kits,(hopefully things test out to good ratio ca 420 ish / alk 8-9 / mag 1260-1300. wright down your findings.(keep a log of test results date / time) nerdy but helps cause I know I cant remember what my params were a week ago. Then before your next water change test all three again. and see how much things dropped . you can determine what your tank consumes daily by doing some math. kalkwasser is good in the beginning but soon your tank will need more than that to maintain calcium and alkalinity. I dose both kalkwasser and separate two part to keep up with my tanks demands. kalkwasser has other useful benefits than just keeping cal and alk stable. Constant stability with no major swings is the key. and a balance ratio of ca/alk/mag to keep things happy. these params are just a set point to give you an idea . some people like to run higher calcium so to keep a balance they tend to run higher alk and mag too. example cal 450 / alk 9-10 / mag 1350....."balance"