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OTCHU
02/03/2010, 06:01 PM
hello guys

I did purchase some SPS last weekend during a fragswap. Need to know if my water is good enough for that.

First some information about my tank:
125G + 30Gsump
About 100 pounds of LR
tank is 2 years old now. Have a lot of soft coral and a 6"clam.
Have 3x150W MH 10000K + 4x96W compact.

water:
ph: 7.7
alkanity: 6dkh
amonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
calcium: 480
magnesium: 1400ppm

For the flow:
I have my return pump ... give me about 900gh
2 koralia3
2 maxijet1200

People said that the SPS need a strong flow but intermittent ... is it true ? because with my koralia, I can not use a wavemaker so the high flow is all the time on the SPS.


THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ADVICES
Vincent

robs.mark
02/03/2010, 06:45 PM
pH seems a little low try to keep that just over 8.
Alkanity should be around 3.5-4.
What are you phosphates at?

I think you should only keep sps at the very top of your reef as your lighting could do with a beef up.

If it where me id probably be looking at swapping one of the k3's for an mp40 or a tunze 6055. I know its a lot of money, but keeping sps was never a cheap game.

Is the tank a standard 125?

OTCHU
02/03/2010, 06:49 PM
yes it's a standard one ... not the best.

I though to invest on koralia wavemaker deluxe .... just did save 25% of the price for now lol

What should I do to increase the PH and decrease the ALK ?

OTCHU
02/03/2010, 06:50 PM
phosphate ... did not test ... should I ?

OTCHU
02/03/2010, 08:19 PM
bump

robs.mark
02/03/2010, 10:22 PM
Yes you most definatly should be testing for phosphates..

Did you test for KH too? you need to find the route of why your ph is low.. could be a KH problem or something to do with dosing calcium since thats farily high..
Also did you test pH at night? its always lower at night..

I would change say 30% of your water over the next week gradually then retest..

Take things nice and slow, get your levels right befor adding any frags, other wise you will most likely lose them.

Im sure you've heard it a million times and i really dont want to be a preacher, but in this interest only bad things happen fast!

OTCHU
02/04/2010, 07:54 AM
Did test my phosphate and it's 0 ... undetectable

I do 15% of water change every single week ....

My Alkalinity is 6dKH

Ph at night is still about the same ... 7.67

It's strange too that my calcium is high like that because I don't put any additive ... just using red sea reef salt (high in calcium)

can I use baked baking soda to raise my KH ?

AquaReeferMan
02/04/2010, 08:13 AM
Your pH is low because your Alk is low. Bump your Alk up between 8-12 dKH and your ph will naturally level itself out.

OTCHU
02/04/2010, 08:31 AM
so baked baking soda to raise the ALK ?

Av8bluewater
02/04/2010, 08:32 AM
Yes, The alk is low not high. It should be 7-11dkH. There are different mean of measuring alk and robs.mark may be referring to one of those but if it's in dKh it's low. What type of test kit do you have?
You can add baking soda that will have almost no impact on your PH or you can use Soda ash that will slightly raise the PH.
I use both and recommend bulkreefsupply.com
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
Flow should be 30-50 times the water volume.
Return+all power heads. It doesn't have to be on a wavemaker but things will be happier.

Av8bluewater
02/04/2010, 08:34 AM
so baked baking soda to raise the ALK ?

You can use either. Baked is the same as soda ash and will raise alk and PH.

OTCHU
02/04/2010, 08:57 AM
ok I will try tonight to use baked soda to raise my ph and alk.

How long time do I have to bake that and what temperature ?

Thank you very much for your help guys

SC Trojan
02/04/2010, 10:49 AM
spread 2 1/4 cups of baking soda on a cookie sheet and bake about a hour at 400f, then pour into a gallon jug and fill the rest with ro/di water, shake, let it clear up then dose accordingly to your tanks consumption.hit up randys two part recipe to calculate how much to dose. opening a window(if its not too cold ?) or two near your tank to allow fresh air in will also help raise your ph, excessive levels of co2 in your home can cause low ph as well.

jbird69
02/04/2010, 11:16 AM
use this to determine your dosing amounts.
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

your calcium may be remaining high because you dont have enough stoney corals/clams to consume it. Are you having coraline growth? I recommend getting your dkh to 10. That is a very safe level that gives you plenty of cushion up or down. Low dkh can be much more harmful than high dkh (unless you are dosing a carbon source like vodka).

Once you have sps/clams or even lps corals, you will need to dose calcium and alkalinity daily to keep your levels stable and your reef at the peak of health. Test for magnesium every 2-4 weeks and keep it in the 1300-1400 range. Its the magnesium that enables your livestock to effeiciently take up the ca/alk. You will have a very dificult time maintaning ca/alk if your magnesium drops low. In turn your corals wont efficiently use these elements. Calcium reactors, kalkwasser drips and dosing pumps are all a great way to automate these elements for optimum health. I prefer the dosing pumps.

OTCHU
02/04/2010, 11:30 AM
ok time to work now... I will take care of that tonight with baking soda