Sk8r
12/19/2010, 11:09 AM
Bertoni's going to have to help me on this one, but I'm a perfect person to try to break this down in simplest possible terms, because I am hopeless as a chemist.
1. tap water vs ro/di water and your salt mix.
First, tap water isn't just water: it's got chloramine, a fish killer, in it. Water conditioners remove that, but DON'T remove copper (an invert killer), phosphate (algae fertilizer), or any of 3 pages worth of things that can be in your tap water.
Ro or ro/di water filtration cleans all those 3 pages of stuff out and leaves you with 'empty' water. Water that is just nicely ready for your salt mix...which will turn it into really nice sea-water.
Just occasionally somebody will ask "Can I use table salt?" and the answer is a strong no. A salt mix has much, much, much more than just salt. It has buffers, trace elements, and that staple of marine life---calcium, plus magnesium. Salts intended for reefs have more calcium than those intended for fish-only. If you go cheap on salt, you may end up adding calcium---or not, if you ARE fish-only.
Water changes are to replace the trace elements your fish and corals use up in their metabolism. That's why you do them. If you skip them, your water gets further and further from the nice balance you started with. In addition to those changes, there are only 3 supplements a novice may need, plus the corresponding tests: alkalinity buffer [dkh], calcium, and magnesium. If you keep fish or softies, you need the alkalinity buffer, and its test. The others certainly won't hurt at all, [you will never harm your fish by having still better water] but you should definitely at least have the buffer. If you're headed for stony corals, you need all three. A logbook is a very good idea, in which you write the date, what you added, and what the readings were when you added it. Dose INTO a TREND, don't play catch-up with a reading-already-gone-bad.
After dosing, wait 6-12 hours and test again: results aren't instant.
-----
2. Dosing.
Never dose anything you don't have a test for, and as a rule, dose ONLY those 3 chemicals, no matter what pretty bottle the lfs has for sale. Selenium, molybdenum, etc, are already in your salt mix. More is not better. In fact, it may be terribly worse. Stick to the 3: buffer, calcium, magnesium.
-------
3. When asking for help, post your test results with your question, in line-at-a-time form. This makes it easy to look right down that list and spot the problem.
-----
4. salinity.
The problem with swing-arms is they build up deposits and go 'off.' If your salinity measure is 'off' you can really hurt your tank. A refractometer is really simple to use: you drop water on the plate, squash it to a film with the cover, and look up at the light. A perfectly legible readout appears in your eyepiece. There's no battery, no fuss, and the things last and last. Calibration is done at the factory, but it doesn't hurt to ask your lfs to check it for you if you get a scary result: ALWAYS check an instrument if your tank looks ok but your readings are way off!
5. watch your fish and corals. If they're acting odd, start your tests and just go through them. If your corals close up---Test! One little-mentioned advantage of a reef is that you can walk past it and visually tell if your tank needs a check asap. Fish are a little harder to read, but odd behavior should be checked out with an up and down the scale water test, not neglecting the alkalinity one.
HTH
1. tap water vs ro/di water and your salt mix.
First, tap water isn't just water: it's got chloramine, a fish killer, in it. Water conditioners remove that, but DON'T remove copper (an invert killer), phosphate (algae fertilizer), or any of 3 pages worth of things that can be in your tap water.
Ro or ro/di water filtration cleans all those 3 pages of stuff out and leaves you with 'empty' water. Water that is just nicely ready for your salt mix...which will turn it into really nice sea-water.
Just occasionally somebody will ask "Can I use table salt?" and the answer is a strong no. A salt mix has much, much, much more than just salt. It has buffers, trace elements, and that staple of marine life---calcium, plus magnesium. Salts intended for reefs have more calcium than those intended for fish-only. If you go cheap on salt, you may end up adding calcium---or not, if you ARE fish-only.
Water changes are to replace the trace elements your fish and corals use up in their metabolism. That's why you do them. If you skip them, your water gets further and further from the nice balance you started with. In addition to those changes, there are only 3 supplements a novice may need, plus the corresponding tests: alkalinity buffer [dkh], calcium, and magnesium. If you keep fish or softies, you need the alkalinity buffer, and its test. The others certainly won't hurt at all, [you will never harm your fish by having still better water] but you should definitely at least have the buffer. If you're headed for stony corals, you need all three. A logbook is a very good idea, in which you write the date, what you added, and what the readings were when you added it. Dose INTO a TREND, don't play catch-up with a reading-already-gone-bad.
After dosing, wait 6-12 hours and test again: results aren't instant.
-----
2. Dosing.
Never dose anything you don't have a test for, and as a rule, dose ONLY those 3 chemicals, no matter what pretty bottle the lfs has for sale. Selenium, molybdenum, etc, are already in your salt mix. More is not better. In fact, it may be terribly worse. Stick to the 3: buffer, calcium, magnesium.
-------
3. When asking for help, post your test results with your question, in line-at-a-time form. This makes it easy to look right down that list and spot the problem.
-----
4. salinity.
The problem with swing-arms is they build up deposits and go 'off.' If your salinity measure is 'off' you can really hurt your tank. A refractometer is really simple to use: you drop water on the plate, squash it to a film with the cover, and look up at the light. A perfectly legible readout appears in your eyepiece. There's no battery, no fuss, and the things last and last. Calibration is done at the factory, but it doesn't hurt to ask your lfs to check it for you if you get a scary result: ALWAYS check an instrument if your tank looks ok but your readings are way off!
5. watch your fish and corals. If they're acting odd, start your tests and just go through them. If your corals close up---Test! One little-mentioned advantage of a reef is that you can walk past it and visually tell if your tank needs a check asap. Fish are a little harder to read, but odd behavior should be checked out with an up and down the scale water test, not neglecting the alkalinity one.
HTH