Thoughts about minimal maintenance?

[grog]

Hey everyone! I've got a nagging question about my maintenance routine...

I have a 55g with a 20g sump that's been running for about a year. My critters consist of LPSs, Shrooms, Clams, 2 Clarkii's, Yellow Tang, 1 Sebae, and some inverts (etc...). My critters are all fat and happy and are growing quite nicely.

My hardware is minimal... A CPR in the sump, 2 175W MH lights, and 2 96W PC lights.

I really haven't tested my water for anything except for PH and Nitrates since the cycle completed. I drip 5g of limewater per week to make up for evap. and I do a 5g water change every weekend ( I use RO/DI water ). That's it. I don't add anything else.

Here's my question, and I hope I don't get beat up for this!

I'd like to start keeping some SPS coral and I'd like to know if I need to start testing for anything else (alk, ca...) and/or start adding a few chemicals that I've noticed some of you are using?

I read CONSTANTLY about the subject and I've read many different opinions. I'd just like to add some practical information to my research!

Thanks for listening!
Grog

[Kirbster]

I am extremely low-tech. I do not own a Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate test kit. I own a couple Calcium tests but I never open them. I own a phosphate test kit and I sometimes pull it it out if I'm really bored, but that is rare. I just don't think that any of those kits are even close to accurate enough to warrant getting bent out of shape about their results.

That said...I test Alkalinity religiously. Alkalinity is so critical to everything (pH maintenance, calcification, effective skimming, and probably other things undiscovered yet) I find it very useful to test for it. Alkalinity is also one of the parameters almost guaranteed to be unstable in a closed system unless the aquarist intervenes by means of addition of buffer. In an SPS tank which will be full of Carbonate guzzlers, Alkalinity is going to be even more critical and more likely to be unstable.
Calcium is going to be of interest in an SPS tank too. But if your alk is deficient, all the Calcium in the world won't do you any good. Because Alaklinity is depleted by a variety of factors, it is more likely to be dpleted quicker in a tank, especially a well-stocked system, so I pay more attention to it than Calcium. Any calcification problems I have had have always been correctable by fixing an unstable alk rather than worrying about Calcium.

JOGO (Just One Guy's Opinion)

KA

[grog]

Thanks for everyones help. All the reading that I've been doing is starting to congeal around 1 common theme... Testing and maintaining alkalinity for a variety of reasons.

Alright, I'm convinced... So now are there any recommendations for testers and buffers?

As you can tell by my setup, I'm kindof a low-tech guy myself. I figure if it's working, why complicate things?!

Thanks again,
Grog

[Kirbster]

I use several Alk tests and I'm fairly equally disappointed in all of them. Right now I have a Salifert and an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. Both are titrations, which are somewhat less subject to human error than colormetric tests like the pH tests tend to be. But still, I can't believe these tests are very accurate. However, I am more interested in trends than numbers, so I'm not real picky about accuracy.

Buffers: I believe that far and away the best method is a Calcium Reactor. That would be the high end of the spectrum. In the middle you'll have your "good" supplements like the ESV two-part, the Buffers from Seachem, the Tropic Marin stuff, etc. And at the bottom end, you'll have what I use in my large fish only systems at the store: good old fashioned sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. Baking Soda. You will probably want one of the middle choices.

I'm not going to discuss products at length because I'm in the selling business...I'm sure others here can discuss the buffers and test kits on the market.

HTH

KA

[badgers]

who's test kit do you use for alk?
thank you for your time and have a good day

[Bud Guy]

Kirbster,
I have to applaud you for: #1 Always giving your time to help others with good information and #2 for realizing that on that "other" board people were so caught up in the whole "YOU LIKE THE PRODUCTS, THEREFORE YOU MUST WORK FOR THEM" thing and backing out of a possible situation before it got silly. Good to see you contributing here as well!

As for me, I agree with all of the above and am currently using Reef Builder and Kalk to handle my issues. I also use the Salifert CA test kit and the Aquarium Pharm. KH kit.

Good to be here!
Shane

[KASESQ]

I have only used La Motte alk test kits, coupled with a PinPoint ph monitor that gets cleaned and recalibrated monthly. I have a whole cabinet full of test kits for just about every element found in our tanks, but since I started using RO/DI water I no longer test for things like phosphate, nitrate, or even oxygen content. Most of these other parameters take care of themselves in any event;alk, however, does not.