southpaw23 Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 Hi... Have just been curious....i've read in numerous post about ppl adding B-Ionic, Kalkwasser etc to their tank on a regular basis and am just wondering how necessary are they?... I suppose it depends on the livestock one is keeping in their tank but i was always under the impression that the weekly water changes and daily maintenance on a nano would be sufficient. How much more benefit would i derive from adding these suppliments etc? My tank in the process of completing it's cycle, nitrites are down and nitrates are slowly climbing i presume...last check yesterday showed nitrities at 0.1 and nitrates at 5-10ppm. Should i be doing my water change now or wait a little. And if it is beneficial and important to be adding supplimentation like B-Ionic and stuff...when's a good time to start adding em? I plan on setting up an auto top off unit soon and was thinking that i could probably add it in the top off water instead. Input? Advice?.... ??? Link to comment
Physh1 Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 Water changes alone can do it but it really depends on your calcium draw from corals and rock. I've never had a tank I didn't have to dose. Every tank has always exceeded what simple water changes could keep up with. You can add supplements to make-up water but you can't really mix multiples togther in the same container...even bionic. Ideally you can use one in make up water and dose the others to the tank seperately. When you start dosing is a matter of testing. You'll need to get calcium, alk, and ph kits to know when to start dosing buffers. Cameron Link to comment
mattie Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 wait another week it sounds like your tank is cycleing down. as for the Ca it does depend on what you have in the tank. if you add hard corals the Ca will be depleated much faster than water changes can replenish always check you water levels to find out were you are. and macro algae can also suck down the Ca=calcium and there are few different ways to dose Ca and buffers and different brands but don't worry today it sounds to me like you have about another month to find a good solution for that Link to comment
southpaw23 Posted November 18, 2003 Author Share Posted November 18, 2003 Thanx for the quick reply guys....i haven't been able to get my hands on a Ca, Alk and Mg kit yet as the store hasn't had it in stock but i'll be sure to pick one up as soon as it's available so that i can get readings to give ya'll a better idea... Now i've looked at other post but still haven't gotten a good feel of what those levels should ideally look like... This is what i got from what i read...do correct me if i'm wrong here. Now ideally, Ca should be about 400, and Mg around 1500 or about 4 times your Ca level. When it comes to Alk, i'm not too sure, cos some threads i've read said that their alk is at 8 and that was fine...others stated levels like 12dkh to be ideal. Would someone mind giving me a rough gauge on the ideal levels i need? is there any other kits i'm missing out...what about Kh? Now i know that these levels would probably vary depending on what's in the tank and what i plan to keep. Well, as it stands, i don't plan on venturing into clams and sps in the near future so we can overlook them for now....my plan is to go with mostly softies like mushrooms, zoos, ricordias and along the way a frogspawn, hammer, brain and maybe candy canes. This will all be spaced out in the next few months of course. Now with my planned inhabitants, anyone got a good idea on what my levels should ideally be at?.....i'll swing by the LFS sometime today or tomorrow to see if they've got the required test kits yet. Thanx again for the info and help.... Link to comment
Physh1 Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 Ca = 400-450 pH = 8.0-8.3...daily fluctuations do occur mag = 1250-1500 alk 8-12 nitrite = 0 nitrate = ideally <10 ammonia = 0 A little on alk/dkh I cut and pasted from my page.... http://www.californiareefs.com/tanktechchemistry.htm The higher your alkalinity the more likely you will be to have a stable pH value. Fairly simple there but then you have to look at the 2 most common scales used to check you alkalinity level. One measurement is read in milliequivalents per liter. The other is measured as degrees of carbonate hardness. Conversion from one to another is pretty simple. If you have a meq/L (say 2.5) and would like it in dkH you would multiply the meq/L by 2.8 to get a dkH value of 7.0. The same applies the other way. A dkH value of 7 would need to be divided by 2.8 to get a meq/L value of 2.5. Natural seawater has a meq/L value of 2.1 to 2.5 (dkH of 6-7) but most captive systems should be a a value of roughly 2.8-3.2 (dkH of 8-9). I keep my level at around 12 dkH.So basically dkh and alk are measuring the same thing....just different scales. Cameron Link to comment
southpaw23 Posted November 18, 2003 Author Share Posted November 18, 2003 Hey cameron.... Your info on tank chemistry was very much appreciated....sorta clears some things up a little. So if i read you correctly....when i go get my test kits, i will be looking for a Ca, Mg and either a Kh or Alk test kit. And thanx again for the appropriate measure of levels. Btw....i also read thru your topic on lighting of the fuge and from what i understand...it almost seems as though....in order to maintain a 24/7 lighting schedule on the fuge effectively/efficiently....one would need a rather decent bioload in their main tank. Does this mean that a tank would be able to handle slightly more fishes and inverts if this is the case? Of course this would be taking into account that the fish has sufficient space to live as well. The reason why i'm askin is coz i currently have 2 cleaners in my 16g and i intend to have a pair of perculas in the tank in the near future...along with a bicolor blenny. i read in an earlier post that said that cleaners contribute to the bioload as well and was just wondering if i had a setup like this....shouldn't the lighting of the fuge 24/7 be able to handle the bioload in the tank? As it stands, the 2 cleaners are just over an inch in lenght and the perculas i plan on getting are pretty small as well....would puttin a small CBS in the tank be a bad idea? Lotsa questions i know....well, feel free to respond....if not no worries.... :*( ........ Anyone else care to chip in as well? Link to comment
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