Help A Newbie!

[trickerie]

Good afternoon all, 

 

I'm new to the reefing world and am in the planning stages. I currently have my 20 gallon long set up with a nice dry rock scape, and will be setting up my RO system here soon. I wanted some direction on water parameters as all of my knowledge on the subject is from freshwater planted Aquariums. 

 

1) Is top off water usually fresh RO or salt? 

2) what test kits do you all recommend? Mg, CA, and alk? Which brands? I've only ever used api

3) is there a daily regimine you can do for your tank, as I do for my fresh tank with fertilizers. I basically have 2 500ml bottles of mix and dose a certain amount each day. I've read about kalk a d 2 part, but am confused about it. 

4) what about reef "food" is there a specific brand/kind everyone uses? Ive only read about reef roids 

 

Thank you all! Sorry for the seemingly dumb questions. 

[pricewayne]

15 minutes ago, trickerie said:

Good afternoon all, 

 

I'm new to the reefing world and am in the planning stages. I currently have my 20 gallon long set up with a nice dry rock scape, and will be setting up my RO system here soon. I wanted some direction on water parameters as all of my knowledge on the subject is from freshwater planted Aquariums. 

 

1) Is top off water usually fresh RO or salt? 

2) what test kits do you all recommend? Mg, CA, and alk? Which brands? I've only ever used api

3) is there a daily regimine you can do for your tank, as I do for my fresh tank with fertilizers. I basically have 2 500ml bottles of mix and dose a certain amount each day. I've read about kalk a d 2 part, but am confused about it. 

4) what about reef "food" is there a specific brand/kind everyone uses? Ive only read about reef roids 

 

Thank you all! Sorry for the seemingly dumb questions. 

Welcome!! I'm still newer to the hobby, myself but here's what I know for sure 🙂

 

1 - this is still something I'm not 100% on. What I do know, is it's most important to keep your salinity level stable. Add too much salt water with top off and may spike salinity levels etc.

2 - API Master SW Test Kit is fine and often relied upon for basic parameters: pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. For Alk, Ca, Mag most will rely on Salifert or Red Sea Foundation Pro (I use Red Sea and like it).

3 - Dosing should only be done once your Alk, Ca, Mag levels begin to fluctuate (once your coral livestock begins absorbing). Your tank will have a unique absorption rate as balance of livestock will be unique to your system. At this stage, I wouldn't worry too much about dosing until you start to add coral livestock. Some may disagree, but IMO, no need to even test your Alk, Ca, Mag until you begin stocking corals (couldn't hurt to get your base levels once you have your first salt mix). Once you add corals, begin testing Alk, Ca, Mag -- it may take some time for levels to fluctuate and for dosing to be needed.

4 - Feeding corals is optional, unless you're stocking NPS (non-photosynthetic). For most part, corals will rely on photosynthesis (lighting) as their primary source of energy. I spot feed reef roids about once a week, but I don't sweat it if I miss a weekly feeding.

 

What's your plan for lighting? This is arguably the most important equipment for your tank and there's tons of great info on the blog.

Also, a GREAT way to better familiarize yourself with the hobby is to the read the TOTM (tank of the month) posts here on nano-reef. Can see incredible tanks' equipment, maintenance and livestocking. Finding similar tanks to your goals and following their success/tips is fantastic.

[trickerie]

1 hour ago, pricewayne said:

What's your plan for lighting? This is arguably the most important equipment for your tank and there's tons of great info on the blog.

My light is hung and ready to be set up. I have a par meter and will be testing values shortly, and am hoping what Ive chosen is overkill. That way I can dim the lights and use when upgrading in the future. Here it is:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F1BJB8B/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_naW4CbXAB8DH0

 

It uses epiled and bridgelux diodes which ive used in the past, so hopefully it will work out. If so, it's be a great value for the money. Stats say @24 in from surface, you'll get 384~ par at substrate. We will see.

[Tamberav]

2 hours ago, trickerie said:

Good afternoon all, 

 

I'm new to the reefing world and am in the planning stages. I currently have my 20 gallon long set up with a nice dry rock scape, and will be setting up my RO system here soon. I wanted some direction on water parameters as all of my knowledge on the subject is from freshwater planted Aquariums. 

 

1) Is top off water usually fresh RO or salt? 

2) what test kits do you all recommend? Mg, CA, and alk? Which brands? I've only ever used api

3) is there a daily regimine you can do for your tank, as I do for my fresh tank with fertilizers. I basically have 2 500ml bottles of mix and dose a certain amount each day. I've read about kalk a d 2 part, but am confused about it. 

4) what about reef "food" is there a specific brand/kind everyone uses? Ive only read about reef roids 

 

Thank you all! Sorry for the seemingly dumb questions. 

 

1. RODI or distilled is the best to use (RO is missing the last stage. RO is typically for drinking and RODI for reefing).

 

2. Hanna for Alk. Red sea or Salifert for Mg and Ca. I would also pick up a Nitrate test kit from one of these brands. If you ever decide to add Phosphate to the list...the Hanna checker again is best. 

 

If you plan on only softies you may not need half of the test kits. If you want LPS or SPS then I would pick them up. 

 

Alk is the most important parameter and I test about twice a week on my SPS and LPS tanks. Nitrate and PO4 are the next most important. Mg and Ca are important...however a quality salt with regular water changes and proper dosing (which is based off alk) and these values never change much. I almost never test these anymore.

3. As a new reefer the less crap you dump in the better. You only dose 2 part based off your corals growth...you won't need to do this until you have a lot of LPS or SPS activity growing. You figure out the daily consumption through testing for a week. Never dose without knowing your consumption. Then you check often and adjust as growth rates change. 

 

4. It's easy to over dose reef roids in a young tank. Buy a quality frozen food like LRS nano and it will feed your fish and corals. LRS is literally the best you can buy premade for your fish. I sometimes soak the food in a vitamin mix like Selcon.

 

That light will work just fine...be careful not to cook corals with it.

 

 

 

 

 

[trickerie]

@Tamberav Thanks for your info! I guess starting with softies is prob the better idea huh? I plan on cycling my tank with nothing but rock, sand, bacteria and coraline from a bottle for at least a month.

 

Here's a picture of my in progress setup. 

 

[Tamberav]

Great start!

[LazyFish]

Top off water for the ato is fresh rodi being the best. The water evaporates from the tank but the salt stays causing an increase in salinity so the replacement should be fresh to dilute the salt back to the proper concentration.

[trickerie]

11 hours ago, LazyFish said:

Top off water for the ato is fresh rodi being the best. The water evaporates from the tank but the salt stays causing an increase in salinity so the replacement should be fresh to dilute the salt back to the proper concentration.

This makes perfect sense now. Thank you! I have an RODI system I purchased, just needs to be connected now! I was thinking a simple under cabinet ato system with a 5 gallon bucket. I actually was looking into a refugium for under the cabinet, but am unsure how that'd play out.