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Coral Vue Hydros

keeping calcium/alkalinity optimal w/o supplements


bingalpaws

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i wish i remember where i saw it, but someone was saying that with weekly or twice weekly water changes of good percentages, you should be able to maintain high calcium/alk.

 

then i read this article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

 

and it seems like a minimum of 30% daily is required to maintain levels without supplementation.

 

to those who test and have good tanks, are you able to keep these levels perfect without supplementation? if so, how frequently/much do you change?

 

if i need to change 30-50% daily just to maintain these levels, maybe using limewater for topoffs would help? dunno

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What kinds of corals do you intend to keep? If you intend to keep soft corals and a low amount of lps, then weekly water changes of 30% will be sufficient. If you intend to keep a primarily sps tank, then I suggest you first buy salifert pH, calcium, and alkalinity test kits from either www.pacificeastaquaculture.com or from www.aquatictech.com, and then buy ESV B-Ionic from www.aquatictech.com and do daily doses (in the morning when the lights have been out all night) of that.

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i want to keep mushrooms mostly, and i am considering polyps. the idea is to keep an easy enough tank that i can have flourish with high 20's - 36 watts of pc, 75% actinic, 25%________(some type of daylight color, haven't learned whihc woudl be best yet)

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i want to keep mushrooms mostly, and i am considering polyps. the idea is to keep an easy enough tank that i can have flourish with high 20's - 36 watts of pc, 75% actinic, 25%________(some type of daylight color, haven't learned whihc woudl be best yet)

 

I'd go for 50% actinic and 50% daylight (10,000 Kelvin). There are plenty of fixtures that will meet your needs. Happy researching! And water changes will keep your tank happy, so no need for any dosing whatsoever. Please be sure to use ro/di, distilled, or at least RO water.

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i'm actually thinking of just using catalina (petco) water premade/real. with such a small tank it is cheaper to do that than to go and buy all the test kits and spend time testing to make sure i'm mixing up salt right.

 

for topoffs i will use ro/di if i am losing anything significant. i want to re-do the glass top to fit real tight around my HOB so that there is minimal water evap, and just use the filtered water from my sink (i have a custom carbon/etc unit for drinking water)

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Catalina should be ok, I think. If you decide to mix salt water with ro/di and instant ocean (for example) you'd only need a hydrometer or, preferrably, a refractometer.

 

It's a good idea to allow evaporation, and an open lid allows for proper gas exchange and helps to keep your tank from building up heat.

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with mostly softies and sps's a weekly 20 to 30% water change will work, But it is still prudent to test for alk and Ca++ once ina while to be sure that your chages are keeping up with demand. If Not I would use kalkwasser for all my top offs. It is already balanced in terms of ca/alk.

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