Switched Salts Now What?

[reice05]

Ok so I was using Instant Ocean Salt because all I had was a f/o tank and was gonna get corals in a month or so. But I visited a members house in my area and gave me like 6 frags for free and I couldn't say no. I know IO isntthe best cuz I'm sure the mag, cal, and all lvels ain't where they should be but I just got a bucket of reef crystals and plan on doing my first waterchange later today since RC is better suited for a reef tank. So basically my question is how do I go about deciding what buffers or additives I need to purchase? And how often should I do a WC to get all the IO salt out? And what buffers should I need or I'm guessing do a test after the WC and see what needed to be raised.

[CleveYank]

Originally Posted by reice05

Ok so I was using Instant Ocean Salt because all I had was a f/o tank and was gonna get corals in a month or so. But I visited a members house in my area and gave me like 6 frags for free and I couldn't say no. I know IO isntthe best cuz I'm sure the mag, cal, and all lvels ain't where they should be but I just got a bucket of reef crystals and plan on doing my first waterchange later today since RC is better suited for a reef tank. So basically my question is how do I go about deciding what buffers or additives I need to purchase? And how often should I do a WC to get all the IO salt out? And what buffers should I need or I'm guessing do a test after the WC and see what needed to be raised.

Reef Crystals is not much better than IO and you need to still add things for the Alk issues.
And the MG levels are only slightly on target with RC.

You want to test your water.
You want to determine where you want your MG, Ca and Alk.
You then want to pick a 2 part additive.
You then want to conitnue using the RC or IO and adjust the Ca levels up via the Ca part of a 2 part or add Calcium Chloride (Pedlow flake) which will push the Alk down as the Ca goes up.

Recommendation.

To really understand how all this works you need to read the randy holmes farley reef alchemy articles that explain 2 part additive and Mg sources, mixing and application of his 2 part recipes.
And more importantly the relationships of Ca v Alk and Mg and in part Boron in the reeftank. This information will take the mystery out of the whole thing.

Once you do that, use this;
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
and you'll be able to dial and manipulate your levels like a pro.

[Lightsluvr]

[QUOTE=CleveYank;16532899]Reef Crystals is not much better than IO and you need to still add things for the Alk issues.
And the MG levels are only slightly on target with RC.

QUOTE]

I disagree with this observation. There is a significant difference in the ALK, CA and MG between IO and Reef Crystals. I was constantly supplementing IO, very little supplement needed with RC. That being said, apparently IO has recently been boosted.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1589326

However, I pretty much agree with everything else suggested by Cleve...

LL

[kingfisher62]

I have been using reef crystals alone for a while with alot of success. With so few corals in your tank I think you will be fine. Normal water changes should keep your levels where they should be.

Now that my tank has a good amount of corals and my water changes alone might not supply enough of the essential elements . I have been thinking of a 2 part additive.

[Aquarist007]

Here is the stats for each of the major salt mixes:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1714505

and here is a chemical dosing calculator
http://reef.diesyst.com/cf/chemcalccf.html

[reice05]

What's a good 2 part additive u guys like?

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by reice05

What's a good 2 part additive u guys like?

I use two part bionics. There is a way of iniatiating it on my log thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1786183