Water quality For YOU: how to keep your fish and critters in top shape.

[Sk8r]

1. Don't push it, after you've cycled. Your next step should be hermits and snails, while your first fish IS (not are!) in carefully-watched quarantine. 4 weeks of hermits and snails pooing into that sandbed will get the bacteria going full bore. Keep testing your water. THIS is how your water should test, and you need a good test (I use Salifert) for each one of these.

The ideal parameters. There's wiggle room. But not much. "Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale, not meq/l; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp abt 80, never under 75, never over 85; nitrate/ammonia 0. Alk and cal will not rise if mg is low. Alk reading far more imp't than PH;

If you're fish only: use the cheaper salt, but test your alkalinity obsessively and do weekly water changes.

If you're intending a reef, use the Reef Salt, and test alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium, plus have supplements to adjust these. This is called dosing, and these are the principle things you will ever dose.

2. after 4 weeks, introduce one quarantined small fish. Loneliness won't trouble him much: his idea of bliss is world domination and territory as far as he can see. Don't try to inject human psych here and buy him a 'friend.' He can do without until 'friend' is quarantined and clear.

3. have a logbook for those tests. They should be run daily at first, then less frequently---you'll learn how much window you will have based on when you see things change.

4. You can also have a coral that's appropriate for your lighting, at this point. Never let those readings vary. Be sure to dip your coral. Read the instructions.

Your tank will likely be quite stable, and you very likely will never see ich in your display tank in your entire fishkeeping career.

[cmof29]

These posts are very helpful, especially considering I'm setting up a new tank and want to make sure I do it right this time. Thank you!

[Sk8r]

By the way, if your reef parameters are as given above, you can keep stony coral if your lighting is adequate ---and the fabled coralline algae? You'll have plenty of it, given time. Coralline growth apparently needs magnesium. But don't overdose anything! Just replace it as it's used up.
A note: as long as your alkalinity and calcium and magnesium are where I say, your alk and call WILL not drop. They're both 'locked' with the magnesium. Only when THAT depletes, will your alk and cal drop. And magnesium is not used very fast. A note: once you get your water like this (and I recommend both a refractometer (a no-name brand is fine) and an ATO (autotopoff)...)---you can minimize your work by adding 2 tsp per gallon of Mrs. Wages' Pickling Lime to your topoff water reservoir, ie, for every gallon of new freshwater added to the reservoir, drop 2 level tsp of Mrs Wages into that reservoir. I do my own tank that way (32 gallon reservoir) and my reading stays locked at exactly the figures above for months on end---this is an IMMENSE effort-saver, and it also lets me go on vacation for a month and come back with the expectation that nothing will have happened to my reef that my novice tanksitter wouldn't be able to handle. This can be such a headache-free and relaxing hobby if you just do 'right' things from the outset!

[CoralReeForrest]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

By the way, if your reef parameters are as given above, you can keep stony coral if your lighting is adequate ---and the fabled coralline algae? You'll have plenty of it, given time. Coralline growth apparently needs magnesium. But don't overdose anything! Just replace it as it's used up.
A note: as long as your alkalinity and calcium and magnesium are where I say, your alk and call WILL not drop. They're both 'locked' with the magnesium. Only when THAT depletes, will your alk and cal drop. And magnesium is not used very fast. A note: once you get your water like this (and I recommend both a refractometer (a no-name brand is fine) and an ATO (autotopoff)...)---you can minimize your work by adding 2 tsp per gallon of Mrs. Wages' Pickling Lime to your topoff water reservoir, ie, for every gallon of new freshwater added to the reservoir, drop 2 level tsp of Mrs Wages into that reservoir. I do my own tank that way (32 gallon reservoir) and my reading stays locked at exactly the figures above for months on end---this is an IMMENSE effort-saver, and it also lets me go on vacation for a month and come back with the expectation that nothing will have happened to my reef that my novice tanksitter wouldn't be able to handle. This can be such a headache-free and relaxing hobby if you just do 'right' things from the outset!

Question! Question in the back!!! =) is your 2tsp table spoon or teaspoon? Just Want to be sure! Thanks sk8tr for another great read!

[Sk8r]

Lol---that's teaspoons. Don't worry about it TOO much: in the miracle that is water, fresh water can only dissolve 2 teaspoons of kalk (Mrs Wages) per gallon, and the rest (if you accidentally overdose) will fall harmlessly (but somewhat messily) to the bottom of the reservoir---it will dissolve, however, with the addition of more fresh water. This will always be true. It's one of the safest supplements going: if you accidentally shoot snow-white water into your tank---and I've done it a few times---even a coral reef will generally just look cruddy for a few days, no damage done. Just try not to do that. It looks awful. Remember too: you can't raise your basic alk-cal-mg balance with it: you have to set that properly BEFORE you use Mrs Wages. It will, however, HOLD that balance until the magnesium depletes. So if you just test the magnesium level once a week, and keep adding water to the ATO reservoir, you'll be golden until the Mrs. Wages is all used up. In my 32 gallon ATO reservoir, I don't even measure: I just drop in a couple of pounds of Mrs. Wages (a bargain, under 5.00) and keep refilling the water. You stir it only once right when you put it in, let it kick up well, then let it settle at least overnight before you plug the ATO pump back in (plugging it in right away is how you shoot nasty white water into your tank: don't do that! always turn your topoff pump OFF while refilling kalk, and remember to turn it ON in the morning, eh?)

[Sk8r]

Just a further note about dosing: read your salt label: it's NOT just sodium chloride in there! It's a laundry-list of trace elements as well. THAT's why we recommend 20% water change a week! It's about the trace elements!

It's also why we say, dose ONLY calcium, alk buffer, and magnesium, with stony coral and clams, because those are the 3 things that get used up by those creatures faster than your water changes can replace them.

You want your new corals to come out? Have the water nice with those goodies. I just got a new baby clam. I set him in and he lost NO time opening. Corals stay poofed and happy.

That's just about all the deep secrets to coral feeding and water maintenance: corals and some clams EAT light as much as they eat particulate in the water. They have photosynthesizing zooxanthellae in their tissues, that photosynthesize on exposure to light, and feed sugar into the bloodstream of the host clam or coral. Keep your water clear so light can get to them, keep the calcium available, and they'll grow like bandits. We were just counting growth lines on our clam yesterday (would you believe) and he's real old---but we can see he grew quite well in the last 10 years, which is the time we've had him.

[CoralReeForrest]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Just a further note about dosing: read your salt label: it's NOT just sodium chloride in there! It's a laundry-list of trace elements as well. THAT's why we recommend 20% water change a week! It's about the trace elements!

It's also why we say, dose ONLY calcium, alk buffer, and magnesium, with stony coral and clams, because those are the 3 things that get used up by those creatures faster than your water changes can replace them.

You want your new corals to come out? Have the water nice with those goodies. I just got a new baby clam. I set him in and he lost NO time opening. Corals stay poofed and happy.

That's just about all the deep secrets to coral feeding and water maintenance: corals and some clams EAT light as much as they eat particulate in the water. They have photosynthesizing zooxanthellae in their tissues, that photosynthesize on exposure to light, and feed sugar into the bloodstream of the host clam or coral. Keep your water clear so light can get to them, keep the calcium available, and they'll grow like bandits. We were just counting growth lines on our clam yesterday (would you believe) and he's real old---but we can see he grew quite well in the last 10 years, which is the time we've had him.

Ok, I personally feel water changes unless there is a large amount of coral should be 20 percent once a month, at least for me currently as all I have are softies and 2 Lps and some shrooms, I do have a monti though so 1 sps as well. Is that a fair estimate or should I do 5-10 percent a week?

[mx51]

Thank you for all this great info sk8r... When you talk about adding Mrs. wages in ATO water are you saying for people with coral and fish in there system or everyone should do it from the get go? And is that for RO/DI water or just tap?