Water Quality Question

[MWill]

I have a 125 gallon tank, I am currently using ocean water from the bay
near my house. For evaporation I use purified/filtered
well water. Filter is a wet dry and a Magnum 350 canister, Magnum 250
for vaccumming substrate which is a crushed oyster shells 3" deep. I'm
using Seachrem's Reef Fundamentals and Reef Complete supplments twice a
week according to directions. My current readings are

NH3 0.0 ppm
No3 0.0 ppm
No2 0.3 ppm
Po4 0.0 ppm
Fe 0.0 ppm both chelated and non-chelated
PH 8.3
KH 125ppm
CA 0.0 ppm or least it's not registering with a Hagen Master test Kit.

What would be the best way to get the calcuim it up to 450-500 ppm
and at what rate should I be increasing it?


I going to convert from a fish only tank to reef.

mark Williams

[Billy]

--
¼á
"MWill" > wrote in message
ups.com...

>
> What would be the best way to get the calcuim it up to 450-500 ppm
> and at what rate should I be increasing it?
>


I use Sea-Lab #28 Auto. Replenisher..you can get them at
Fishsupply.com, I get them for a pretty good deal at my LFS. I've
stopped using any other suppliments. I've been using them for about 6
months and everything is quite healthy.

Just an idea.

billy

[unclenorm]

Hi Mark,
It's not possible to have sea water with no CA, you
don't mention the SP ? is there a river running into the bay nearby? if
there is you could be collecting fresh water, but more than likely you
have a bad test kit, you should not be reading any Nitrite either. You
say your Nitrate is zero?, have you got an algae problem or is it anew
tank? if it isn't a new tank with your filtration system you should
have a fairly high nitrate reading, that type of filtration is a
Nitrate factory in salt water.
regards,
unclenorm.

[MWill]

as for the CA as I said either the test kit is bad as you mentioned
or I did the test wrong, it said to add drops to a vile of water,
which I did
and then add the drops from the second bottle and I should get a pink
color, then keep adding the second bottle drop by drop till water
changes to blue, now I did see blue as soon as I added the drops from
the second bottle after it turned pink I just didn't see it turn the
whole vile blue only the drop changed as it touched the pink solution.
So i may have read that test wrong and need to re-do either way. As
to the water no it's not a river running into it, I am on the eastern
shore of Virginia and get my water from chincoteague bay, which is full
salt water, my salinity is 1.026 at 79 degrees F. I've been told
that too about wet dry filters tend to be nitrate breeders, But i've
had the system up and running for 4yrs here in Virginia, have a
chocolate star fish, and four damsels along with 22lbs of live rock.
but regardless of my tests I was looking for what is the best method to
add calcuim, and what increaments it should be added at , don't want to
shock the system.

[MWill]

thanks billy, any specifics you can tell me on dosing rate etc from
your experience?

[MWill]

Unclenorm,

I re-did the Ca test and had it confirmed by another person, we got the
same results 120 ppm so now I need to bring it up to 400-450 ppm.

As to the Nitrite at 0.03 I re-did that one as well it's 0.0 ppm

[Billy]

"MWill" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> thanks billy, any specifics you can tell me on dosing rate etc
> from
> your experience?
>

The blocks are made to take the guesswork out. They dissolve based on
natures need for balance. A tank your size would require about 3
blocks at a time. They maintain a CA of about 450, along with a
number of other substances.

[MWill]

yes was looking at that when I reviewed the fish supply.com link to
sea-lab#28 . The dissolve rate or lasting power between adding new
blocks averages what evry two weeks, three weeks, a month?

[unclenorm]

You can buy various preparations to raise your Ca, the most common is
to use lime water (kalkweiser) as top of, but do it slowly otherwise
you get precipitation and other problems. I'm still puzzled at your
lack of Nitrates, do you have a DSB or a well stocked refugium ?
regards,
Unclenorm

MWill wrote:
> Unclenorm,
>
> I re-did the Ca test and had it confirmed by another person, we got
the
> same results 120 ppm so now I need to bring it up to 400-450 ppm.
>
> As to the Nitrite at 0.03 I re-did that one as well it's 0.0 ppm

[Billy]

"MWill" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> yes was looking at that when I reviewed the fish supply.com link to
> sea-lab#28 . The dissolve rate or lasting power between adding new
> blocks averages what evry two weeks, three weeks, a month?

I have a 75 gallon, about 90 gallons total water volume. I use 2
blocks at a time, they last a bit less than 2 weeks. Depends
completely on the needs of your individual system, and how fast it
consumes the substances that he blocks replace.

billy

[MWill]

Unclenorm
my basic set up is this. wet dry filter using a rio 3100 pump
with a magnum 350 as the send pump both for filtering and water flow.
Have a smaller rio powerhead attached to a undergravel filter plates.
Basically a plenunum. the first layer
of subtrate is your basic is onyx substrate gravel about 8lbs.
Over this I have crushed clam/oyster shells and sand mix about 2"
thick. also have a berlin protien skimmer.
I also have sea gel carbon/phoguard in mesh bag in the wet dry and in
the magnum 350. 22 pounds of figi live rock
and as I said I'm running straight ocean water with only well water as
my evaporation tap off. use reef fundamentals twice a week and use a
magnum hot250 to vaccum subrate each week. I do a 20% water change
once a month.

[unclenorm]

Hi again Mark,
I am surprised you have been able to maintain
a fish only tank with the set up you describe, you don't have
'basically a plenunum', you have a normal under gravel filter, another
nitrate factory!. A plenum is an space with no up pipe connection and
very little if any water movement therefore deplete in oxygen. Your
lack of nitrates is amazing with all these nitrate producing filtration
systems you have, do you have a lot of algae by any chance ?.
To convert to a successful reef tank you need
to remove your currant methods of filtration, except the live rock
which needs increasing to about 200lbs (1.5 to 2lbs per gallon) and
protein skimmer if you have one, plus a deep sand bed about 6", this is
best placed in a sump/refugium below the tank this has a lot of
advantages, you can use less sand but still maintain 6"(needed to be
affective in exporting unwanted excess nutrients), it increases your
water volume always a good thing, the greater the volume the more
stable your system will be, it will hide some of your equipment,
protein skimmer. heater, reactors, etc. Water flow, you will need more
water flow, the currant thinking on this is twenty times the tank
volume per hour, with which ii agree and recommend.
Water changes I don't agree with they destabilize a well
set up and run tank for no reason, the only good I see them doing is
replacing the consumed essential elements, its much easier and less
stressful to just replace the essential elements which are readily
available.
regards,
unclenorm

[MWill]

Unclenorm,

sorry for the late answer been busy, anot checking the group lately.
yes I agree it's not a true plenum yet. I have some modifications
planned as in
redoing the undergravel filter plates, not happy with what I did
originally
so when i do that I will be adding more sand, although I was always
told 3" of sand was sufficent, I could see the 6" being beneficial for
some sand shifting and burrowing animals. yes the rock will be
increased as well by about 100lbs. After I get it started again and
see the numbers are right I at that time remove the tupe from the
undergravel filter plates to let the dead water so to speak happen and
get a true plenum. I've heard two stories with regard to water
changes. 20% water changes using ocean water and even witht his
method I've heard various reasonings for doing parcle water changes
over a month to get 20% or do a full 20% all at once
then as you said I've heard about not doing any water changes just
evaporation top offs. As yo your question about alage I did have at
first a problem with red slime alage out breaks originally, as it took
along time for the tank to cycle but not since then. My guess is and
mind you it's only a guess most people have problems with city water
and then chemically treat it or R.O. to get it to a useable state which
would cause issues with nitrite and nitrate but since I used well
water, no city water around here!
the well water maybe the factor as it maybe filtered naturally since
the area is sandy with limestone and sandtone deposits making the
well water not adding any nitrates or phosphates what would normally
cause the wet dry and protein skimmer to be nitrate factories but as i
said that would be a guess on my part.