THE USE OF ANY OF THE INFORMATION BELOW IS STRICKLY AT YOUR OWN RISK, SO, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE INFORMATION THOURGHLY BEFORE PROCEEDING TO USE IT.
Tips for your Reef
Part I
Add Kalkwasser at night, using the drip method. This tends to give you a more stable pH with fewer fluctuations and if you have any, they will be much smaller. Do not add KW in large batches at one time. This can cause chemical reactions between the KW and the components of the dKH and result in the precipitation of calcium carbonate (a white powder).
In the worst of all cases a calcium fall-out can occur, where the entire tank covers itself with a microscopic thin layer of calcium carbonate. If this happens to your tank you have a serious problem as this layer is really hard to remove, and coats everything in the aquarium.
It will coat the inside of hoses, pumps and so on. Be real careful. This coating is so hard to remove that I know of hobbyists who had to take their tank down and clean all parts including their pumps and hoses and anything else installed with very acidified water just to get rid of the calcium coating. Avoid it. Be careful. Do not add calcium hydroxide powder directly to your tank. This is the real dangerous way of adding KW and is the one that most often leads to a calcium fall out.
Calcium fall out is more likely to occur when you have a combination of a high dKH and add large amounts of KW all at once. Not only will the tank be cloudy but the ensuing mess is something you do not want to have to deal with. Drip KW and be safe.
By adding the KW at night, you are also adding the KW when the Carbon dioxide levels in the tank are at their highest. This reduces them and prevents the low morning pH syndrome that you may otherwise experience or have experienced. The KW will neutralize most of the carbon dioxide and the end result will be that the pH of your tank will level off and not swing as much. Remember that you are trying to keep the pH at a morning low of 8.2 and a high of 8.4 to 8.6 in the evening.
If due to the high calcium demand in your tank the addition of KW, whether in clear or milky solution, is not allowing you to keep the Calcium levels you wish, you may need to consider the use of another calcium additive in addition to KW, or instead of Kalkwasser. Recently, several two-part additives have come on the market that allow you to maintain both a high alkalinity and a high calcium level. This tends to promote coralline algae growth but increase the calcium demand even further.
Carefully follow the instructions that come with these additives as they have to be added in a certain fashion. Read the instructions several times if needed so you understand how to deal with them. Note also that these two part additives will raise the specific gravity. Keep an eye on it. You should aim for a salinity of 35 to 36 ppt (parts per thousand). Salinity is not temperature dependent so it is an easier way to monitor whether your tank is running at the right level.
You can also use green macro algae in the tank to filter the water. The preferred alga is Caulerpa prolifera. Make sure you have plenty and that you feed it algal nutrients so it does not die off. Several such products are on the market. Again you will need a seed batch of this alga. Caulerpa prolifera is much easier to get though than brown turf algae. You do not need a massive amount either. Just a few blades that are in good health and look nice and green and have no visible damage will do. Make sure you get the C. prolifera variety, the one with a non serrated wide and tall blade. This alga grows easily if you feed it with a macro-algae nutrient, that should contain iron. If the alga start to become to widespread you can take some out of the tank and either use it to make food out of and blend it with other food stuff items.
Overskimming may have its drawbacks according to several authors, i.e. Dana Riddle, Noel Currey, John Walch, Helmut Debelius and others. More experiments are being undertaken to confirm this premise. If you use a real strong skimmers you may wish to increase the amount of additives you supplement your tank with, to ensure that all the nutrients, including iodine, are always present. By compensating in this manner you are reintroducing the needed nutrients and elements that may have been removed by skimming too forcefully. Usually this is done by using 150 to 200 percent of the recommended dose of the complete additive you are using. (be careful here and go slowly on the increases)
The use of excessive amounts of carbon may lead to RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) or White Band Disease. When using carbon use smaller amounts and use them intermittently. Run a batch for a few hours and remove it. That should take care of improving your water quality. Remember that carbon will quickly remove iodine from the system. Note that after you have used carbon for such a short amount of time it is not spent. You can spread it out in a thin layer and let it dry and use it again. Before doing so the next time, rinse it with purified water first to remove any residual dirt or detritus. ( I do not personally recommend reuse of the carbon)
Keep lots of free space between the live rock to promote vigorous water motion. Corals placed too close together inhibit water motion and water movement over the coral tissue and polyps. Good water motion allows the sloughing off of slime and detritus from the corals you have. This is especially important with SPS corals but applies to LPS corals too. Goniopora is a good example of the latter. Removing slime and detritus that may accumulate on the corals or between their tentacles prevents decay, which may lead to disease and tissue necrosis.
SPS corals grow rapidly. This prevents light from reaching corals that are lower or suddenly shielded from the light source. This can lead to disease. Trim and frag (fragment) your SPS corals regularly so that this cannot happen. More and more speakers and authors are stressing the need for very high circulation and water motion within the tank. Figures of up to 20 times the tank content per hour have been recommended by some experts. This requires good pumps on one hand, and it also requires that you clean your pumps more regularly to prevent a slow down in their output.
Do not overpopulate the tank. This inhibits water motion in all areas of the aquarium. The amount of rock used nowadays is far higher than what people should use. This is kind of a shift in thinking as a while back just about every author recommended large amounts of live rock. Mind you, if you are keeping LPS corals you do not really need to lower the amount of rock that much if at all. All you need to do is ensure that water flow is strong and reaches all areas of the tank and that dead spots are avoided. Powerhead pumps and irregular flow of water will achieve this.
Use live sand and use a coarser grade. Reduce the amount of rock and increase the amount of live sand. Make sure it is "live" and has plenty of worms and so in it. one such mixture is 50 % live sand, 25 % crushed coral and 25 % crushed shells and place it directly on the bottom of the tank. Thickness is from 2 to 3 inches. (personal preference this is only one formulation)
Use Reef Janitors (herbivor crabs) and use them at the rate of 1 per 2 to 2.5 gallons. Watch their growth. Get small ones to begin with and replace them or place them elsewhere when they get larger ( the sump is a good spot ). If you do the latter you will need to feed them. You can use red legged or blue legged ones. The key is to get real small ones and when they get larger and show signs of becoming aggressive, remove them.
A few Astrea Snails in the tank are desirable. 1 per 5 gallons is IMO enough.
Pay real close attention to how you position the animals in the tank to avoid nettling and stinging. Watch for those corals that have sweeper tentacles. Place them far enough apart so no stinging can occur during the night. You will rarely see sweeper tentacles during the day so you will need to look at what is happening in your tank at night. Use a red light or a flashlight covered with red acetate to see what is going on. Corals do not react to red light so you get a chance to really see what is happening in your tank and what creatures may be present that you were not aware of.
Since SPS corals grow rapidly, leave plenty of space between the frags to allow for growth without inhibiting light and water motion. Watch growth rates and frag them when they get too large or start restricting lighting for what is underneath, cutting down on water current, or stinging adjacent corals.
Since many corals need nutrients in the water, do not overskim and do not over use mechanical filtration. Overskimming and overmechanical filtration remove valualbe food stuff from the water.
It is not a bad idea to add live plankton to your tank from time to time to ensure that enough food is available. In this respect, the higher the temperature you run your tank at the more you will need to feed, as higher temperatures promote higher rates of metabolism.
When a problem occurs in the tank, deal with it immediately. Don't put it off or you may end up with more damage than you expected. In addition, the longer you wait the more difficult it may be to solve the problem. Not only may it become more difficult to deal with that one problem, but others may start as a result. This is the so-called downward spiral effect: when one thing goes wrong and you do not deal with it, more will go wrong and solving the problem becomes more and more difficult.
Keep Nitrates (total nitrates) real low. The recommendation is now to keep the level below 5 ppm total or lower if possible.
Acclimate your animals to both the water quality of your tank and to the lighting conditions over your aquarium.
(CONT PART 2)
Tips for your Reef
Part I
Add Kalkwasser at night, using the drip method. This tends to give you a more stable pH with fewer fluctuations and if you have any, they will be much smaller. Do not add KW in large batches at one time. This can cause chemical reactions between the KW and the components of the dKH and result in the precipitation of calcium carbonate (a white powder).
In the worst of all cases a calcium fall-out can occur, where the entire tank covers itself with a microscopic thin layer of calcium carbonate. If this happens to your tank you have a serious problem as this layer is really hard to remove, and coats everything in the aquarium.
It will coat the inside of hoses, pumps and so on. Be real careful. This coating is so hard to remove that I know of hobbyists who had to take their tank down and clean all parts including their pumps and hoses and anything else installed with very acidified water just to get rid of the calcium coating. Avoid it. Be careful. Do not add calcium hydroxide powder directly to your tank. This is the real dangerous way of adding KW and is the one that most often leads to a calcium fall out.
Calcium fall out is more likely to occur when you have a combination of a high dKH and add large amounts of KW all at once. Not only will the tank be cloudy but the ensuing mess is something you do not want to have to deal with. Drip KW and be safe.
By adding the KW at night, you are also adding the KW when the Carbon dioxide levels in the tank are at their highest. This reduces them and prevents the low morning pH syndrome that you may otherwise experience or have experienced. The KW will neutralize most of the carbon dioxide and the end result will be that the pH of your tank will level off and not swing as much. Remember that you are trying to keep the pH at a morning low of 8.2 and a high of 8.4 to 8.6 in the evening.
If due to the high calcium demand in your tank the addition of KW, whether in clear or milky solution, is not allowing you to keep the Calcium levels you wish, you may need to consider the use of another calcium additive in addition to KW, or instead of Kalkwasser. Recently, several two-part additives have come on the market that allow you to maintain both a high alkalinity and a high calcium level. This tends to promote coralline algae growth but increase the calcium demand even further.
Carefully follow the instructions that come with these additives as they have to be added in a certain fashion. Read the instructions several times if needed so you understand how to deal with them. Note also that these two part additives will raise the specific gravity. Keep an eye on it. You should aim for a salinity of 35 to 36 ppt (parts per thousand). Salinity is not temperature dependent so it is an easier way to monitor whether your tank is running at the right level.
You can also use green macro algae in the tank to filter the water. The preferred alga is Caulerpa prolifera. Make sure you have plenty and that you feed it algal nutrients so it does not die off. Several such products are on the market. Again you will need a seed batch of this alga. Caulerpa prolifera is much easier to get though than brown turf algae. You do not need a massive amount either. Just a few blades that are in good health and look nice and green and have no visible damage will do. Make sure you get the C. prolifera variety, the one with a non serrated wide and tall blade. This alga grows easily if you feed it with a macro-algae nutrient, that should contain iron. If the alga start to become to widespread you can take some out of the tank and either use it to make food out of and blend it with other food stuff items.
Overskimming may have its drawbacks according to several authors, i.e. Dana Riddle, Noel Currey, John Walch, Helmut Debelius and others. More experiments are being undertaken to confirm this premise. If you use a real strong skimmers you may wish to increase the amount of additives you supplement your tank with, to ensure that all the nutrients, including iodine, are always present. By compensating in this manner you are reintroducing the needed nutrients and elements that may have been removed by skimming too forcefully. Usually this is done by using 150 to 200 percent of the recommended dose of the complete additive you are using. (be careful here and go slowly on the increases)
The use of excessive amounts of carbon may lead to RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) or White Band Disease. When using carbon use smaller amounts and use them intermittently. Run a batch for a few hours and remove it. That should take care of improving your water quality. Remember that carbon will quickly remove iodine from the system. Note that after you have used carbon for such a short amount of time it is not spent. You can spread it out in a thin layer and let it dry and use it again. Before doing so the next time, rinse it with purified water first to remove any residual dirt or detritus. ( I do not personally recommend reuse of the carbon)
Keep lots of free space between the live rock to promote vigorous water motion. Corals placed too close together inhibit water motion and water movement over the coral tissue and polyps. Good water motion allows the sloughing off of slime and detritus from the corals you have. This is especially important with SPS corals but applies to LPS corals too. Goniopora is a good example of the latter. Removing slime and detritus that may accumulate on the corals or between their tentacles prevents decay, which may lead to disease and tissue necrosis.
SPS corals grow rapidly. This prevents light from reaching corals that are lower or suddenly shielded from the light source. This can lead to disease. Trim and frag (fragment) your SPS corals regularly so that this cannot happen. More and more speakers and authors are stressing the need for very high circulation and water motion within the tank. Figures of up to 20 times the tank content per hour have been recommended by some experts. This requires good pumps on one hand, and it also requires that you clean your pumps more regularly to prevent a slow down in their output.
Do not overpopulate the tank. This inhibits water motion in all areas of the aquarium. The amount of rock used nowadays is far higher than what people should use. This is kind of a shift in thinking as a while back just about every author recommended large amounts of live rock. Mind you, if you are keeping LPS corals you do not really need to lower the amount of rock that much if at all. All you need to do is ensure that water flow is strong and reaches all areas of the tank and that dead spots are avoided. Powerhead pumps and irregular flow of water will achieve this.
Use live sand and use a coarser grade. Reduce the amount of rock and increase the amount of live sand. Make sure it is "live" and has plenty of worms and so in it. one such mixture is 50 % live sand, 25 % crushed coral and 25 % crushed shells and place it directly on the bottom of the tank. Thickness is from 2 to 3 inches. (personal preference this is only one formulation)
Use Reef Janitors (herbivor crabs) and use them at the rate of 1 per 2 to 2.5 gallons. Watch their growth. Get small ones to begin with and replace them or place them elsewhere when they get larger ( the sump is a good spot ). If you do the latter you will need to feed them. You can use red legged or blue legged ones. The key is to get real small ones and when they get larger and show signs of becoming aggressive, remove them.
A few Astrea Snails in the tank are desirable. 1 per 5 gallons is IMO enough.
Pay real close attention to how you position the animals in the tank to avoid nettling and stinging. Watch for those corals that have sweeper tentacles. Place them far enough apart so no stinging can occur during the night. You will rarely see sweeper tentacles during the day so you will need to look at what is happening in your tank at night. Use a red light or a flashlight covered with red acetate to see what is going on. Corals do not react to red light so you get a chance to really see what is happening in your tank and what creatures may be present that you were not aware of.
Since SPS corals grow rapidly, leave plenty of space between the frags to allow for growth without inhibiting light and water motion. Watch growth rates and frag them when they get too large or start restricting lighting for what is underneath, cutting down on water current, or stinging adjacent corals.
Since many corals need nutrients in the water, do not overskim and do not over use mechanical filtration. Overskimming and overmechanical filtration remove valualbe food stuff from the water.
It is not a bad idea to add live plankton to your tank from time to time to ensure that enough food is available. In this respect, the higher the temperature you run your tank at the more you will need to feed, as higher temperatures promote higher rates of metabolism.
When a problem occurs in the tank, deal with it immediately. Don't put it off or you may end up with more damage than you expected. In addition, the longer you wait the more difficult it may be to solve the problem. Not only may it become more difficult to deal with that one problem, but others may start as a result. This is the so-called downward spiral effect: when one thing goes wrong and you do not deal with it, more will go wrong and solving the problem becomes more and more difficult.
Keep Nitrates (total nitrates) real low. The recommendation is now to keep the level below 5 ppm total or lower if possible.
Acclimate your animals to both the water quality of your tank and to the lighting conditions over your aquarium.
(CONT PART 2)
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