Tank Maintenance - Seeking wisdom from the greats

[Myka]

Originally Posted by element291

Correct here. I got my new Milwaukee digital refractometer today and it came with a bottle of calibration steam deionized water and a checker bottle to make sure you are getting 1.025 with it after calibration.

I am making some RO/DI water right now for a water change to help my salinity level and parameters. Got about 60 gallons now making 25 more.

This is what I measured just now with my new hanna calc, alk and digital refractometer:

Alkalinity - 105 ppm x 0.056 = 5.88 dkH
Calcium - 448 ppm
Salinity - 1.023

My nitrates are starting to climb now - around 60 ppm so this water change will be followed by another one before I move the tank to my new house the week of halloween.

Top off the tank with saltwater (instead of RO) of 1.026 until specific gravity in the tank has reached 1.026 as well.

Also, I'm not sure I believe the calcium is 448 ppm using a Hanna Checker. The calcium checkers suck. I'd get a second test with Salifert or Elos or Red Sea Pro to double check.

Yeah, definitely get the alkalinity up - for LPS 8.0-9.0 dKH is a good range. The steadier you can keep the alkalinity the better. Once you get it up to the proper level, it may take weekly dosing or even twice weekly dosing to keep it in range and not fluctuating too much.

Which salt are you using? You don't have a lot of corals, and if you do enough water changes of a big enough size you may be able to maintain alkalinity with water changes alone (once you get numbers back in range) - especially if you pick a salt with a known high alkalinity level to begin with like Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals.