RO water

[Paul_MTS]

as my tanks only small i'm planning on using 100% RO water.

what additives should I use with it? i'm planning on growing lots of corals!

if it makes a difference I'll be using TMC salt.

I can get Reef Sucess chemicals easily and some TMC bits.

on another note are there any addictives i should consider using for me corals when i get it all going. I'll only start off with beginner corals to make sure i have some success!

 

[superman]

Some more information about your tank would be great, and some possible corals you are hoping to keep. I am a little unsure what you mean by using straight RO water since your tank is small, most of us use filtered water on all of our tanks regardless of size. With a good salt like Tropic Marine (is this the salt you are referring to?) You shouldn't need to use additives very much at all. The only additiives I would have is an alkalinity buffer, a ph buffer to raise ph to 8.0-8.3, and a calcium buffer. These are the only additives that many of us have. If you have a pretty small tank then you could do weekly 100% water changes and just rely on your salt to replenish much of your trace elements, all you would have to do is test your water change water, make sure it has the correct levels of ph, calcium, and alkalinity, and you will be good to go.

 

[steelhealr]

Hi Paul...I agree with Superman. Tropic Marin is a good sea salt and should contain all the minerals you need. Dosing anything in the beginning is not necessary and doing your 10% weekly water changes should replace anything that is taken out. Easy corals including leathers, mushrooms, zoanthids and ricordea have minimal calcium needs compared to SPS. Eventually, if you need to supplement with buffer, stay easy and consider a two part buffering system like B-Ionic or Kents CB 2part. But...as I said, you don't need these now. One of those funny rules of thumb is don't dose what you don't test for.

As for the RO, I assume you mean for topping off since you don't need to buffer RO when you add salt mix (it's buffered). It's a common misconception that you need to buffer RO. The thinking is that RO water, since it is pH 7.0, will 'acidify' your water which is 8.2. Wrong thinking. RO water, if not contaminated, has a pH of 7.0 which means balanced ions, or, 50% hydroxy ions and 50% hydrogen ions..neutral. No need to buffer anything. Save your money. FYI, Kent's Marine buffer is very expensive sodium bicarbonate. SH

 

[Paul_MTS]

Thanks for your replies, sorry i can't be more specific with the corals as I don't really know exactly what I'll have yet being my first salty tank.

I meant I'll be using just RO water not doing a 50/50 mix with tap water etc

It's being filtered via a sump with MM and a DSB.

so no additives for now, until I know the water results after adding the salt.

 

[fraservet]

MM releases a lot of trace elements etc. into the water as well.