Water - Mixing It Up, Additives, Buffers Etc Etc

[Ricey]

Hi all,

i have a few n00b questions that i hope you can answer about water...

1. I'll be using an RO unit for all of the water requirements in my future 200l reef setup; I understand that RO units reduce the PH to about 7.0, what do i need to add to the RO water to bring it up to 8.3 ish? does crushed coral substrate act as a ph buffer? if so, does it last forever?

2. when i first set up, i mix all (200l) of my RO water with the salt to get it to the correct SG level... what is the best salt to get? what else needs to be added to the water at this early stage? Oh and should i get my water up to the correct temp before adding all the salt? i read that SG levels go up accoring to temp?

3. weekly water changes; what do i need to add to my RO water when i top up every week? i know that I dont add any more salt, but what about minerals, ph buffer etc?

4. how often do i need to feed corals? do they need phytoplankton, strontium, iodine.. what else do corals need? (im hoping to keep softies, shrooms, polips, and maybe a few LPS) And also feather duster worms.. how often do they need feeding?

thanks for any help

 

[callell]

Hi all,

i have a few n00b questions that i hope you can answer about water...

1. I'll be using an RO unit for all of the water requirements in my future 200l reef setup; I understand that RO units reduce the PH to about 7.0, what do i need to add to the RO water to bring it up to 8.3 ish? does crushed coral substrate act as a ph buffer? if so, does it last forever?

Add nothing to your tank that you cannot test for - PH will be buffered by your rock & sand

2. when i first set up, i mix all (200l) of my RO water with the salt to get it to the correct SG level... what is the best salt to get? what else needs to be added to the water at this early stage? Oh and should i get my water up to the correct temp before adding all the salt? i read that SG levels go up accoring to temp?

Salt - I would suggest Reef Cyrstals - IIRC they came out on top of a poll on UR
When I do my water changes I get my Water up to 26c then add my salt slowly measuring every hour or so (fully salted to 1.026 I leave the wtare to aerate for a further 24hours then add to my sump)

3. weekly water changes; what do i need to add to my RO water when i top up every week? i know that I dont add any more salt, but what about minerals, ph buffer etc?

Just RO IMO

4. how often do i need to feed corals? do they need phytoplankton, strontium, iodine.. what else do corals need? (im hoping to keep softies, shrooms, polips, and maybe a few LPS) And also feather duster worms.. how often do they need feeding?

Depends on the type of corals tbh, strontium, iodine isnt really a food persay, these will be replaced when doing water changes , I would seek advice from LFS/here when puchasing a specific coral as & when you buy them

As for shrooms & most softies it is not necessery to directly feed these as they will take food from the water colum

 

[Ricey]

thanks callell,

so, at the very start i'll get my ro water up to temp then add the salt bit by bit until its 1.026?
then weekly water changes after that.. say a 10% change.. i'd remove 10% from the tank and then mix up a new 10% in the same way as above?

about adding the calcium, strontium and other minerals and stuff.. are you sure i wont need to add these to my RO water ever? i thought RO was was like 99.9 pure H2O?

thanks

 

[callell]

thanks callell,

so, at the very start i'll get my ro water up to temp then add the salt bit by bit until its 1.026?
then weekly water changes after that.. say a 10% change.. i'd remove 10% from the tank and then mix up a new 10% in the same way as above?

about adding the calcium, strontium and other minerals and stuff.. are you sure i wont need to add these to my RO water ever? i thought RO was was like 99.9 pure H2O?

thanks

10% weekly change sounds perfect, remember that keeping your hands out of the tank as much as possible is better for your livestock

In the years I have reef'd I have never supplemented my RO, the minerals required by your corals etc. will be replaced in your water change (from your salt)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to let you know how we prepare our water for water changes, once you've done a few you get the measure of roughly how much salt you need for your water changes, we stick about half to two thirds of this into the bucket while the RO is running so it's at least partly dissolved, i stick the powerhead in as soon as the water is deep enough to cover it, this gets things started mixing even more, then when the water level's high enough we put the heater in and let it come up to temp. when it's at the correct temp i test the salinity and add a bit more salt if needed then fine tune to get the right salinity. just a bit quicker than waiting for it all to get to temp and aerated before you even add any salt.

 

[Ricey]

thats cleared up a few things for me now.
thanks peeps

 

[bobf]

thats cleared up a few things for me now.
thanks peeps

The only other thing to add on this is that if you need to top up between water changes (to replace water lost to evaporation) use RO water 'neat' i.e. without salt added. You will appreciate that the water will evaporate but the salt doesn't.

Good luck with it Ricey!