Water Chemistry

I got two more tests done today. Calcium is 450ppm, Magnesium is 1300ppm. I prefer Magnesium to be higher, more like 1400ppm.

My reef has a liquid volume of 450g including the sump volume and satellite tanks.

I took a graduated 8oz cup to measure solution into a plastic jug (formerly a pretzel container), and 15 of those cups filled it up. That's 120 oz.

The recommended recipe is 10 grams per 8 oz (or 2 tsp per 8 oz) of water, I determined I'd need 30 ...

It's around this time of year that I watch the TDS of my RO unit drop. I'm talking about the output of the RO system before the DI stage.

Whenever I turn on the RO/DI system, which is twice a week, I open a valve before the DI stage and let it run for 90 seconds. By avoiding TDS creep, DI resin lasts longer. Link: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...thy-of-concern

Once the water is flowing, I'll turn on the TDS meter to observe the numbers ...

I've been giving the current reef situation a lot of thought tonight as I'm preparing for my departure, and I believe I may have figured out where the excess bacteria is coming from.

When I dose Prodibio's BioDigest and Bioptim, it requires two Pro vials to match my water volume (or so I thought). I'm using an alternate packaged vials now, which allows you to drip it in. Holding the two vials side by side, they don't match in volume. The front of the boxes has the same information ...

Every three months, I refill the poly tank to the top with RO/DI water. This upright container is rated at 265g, and I have a small float installed to stop filling it at 250g. This provides enough room to add salt to the water.

For the past three years, I've used Sybon Reef Blend salt. It takes two cases of salt to mix up 250g at 1.026sg, so I got four cases of Fritz salt last year and am finally getting around to using it. Right before the cold front hit my area on Sunday, I ...

For the past three months, my reef has been suffering from elevated phosphate levels. I've never had such a roller coaster, with the numbers rising and then falling as I treated to drop them again. Last night I did a lot of water testing.

a) First I tested the 215g reef to check the levels.
b)Then I checked the 400g that is full of water, sand and live rock to know if the parameters were close enough for livestock transfer and to ...