From Newbie: Important Stupid Questions :(

[neutronics]

Hi Guys,
Please forgive me for what I am about to ask here cause I'm trying to learn as much as I can about reef-keeping before starting on one.
Okay....assuming that I had my tank running for about six months with minimal fish and adequate lighting for reef, with zero ammonia, nitrite and negligible nitrate......what other parameters do I have to maintain in a reef tank??
Would it include calcium (at 450 ppm?), iodine??, strontium??, other trace elements (if yes at what level, will overdose of such elements be detrimental to the health of corals?
Does 20% water change every two weeks take care of the replenishment of supplements (if yes what supplements?), for a healthy reef tanks?
Love to hear from you experienced nice people there. What do you do regularly to maintain your reef tanks?
Thanks for the input in advance. It will definitely help to educate me <img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />

 

[mlm]

The two main things that you have to add in a reef are calcium and buffer or alkilinity. You want to maintain calcium at 450 ppm and alk at 8-11 DKH. A 20% water change every two weeks would be great to replace trace elements. This is where it gets fuzzy though. Some aa trace elemnts and some don't. Some say it is a waste of money and some say its needed. I personally use Two Little Fishies C-balance to maintain Calcium and alk and I do add Two Little Fishies Combisan once a week (supplements).

 

[nm reef]

Not a stupid question at all....actually its nice to see somebody obviously taking the time to properly plan and develope a reef system!
The only tests I run other than ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/ph/temp are calcium & alkalinity. I add seachem products & kalkwasser to build & maintain those levels ( calcium-450ppm..alkalinity-2-8-3.5meg/l)...as for trace elements I prefer to use monthly 10% water changes for trace elements.I do have a liquid seachem iodine....but haven't added it for several months.

 

[fshhub]

all above is correct, plus yes you do wan t to maintian strontium and iodine, often your a salts will help with this(through water changes), i know instant ocean has some in it,
yes you cna o.d. on iodine, so be careful with it
as for what ones will be replenished through water changes, that all depends on what you do as far as amounts, your source water and the salts you use
the best thing to do is get test kitsa nd use them you will figure out what you need for your system and how often to test for it as you go, each person and sysytem is different, so it is kinda like finding your own little groove
HTH

 

[rmd8110]

sounds like you're doing lots of research! that's great...i researched and researched until i couldn't anymore...and after started i still found there's so much that i just didn't get in the reading until i finally started it. a little advise tho...if you're married or anything like that..make sure you have your time really balanced out between the tank and all the stuff you used to do before this new passion. lol. just wanted to say i do a 20% water change about every 2 weeks and i've never had to add anything to it except for a little marine clarifier because of the sand. i'm also really lucky because the lfs i use is one guy...nothing but saltwater and loves the hobby. of course he's in it for money, but he loves the hobby. i get my water from him...ro water, everything is pre-mixed. that probably makes a difference also. good luck!