The "Term" Pristine Water Conditions ?

bacffin

bacffin

Member
I read this term "pristine water conditions" all the time around here and after doing some searches, I can not seem to find how to achieve this. I would like to put an anemone in my tank when it matures and want to set my self up to be successful. Lighting requirements are the other factors I comes across also. So based on my current tank configuration, I would like to know if I can even achieve the pristine water conditions? Here is what I have.
45 gallon tank (36"w x 12"d x 24"h)
Coralife 192 watt pc light (420nm actinic/10,000k daylight)
75 gallon wet dry with skimmer and bioballs
350 gph pump
200 gph power head
50 Lbs. Live rock
20 Lbs Live sand
40 Lbs aragonite base sand
Any input would be appreciated,
Bruce :happyfish
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Only thing l see questionable is the lighting. I would say you have the bare miniumum for lighting for a Bubble tip anemone.
I would see if I could add a protien skimmer to your list, this will help with the so called pristine conditions.
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
Pristine conditions take time and patience. Regular 10% water changes (weekly) help too. Adding a refugium with macroalgae will greatly aid in this. CPR makes a hang on version that worked well for me.
Also, not having a large bioload helps too.
As for the lighting, you are borderline with what you have. If I am reading your tank dimensions right, you have a 24" deep tank. That is a ways for that much PC light to get through so if you do get an anemone, make sure it has places on rocks high up in the water column in the center of the tank.
Other than that, you have what it takes to achieve "pristine" water conditions.
Good luck!
 
bacffin

bacffin

Member
Originally Posted by Thomas712
Only thing l see questionable is the lighting. I would say you have the bare miniumum for lighting for a Bubble tip anemone.
I would see if I could add a protien skimmer to your list, this will help with the so called pristine conditions.
Thanks Thomas. From my forum readings I thought the lighting conditions were or could be an issue. I do have a skimmer and it is working quite well in my opinion, but I don't have any thing else to compare it to because this is my first salt water tank. The skimmer is a venturi type that is in the first section of the wet/dry. I use the term "quite well" because the tank is young and the new cleaning crew is doing it's job attacking all the die off from the live rock and I have been emptying the collection cup very 3 to 5 days.
Bruce
 
bacffin

bacffin

Member
Originally Posted by TheGrog
Pristine conditions take time and patience. Regular 10% water changes (weekly) help too. Adding a refugium with macroalgae will greatly aid in this. CPR makes a hang on version that worked well for me.
Also, not having a large bioload helps too.
As for the lighting, you are borderline with what you have. If I am reading your tank dimensions right, you have a 24" deep tank. That is a ways for that much PC light to get through so if you do get an anemone, make sure it has places on rocks high up in the water column in the center of the tank.
Other than that, you have what it takes to achieve "pristine" water conditions.
Good luck!
Time and patience are no problem here :D and water changes are imo, one of the most important things to being successful. My bioload will be determined by what the tank can sustain. If I can have only 3 fish in there then that's the max I can have.
I do have two mounds of rock that go almost half way up the water column so that should help improve the lighting conditions.
I was thinking on making my own hob fuge in the near future also. My lfs wants something like 200 bucks for one that doesn't even include the light, so that would be an improvement too.
Thanks,
Bruce
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I often use the term "pristine water conditions" to emphasize a point. Not "good," Not "acceptable," not even "great" but hopefully you'll stop and think "are they really good enough to be pristine?" It means it is a delicate animal that has special care, and don't blow off your water quality or you'll be sorry.
 
bacffin

bacffin

Member
Yes ophiura, that makes perfect sense and I understand. I guess I am looking for a way to quantify tank conditions which obviously is going to be different from tank to tank based on what each individual tank is set up for. :)
Thanks,
Bruce
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Absolutely...in another thread it was mentioned that people should, when asking about some problem, post their water parameters. Because what is "perfect" for a fish only system may be very different for one with inverts. So again it comes back, hopefully, to people saying "oh maybe I should ask if it is pristine" and someone can catch something before hand.
 
vlondi

vlondi

Member
The way I have always thought of "pristine" water conditions encompasses much more than lighting, equipment, etc. Pristine, to me, means:
-no fluctuations in ammonia or nitrite
-little fluctuation in nitrate (no more than 5ppm, staying less than 10ppm)
-no phosphates
-enough calcium (I think 450ppm is good?)
-stable pH
-stable SG
-clear water, i.e. little to no bubbles, no floating sediment, no coloration
-plenty of water movement
-acceptable bioload
among other things. Keeping organic materials out of the water helps as well (through skimming). The lighting and all is important, of course, but I always thought of pristine as the actualy quality of the water itself.
 
vlondi

vlondi

Member
That is nearly how my water is now. My nitrates are a little higher than what I said (around 12ppm I think) and I have more bubbles than I like. Bubbles will be taken care of as soon as my AquaC Remora preskimmer comes off backorder at my LFS; at least I hope the bubbles are gone. The nitrates should come down with the refugium I will build here in the next month or so.
Edit: My tank has been cycled since late February.
 
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