waterperson

Thx bro. Just realised sodium bicarbonate can be bought from grocery stores. lol Now reading up on how to maintain Mg and Calcium levels as well. Any idea where I can get Calcium chloride and Magnesium chloride in powder form? I saw bulk reef supply video but their products not on sale in singapore. Thx

Anyone knows where to buy the tunze care magnet nano? Seen it in fresh n marine but only the long version is available, the nano is sold out. Thx

I dose 1ml daily together with the kalk. Just started for about a month. Is this amt ok? I got a 4x2x2 n a 3 ft sump

Alk raised to 7 this morning after overnite drip of kh solution. Will pause for daytime n continue to drip slowly at nite again. Repeat till I get back to 9 range. Lucky no observable ill effects in tank atm. Thx again to those who helped n commented.

Huh? Serious? Grocery store? Think the kh powder I bough is overspent liao

oh yes, cannot find the calcium bicarbonate as advised, so used this first to fend off the emergency. Later then scour for the complete solution to boost calcium, magnesium and kh together. Still like to use kalk w vinegar (as suggested by Fuel), so probably use it to maintain levels as well.

Just bought this Dupla Marin KH+ powder to boost the kh and the Jebao dosing pump during lunch break. Will dose it tonite and hopefully after few nites, the kh will get back to normal. Thx for all the advice.

Will read up on how to dose sodium bicarbonate to bring up alk first then on a long term dosing method. Probably go with 2part dosing. Wife not going to be happy seeing a co2 cylinder sitting in living room. Will say dangerous for kids. Preemptive strike.

Tank is a 4 footer. I am dripping in 2 liter of saturated kalk daily but kh still slowly slipping by about 1 kh per week.

Recently my tank's Kh been gradually dropping from 8-9 to 5-6 over a month. Corals showing good growth and have outpaced my water change and kalk regime. Been using kalk and i think it has reached its limits for my tank. Need a product to raise alk to 8-9Kh and a way to maintain it there. My tank paras at the moment are Alk: 5-6 Ca: 400 Mg: 1200 pH: 8.2 Temp: 26-27 NH3, NO2, NO3: not detectable Phospate: 0 but got some algae here and there, so i guess its not really zero Pls recommend a method or product to raise alk to 8-9 and maintain it there. Appreciate any comments. Thx

Agree, no3 160ppm is high. Bring it down first before stocking again. Sometimes the fish is already weakened when you buy them, so not really you doing something wrong. Try a different shop. Drip acclimate the fishes over 1-2 hrs to increase the fish chances. 8mth old tank should be quite stable. This 3 day death thingy apply to only new fishes?

If you use distilled water n saltmix to do water changes, no need anti chlorine. If your ammonia is showing up one moment and disappears the next, I would attribute it to the new system, and it means your system is barely couping. What we are trying to do in cycling is grow enough bacteria to convert the ammonia to finally less harmful nitrate. The key word is enough and the bacteria numbers grow and shrink according to the food source (ammonia). But still they need couple hours (~4hrs optimal) to double in numbers. I would remove your ammonia source (market prawn?) and do a larger than usual water change before stocking (1-2 small fishes). And observe a week. If u got happy fishes, then stock again 1-2 stock every 1-2 weeks. Keep observing and test for ammonia and nitrate. Happy reefing

Bro, i think your tank cycling is completed. Just stock slowly n it will be fine. Happy reefing

Your right it should be faster. Once ammonia and nitrite goes back to zero, you can perform large water change to bring down your nitrate. Or if you have patience, again wait for nitrate to come down also. If nitrate numbers also come down, that means cycle is complete. When ammonia n nitrite zero, nitrate below 20ppm, you can try adding a tough fish like clownfish. Wait another week to two, if the fish is happy, and parameters are still ok, you can go on adding other fishes or inverts, 1-2 per week or two. Slower the better. Corals maybe 3rd month onwards of your tank then add. Above is the routine i followed and has only few casualties. So its not the must follow rule, just a path i treaded before.

Ammonia and nitrite must be undectectable. Nitrate preferably below 20ppm. If u put in put in clean up crew now, high chance they will up lorry. Its hard but a patience goes a long way.

Sona fan from ntuc. Got it. Thx for the tip!!

Bro, 4 footer quite big leh. If ur prawn too small, not much effect. Remove the prawn head, that part hard to decompose. Dice the prawn and it should start decomposing faster. Place it near a high flow area to spread the breakdown material. 2nd week should see ammonia climbing. Test daily for ammonia as it will suddenly plunge low or zero. If you missed the ammonia spike, you might be wondering why no spike. Since you added live rock, this ammonia spike and down might be minimised as there are bacteria already started processing the ammonia. So look out for the ammonia climb/spike. Then move on to nitrite and finally nitrate. After ammonia zero or cycle complete, then we talked about water change.

i can only think of those advertised coralline algae in a bottle (like purple up). Never tried it myself. Need those who have tried it to comment. You need to maintain CA and alkalinity for coralline to flourish though.

You are right, coralline algae needs a source. Its faster if we introduce a live rock with lots of ca but they will slowly appear if we start introducing coral frags or snails.

Ammonia spike is a normal sign the tank is cycling. It should take 7-10 days for the ammonia to continue to climb. Then one fine day it will suddenly drop to low or zero. Same for nitrite. Nitrate experience is a little different from last time i ask around. Mine dropped to almost zero, some reefers just do large water change to drop it. Maybe becos i have algae turf scrubber and chaeto in sump.

Good idea, will give it a try. thx

oh mine is a 4 footer as well

Mine is 2litres per day, running chiller n fan

lol forgot about the bacteria dosing. Never used them myself so i cannot comment. Heard that they helped to shorten the cycling period. So no harm trying, since its a long month wait.

Nice tank! Its about one month before cycling is complete. So before that water is cloudy and smell a little foul. Ammonia should be zero and nitrate below 20ppm before you can add anything. You can start your water change regime once your ammonia is zero and add livestock slowly eg one a week or 2 weeks. Later there will be a brown diatom bloom that covers your liverock. Pretty ugly but they go off after couple days to a week. You might want to off the lights to discourage algae growth. Happy reefing!