edress714 November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 Alright guys so I'm about 4 months in and just did some water testing after my a mistake with water evaporating. When the water evaporated I always added more saltwater, not knowing that the salinity is only increasing. Fixed it and now back at 1.025. Here is where I am at 55 Gallon Tank Temp 79 Salinity 1.025 Calcium 340 Alkalinity 10 Magnesium 1410 Nitrate 5 Phosphate 0.25 pH 8.05 I have RO HOB Skimmer Fluval Canister Two 1050 koralias I know my phosphates and nitrates are high, I am currently using tap water and getting my RODI this week. Also getting a refractometer as well. Only got a GSP and Candy cane coral right now. Candy cane is getting ready to split two of its 3 heads (exciting!!!) Water changes is 10% weekly. Anything else I should be doing? Is my calcium getting low? Fish and corals all look great. Thanks for any feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 phosphate and nitrate is fine as well as all the other parameters. It's a ll relative to what you are trying to grow and how hard/easy it is to keep those numbers stable in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 To solve the daily evaporation of water either get ready to add some water in the morning and in the late afternoon when you get home to try and keep the Salinity as constant at possible. Maybe look into getting an ATO (auto top off) pump and container to take over this chore so it does it 24/7 with out you having to worry about it. Calcium really gets sucked up when you grow SPS corals, you probably don't have to worry about that with what you have and the 10% water changes. Great start, it will get more stable as it matures 8-12 months+/- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 pH is a little low but it is probably from CO2. What time of the day did you check the pH? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edress714 November 17, 2014 Author Share November 17, 2014 Check ph at night. Right before I posted. ATO pump is something easy to install? I don't have anywhere to put a container of water tho. Guess I have to make make room in my stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 Check ph at night. Right before I posted. ATO pump is something easy to install? I don't have anywhere to put a container of water tho. Guess I have to make make room in my stand You could pump the ATO water from somewhere else depending on the distance and the head. There are all shape containers, and depending on the size it may buy you 2-3 days or weeks. Part of the advantage is being able to go out of town for a weekend and not have to top it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 For late in the day testing the pH could be a little higher. I bet if you tested in the morning it would be even lower. Do you have a lid on the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edress714 November 17, 2014 Author Share November 17, 2014 I have a canopy with the back open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edress714 November 17, 2014 Author Share November 17, 2014 You could pump the ATO water from somewhere else depending on the distance and the head. There are all shape containers, and depending on the size it may buy you 2-3 days or weeks. Part of the advantage is being able to go out of town for a weekend and not have to top it off. just freshwater daily right? when water evaporates just add fresh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 just freshwater daily right? when water evaporates just add fresh. Do when saltwater evaporates, the salt stays in the water. Yes, you want to add freshwater (RO) water, to keep salinity stable. As mentioned, at ATO is the easiest way to accomplish this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 I will have an Avast ATO (standard switch) WITHOUT magnet mount for sell soon. You will need to buy the magnet mount and a pump. Let me know if you're interested and we can work out a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 17, 2014 Share November 17, 2014 Do when saltwater evaporates, the salt stays in the water. Yes, you want to add freshwater (RO) water, to keep salinity stable. As mentioned, at ATO is the easiest way to accomplish this. +1 salt stays in solution so the salinity goes up when the water evaporates. So you need to add ideally RO/DI water to replace the water that has evaporated. no need to add salt, it does not go anywhere, except for salt creep. An ATO does this in very small amounts all the time which keeps things stable. That is one of the goals, keep your numbers stable and your fish and corals will be happier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob A November 18, 2014 Share November 18, 2014 Still check your salinity from time to time as you will lose salt in the protien skimmer skimmate that you dump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edress714 November 21, 2014 Author Share November 21, 2014 Thanks everyone. So far so good. Been steady at 1.025. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos November 21, 2014 Share November 21, 2014 Thanks everyone. So far so good. Been steady at 1.025. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rburgee November 22, 2014 Share November 22, 2014 (edited) Keep up the good work! Being consistent with parameters is more important than chasing numbers. Have you thought about potential livestock yet? Edited November 22, 2014 by Rburgee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefer_Madness December 26, 2014 Share December 26, 2014 Good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n8n December 30, 2014 Share December 30, 2014 I recently installed ATO and am pretty happy about it. Few things for a newbie (me) that it helped/hurt. #1 [good] it made dialing the skimmer in way easier. When the sump has a constant water line, it makes fine tuning the skimmer way way way way easier. Otherwise for me atleast, when the waterline is up the skimmer is more crazy and waterline is low skimmer produces way less. #2 [bad] Salinity is actually a problem for me. I'm not sure if its my over active skimmer or evaporation or what, but it seems like i'm adding 1 gallon of water a day to the ATO reserve (which is going in the tank), and salinity on the tank in about a week drops from 1.025 PPM to 1.023 PPM so for me I have to watch how much water i'm adding and make sure i'm getting salinity back into the tank. #3 [keep in mind] the size of the reserve the ATO draws from is important. Essentially it dictates how long you can be away from your tank w/o worrying about water line. If the skimmer had unlimited space, my 2 1/2 gallons probably will last me 2-3 days. If i dial down the skimmer or run it for shorter durations probably it would last longer. Once the ATO goes dry, probably tank could go a few more days until I started to worry about return part of sump getting low. #4 [install] I don't know much about brands i'm running the TUNZI brand ATO. Basically you connect some wires/hoses together. Put a water reserve somewhere near the sump that it can draw from, and drop a little pump into the reserve. You attach (it has a magnetic attachment) a sensor to whatever you are using to determine where waterline is (for me its return section of sump). You attach the hose from the little pump to a spot in your sump it can shoot the water in. Lastly there is a bolt on electronic brain. Pretty easy bolt on setup. When the TUNZI operates it uses an optical sensor to determine if water is low and shoots water in. If water is above optical sensor it has a float switch above it. If the optical and float are underwater it goes to alarm mode and beeps letting you know you have way to much water in sump. -- Mindful in sump: Do not create a forward or reverse siphone. In my case, the pump is below the waterline of my tank, and the hose going to the tank is well above the waterline of my sump. Basically when its not operating its impossible for it to siphon my sump back to the reserve vice versa. Anyways looks good hopefully my newbie notes on ATO helps out. -Nathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE December 30, 2014 Share December 30, 2014 Good info! Number 2 concerns me. Your salinity should not be dropping. Salt will not evaporate, the only way it's going to leave the tank is through a leak or if you're actively removing water (i.e. Skimmer, bagging up frags, etc). How much water is your skimmer removing? Are you sure there's no leaks? My tank is on an ATO and I do not test salinity between water changes (4-5 weeks). In this time frame it typically does not change more than a half a point. Are you calibrating your refractometer? That could be your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n8n December 30, 2014 Share December 30, 2014 Good info! Number 2 concerns me. Your salinity should not be dropping. Salt will not evaporate, the only way it's going to leave the tank is through a leak or if you're actively removing water (i.e. Skimmer, bagging up frags, etc). How much water is your skimmer removing? Are you sure there's no leaks? My tank is on an ATO and I do not test salinity between water changes (4-5 weeks). In this time frame it typically does not change more than a half a point. Are you calibrating your refractometer? That could be your problem. Calibration is not a factor, I have another tank that I measure all the time, and it rarely ever moves. The difference is the ATO on the big tank is keeping the sump level with RODI, the QT I measure the salinity and then add the water (RODI or Saltwater). The QT has a very small skimmer, while the big tank has a huge skimmer that is very active (NoPox). I pretty much have to empty the skimmer every day, I want to say its maybe 1-2 quarts per day of skimmate thats coming out and being replaced by RODI. I don't have great records on how much i'm putting in the ATO but i wanna say its between 1/2 a gallon to a gallon of water into the ATO every day. At one point I had a glass lid on the tank and had heat issuees and condensation collected on the glass and the ATO hardly needed to be refilled, but now that i've got back to an open top it needs alot of water. I know there is no leak, I have hardwood floors and would know. Also got apex leak detection what would shut things down if there was any water in the stand or on the floor. I really think its mainly what the skimmer is producing vs. what the Ato is putting back in. -Nathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuffyGeos December 30, 2014 Share December 30, 2014 Calibration is not a factor, I have another tank that I measure all the time, and it rarely ever moves. The difference is the ATO on the big tank is keeping the sump level with RODI, the QT I measure the salinity and then add the water (RODI or Saltwater). The QT has a very small skimmer, while the big tank has a huge skimmer that is very active (NoPox). I pretty much have to empty the skimmer every day, I want to say its maybe 1-2 quarts per day of skimmate thats coming out and being replaced by RODI. I don't have great records on how much i'm putting in the ATO but i wanna say its between 1/2 a gallon to a gallon of water into the ATO every day. At one point I had a glass lid on the tank and had heat issuees and condensation collected on the glass and the ATO hardly needed to be refilled, but now that i've got back to an open top it needs alot of water. I know there is no leak, I have hardwood floors and would know. Also got apex leak detection what would shut things down if there was any water in the stand or on the floor. I really think its mainly what the skimmer is producing vs. what the Ato is putting back in. -Nathan Maybe try dialing back your skimmer so it is not so wet. 1-2 qts a day seems like a lot each day. That would start to change things pretty quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueTricia December 30, 2014 Share December 30, 2014 I've got similar problems. Losing a lot of water to evaporation. I also run my skimmer pretty wet (well today it's on overdrive after all the 2part epoxy), but I also like really removing all the fish poo/gunk/skimmate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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