Preferred water readings

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CaliGal

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Messages
109
Location
Norfolk, Virginia
Hi all,

Guy, I wonder if you would be willing to take the time to post to the group a list of acceptable levels for the various items tested in saltwater. As well, it would help if you would add a brief note regarding what to do if a particular level is high or low. You have a great handle on this subject, and I am sure I am not the only person who would benefit from your posting.

Sue
 
Sue,

I am a strong believer in sticking to what works for you. Just about every additive, trace, even major, element can be justified to various levels. Each tank is different and small (< 10,000 gallons) environments have extremely complicated interactions. Therefore, I'm perfectly willing to give my opinions, but if a different level is working for you I don't think you should change to meet someone else's vision of ideal.

Ideal for my tanks:

Temp: 83-85F
Salinity: 35 - 36ppt
PH: 8.3 - 8.5
Ca: 400 - 460
ALK: Balanced with Ca, ie. Ca=420 ALK = 2.5, Ca = 460 ALK = 3.5
Magnesium: 1300ppm
Ammonia, Nitrite: 0.00
Nitrate: <10ppm
PO4: 0.1ppm
Strontium: 13ppm
Iodide: As little as possible I believe above 0.05ppm is detrimental
Silicate: 2ppm

Guy
 
Thank you, Guy, for taking your time to enumerate your tanks' numbers. Possibly several other A.A members would be willing to post their readings as well. I believe it would benefit some of us newer SW reefers, offering guidelines as well as showing how disparities in the numbers from tank to tank does not mean one is right and the other is wrong. As you mentioned, if it is working, it is right.

And, I must comment on your very sage advise. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Each individual's tank is unique if for no other reason than water drawn from differentt parts of the country is different ... even when run through R/O purifiers.

Good Friday, everybody,

Sue
 
Note: This topic was split off from the Xenia help... topic

No biggie just felt we was getting a bit off topic from the original subject. This should make it easier to understand both sets of information.
 
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