I would like to get a controller like this RK2 to automate and contol my aquarium system. This would really provide a new level of stability.

Saltwater aquariums? The only saltwater aquarium I remember from these days was the display tank in the gift shop of the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi. I remember seeing the marine life show in the massive hold tanks with the Dolphins on display. The Dolphins would do tricks and jump out of the water to nab some hand-held fish. The Sea Lions would also take some fish.  

I later saw the smaller marine aquarium in the gift shop. The first time I saw it was when I was "bitten".

Bitten by the Aquarium Bug

The gift shop at Marine Life had the coolest saltwater display aquarium I had ever seen...in 1975.

I was bitten by the aquarium bug at that moment and have been for over 30 years now.  Over the years I have had several freshwater aquariums and saltwater aquariums. I have learned many things about how to take care of aquariums. I have used different techiques and methods with some good and some not so good but a few core principles for saltwater have held the test of time.

Scheduled Maintenance
Consistency is key to keeping your tank looking good and healthy. Doing regular maintenance to your tank requires a bit of self discipline. I used the 10% every 10 days rule for water changes for the longest time. I would do a 10% water change on the 10th, 20th and 30th day of each month. This made it fairly easy to remember water changes. Cool!

The problems came with some other tasks that were easy to forget such as filter media changes, bulb replacements and other tasks. The other issue I seem to run into is when the tank looks great and all the fish and corals are doing well and I relax. I would think to myself:

• "everything is doing great so I can skip my water change"
• "I will change the carbon next week"
• "the new powerhead doesn't need to be cleaned yet"
• "I'll let coraline grow on the back wall and then keep the rest of the glass clean"

The Nano Planner Yahoo Widget

I now use the Nano Planner utility from Current USA. This is a free Yahoo! Widget that runs on your desktop PC and allows you to set times to do certain tasks to your aquarium. This tool only has certain pre-set tasks but comes in very handy for remembering long term maintenance. I am using some of the generic tasks like "clean filter" for skimmer cup cleaning etc.

As you can see when I took this screen shot of my nano planner I was a bit behind on water changes and behind on testing the water chemistry.

Here is my scheduled maintenance on my Nano Planner:

Daily Tasks
Things that I do every day are not on the Nano Planner software. This includes feeding the fish, wiping down the glass with the mag float, staring at the reef, re-gluing fallen corals, admiring the fish, checking temps and pH, watching the corals grow, checking skimmer foam, etc. These daily tasks are what make the reef aquarium worth having...for me at least.

Odd Jobs
This is what I do "as needed". These are the tasks that are based on usage and scale up in fequency with the size of the aquarium. These are the ones that must be done but I sometimes wait until it becomes a much bigger job.

• Clean debris from power head intake grills
• Clean power head impellers (Tunze Nano Streams - keeps flow rates up)
• Clean venturi intake on skimmer pump (Skimmer will slack off and this fixes it)
• Clean salt spray from reflectors and bulbs (Keeps PAR up)
• Change filter socks (I still use filter socks every week or so for several days to polish the water)
• Pluck Algae (Slap on a couple of Nitriles, pinch the algae and then rinse your fingers in a bucket...repeat)
• Re-load b-ionic for the auto ReefDoser (My reef uses about a gallon of each part every 2 months)
• Scrape the sand away from the front glass (Keeps the depth of the aquascape and no "ant farm" sand aqainst the front glass)
• Scrape the back glass clean (I keep the back glass very clean to show the blue color of the background)

Consistent Parameters
Stability of your primary tank parameters will help keep your fish, corals and other animals very happy. This is especially true if you are keeping SPS corals, anemones, clams or other of the more sensitive reef animals. You really only need three things to manage your tank chemistry:

• Target water parameters
• Test Kits or Monitors
• Replenishment

Here is a list of the target parameters that I use for my reef tanks. Note that these are basically Natural Sea Water values:

Temp	79° F
Specific Gravity	1.025
pH	8.1
Alkalinity	8 dKH
Calcium	410 ppm
Magnesium	1280 ppm
Ammonia	0
Nitrite	0
Nitrate	<1ppm
Phosphate	<.03ppm

Keeping your chemistry focused and stable will help your animals live long and prosper (Spock 1969). You must test your aquarium chemistry so that you know your current levels. This is the only way you will know what to add to your aquarium in terms of supplements to control these primary levels.  Test kits are available from many different manufacturers. I use Salifert tests kits for CA, ALK and Mg. I use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals tests for NO3 and PO4. I have a digital thermometer for temps and use a refractometer for salinity. I have been using a pH controller as a monitor for tank pH.

Testing allows you to verify parameters and make adjustments towards your target levels. I do have some other equipment on the tank to help maintain some parameters automatically providing replenishment of consumed primary elements (calcium, carbonates, salinity, etc.)

• My ATO auto top off system keeps my salinity from creeping.
• My temps are maintained with several heaters (2 in the sump and 1 in the fuge) and cooling fans in the canopy
• CA and ALK are maintained automatically with a ReefDoser Quad
• NH3, NO2, NO3 and PO4 are kept low/zero by Carbon, Protein Skimmers and the refugium
• I am also using Prodibio for additional nutrient control

Most of this is automatic giving me a fair level of stability. My temps still fluctuate too much right now shifting from 78F to 80F. I would like to reduce this to less than .5 degree shift. I will probably need a better temperature controller to keep it that tight (ReefKeeper2?).

I still have two channels left!

The ReefDoser is a great unit for dosing most liquids. I am using it to dose B-ionic 2 part calcium and alkalinity supplements. B-ionic also provides some trace elements in balanced ionic ratios. The unit is set to dose about 25ml of each part twice a day about when the lights come on and again with they go off.

Water Changes
I am not fond of doing water changes...but I do them. I usually average a 20% water change a month. I will sometimes do two water changes a month at around 10% so I guess my average 20%.

I prefer the more robust salt mixes such as Tropic Marin Pro or Reef Crystals. These tend to have less of an impact on water parameters when you are keeping elevated levels of CA, Alk, Mg for hard corals. If you are using a calcium reactor or a kalk doser or a two part doser then you will want to maintain these levels even after a water change. Test your salt mix and you may be suprised!

Update March 2008: With the results of the recent AWT saltwater tests I still like Tropic Marin Pro but have been tempted to try other salts. I have been doing more frequent water changes but only 10g (6%) exchange each weekend.

Troubleshooting
I can not count the number of times I have heard the following:

"All my water parameters are fine but some of my corals are dying."

"I have lost three fish in the last month but my water tests fine."

Mysterious molt..Good crab or bad crab?

etc... These kinds of mysterious deaths are hard to explain. When the water is perfect and these losses occur I usually lend this to some sort of unseen predator. A nasty crab or an overgrown worm that hitch-hiked it's way on to your reef and is now wreaking havoc!

I have seen some evidence in my reef tank of these sorts of pests. Other little pesties like flatworms and "red bugs" can irritate corals. I had a rough time with flatworms and survived. I think I now have a nasty crab in my tank. It does not seem to have hurt anything yet, but I always seem to be picking up corals from the sand and re-gluing them.

Replace your test kits every 8-12 months even if you still have tests left. Test kits that use liquid reagents have a short shelf life and can give you lo/hi readings. If you are having troubles even though your water tests good but your tests are over eight months old, you should get new test kits and re-test.

I also use Poly Filter pads for troubleshooting. This mechanical/chemical combo media will polish the water and change to certain colors when ammonia, copper, phosphate and other contaminants are present.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment Preview