NECESSITY FOR A SUCCESS REEF TANK

[Kensington Reefer]

First
Thank you fo becoming a $upporting member
It is the best investment you have made in your reefing journey

To your question
use NSW, you can get it your nearest lfs
do regular large water changes 30% every 7-14 days
Feed well
Good water flow

When I started to do these things I got the desired results:
Life, growth, health, beauty
Spent less money!

Certainly there are many here with many ways to grow a reef aquarium
Mine is simple and LOW tech

I have a 19 year old purple tang and many other fish over 15

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

Got it, what test kit do you recommend

Alkalinity, phosphate, and nitrate: Hanna checker (I *hate* colorimetric tests)

Salinity: Milwaukee digital refractometer

Calcium: Eh, whatever. Usually whatever's cheapest/available.

Magnesium: don't bother unless there's issues

For automation, I use a Neptune Apex A3 Jr (temp + pH + second pH probe for calcium reactor) paired to a Neptune Trident (testing of alk, calcium, and magnesium). There's some other options available (I've heard good things about Hydros; GHL is an option, but I'm not really a fan of their interface), but Apex has the largest install base, most troubleshooting/support available as a result, but also a higher price tag.

 

[Darkxerox]

If you're colorblind or have any issues doing titrations, then definitely go with Hanna like Josh said.

For speed though you can't beat the Salifert tests. I can do an alk test in 30s, Ca/Mg in under a minute.

You can definitely do it without a lot of automation, but they're more of an insurance type of thing to monitor and prevent track crashes.

My tank is pretty stable after a year of dialing in weekly water changes and fixing my lighting (par and spectrum), flow, and having clean source water. I currently test salinity and alk and once a week and everything else once a month or so. But I dose kalkwasser on a continuous pump overnight.

 

[Finnaddict]

Everyone asks me how i get my SPS to grow so crazy. STABILITY! You need to test no matter what to make sure you are in the ballpark with NSW parameters. This goes for any coral. The 3 main things you need to monitor for SPS are the ALK, CAL and MAG. You also need to keep an eye on NO3 and PO4. Too high and they will cause problems over time. In my opinion the only good Hannah testers are ALK and Phos. Salifert are good for the rest. The guys are correct that your system is still young and it has some maturing to do. These days with fake rock it takes longer to mature than with real live rock. Send your water out for testing with an ICP test, that will show you what you are lacking. I found that I had low Iodine and potassuim. As soon as I started dosing those elements my tank came back to life. Your equipment sounds good. I have no experience with simplicity skimmers so I cant vouch for them. So far I do not run any automated testing equipment. My testing is all done manually, but I see an Alk monitor in my future. I know its hard but have patience.