Jestersix

Tank Journal : Converting Fresh water to a Saltwater Tank

Today, removed the MBR 157 and added a kessil fuge light to grow this chaeto ball. [emoji16]
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that sump water level looks a tad too high? Did you do a power off, and over flow drain test to see if water doesn’t reaches the max of your sump tank holding volume.


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There is a little sticky not on the right that says sump max level, the top is usually how high the water get when system is powered off.
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Flagg37 said:
Did you get your alk figured out?
Click to expand...

Still working on the alkalinity...
  • Tried Kalkwasser, but it's too messy for me. The white film in the ATO wasn't for me.
    • Kalk, mixed in a small container dumped it into a 5g container, then dumped it into the ATO. Thought that would help with the residue, but did not.
    • Ph started to rise from 8.0 to 8.2(8.4)
Currently Alk is at 7.3, and I'll be tracking it for the next 4 Days to measure the drop/usage.
  • Planning on supplementing the drop in ALK with Red Sea Foundation B.
  • I'll probably do this manually for a few weeks, to get the hang of it. Then I'll probably invest in some sort of Doser.
 
fishy408 said:
Still working on the alkalinity...
  • Tried Kalkwasser, but it's too messy for me. The white film in the ATO wasn't for me.
    • Kalk, mixed in a small container dumped it into a 5g container, then dumped it into the ATO. Thought that would help with the residue, but did not.
    • Ph started to rise from 8.0 to 8.2(8.4)
Currently Alk is at 7.3, and I'll be tracking it for the next 4 Days to measure the drop/usage.
  • Planning on supplementing the drop in ALK with Red Sea Foundation B.
  • I'll probably do this manually for a few weeks, to get the hang of it. Then I'll probably invest in some sort of Doser.
Click to expand...
Remember to test it at the same time of day each time. Your tank has a natural swing so if you test it at different times of day you’ll get skewed results.
 
A mistake I wanted to share, probably not the smartest thing I've done but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

About a week ago my alkalinity was low, down in the 5.x range. I also noticed my salinity was low also, around the 1.022 range. I figured that if I made a concentrated batch of saltwater mix, it would increase my salinity back to 1.024 and at the same time increase the alkalinity. This was not a good idea. Trying to guess measurements after it mixes into the display tank wasn't what I expected. After adding the concentrated mix " about 2 gallons worth", I went to work. Also not a good idea.

What happened 8 hours later:
  • Came home and all of the corals were closed up. Torches, Frogspawns, Blastos, and even Zoas.
  • Tested the Alkalinity, was above 9.0.. that was good! (but the alk swing so fast might not have been a good idea?)
  • Salinity was a big problem, tested a couple of times and the reading was 1.029.
Freaked out, and started removing water...luckily I had RODI water premade and was able to bring the salinity back down to 1.024.
  • Everything seems to have recovered besides a couple of SPS.
The day after, my tanked piping leaked, but that's a different post . :)
 
fishy408 said:
A mistake I wanted to share, probably not the smartest thing I've done but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

About a week ago my alkalinity was low, down in the 5.x range. I also noticed my salinity was low also, around the 1.022 range. I figured that if I made a concentrated batch of saltwater mix, it would increase my salinity back to 1.024 and at the same time increase the alkalinity. This was not a good idea. Trying to guess measurements after it mixes into the display tank wasn't what I expected. After adding the concentrated mix " about 2 gallons worth", I went to work. Also not a good idea.

What happened 8 hours later:
  • Came home and all of the corals were closed up. Torches, Frogspawns, Blastos, and even Zoas.
  • Tested the Alkalinity, was above 9.0.. that was good! (but the alk swing so fast might not have been a good idea?)
  • Salinity was a big problem, tested a couple of times and the reading was 1.029.
Freaked out, and started removing water...luckily I had RODI water premade and was able to bring the salinity back down to 1.024.
  • Everything seems to have recovered besides a couple of SPS.
The day after, my tanked piping leaked, but that's a different post . :)
Click to expand...

Should always plan on doing this slowly. Topping off with saltwater vs RO/DI is a method that works well to slowly bring up salinity. Here's a calculator that gives you the salinity you should be using in your ATO. This may not address your alk issue, but it would drive it up a little (assuming you keep up with your normal alk dosing schedule).

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/SaltwaterTopOff.php
 
RandyC said:
Should always plan on doing this slowly. Topping off with saltwater vs RO/DI is a method that works well to slowly bring up salinity. Here's a calculator that gives you the salinity you should be using in your ATO. This may not address your alk issue, but it would drive it up a little (assuming you keep up with your normal alk dosing schedule).

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/SaltwaterTopOff.php
Click to expand...

Thanks Randy, I'll check this out.
 
Ibn said:
Any reason to target and run the tank at 1.024?
Click to expand...

Mostly reading websites that recommend 1.024-1.025, with a low of 1.022-1.027. Being in the middle allows some flexibility.

On a side note, think I read the same thing about Alkalinity. Should be around 9, with a high-low between 7-11?
 
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Natural seawater for the most part is 35 ppt which equates to 1.0264. Randy Holmes-Farley and Ron Shimek both recommend that most reef tanks to be kept at around that range, unless you're working with biotopes setup, where it can be lower or higher than that (e.g. Red Sea has a higher salinity).

As for alkalinity, a large part of that has to do with nutrients. Alk is typically at 7.0 in the ocean, but the recommended level is 7-11, based on your nutrient levels. If you're running a low nutrient setup, then no need to push your alk to anything higher than 8ish. I think the only long time reefer that has kept his alk in the 9-11 range is Sanjay Joshi, but that's in his very mature reef tank.

I found this article of interest that you might want to glean over.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/
 
Ibn said:
Natural seawater for the most part is 35 ppt which equates to 1.0264. Randy Holmes-Farley and Ron Shimek both recommend that most reef tanks to be kept at around that range, unless you're working with biotopes setup, where it can be lower or higher than that (e.g. Red Sea has a higher salinity).

As for alkalinity, a large part of that has to do with nutrients. Alk is typically at 7.0 in the ocean, but the recommended level is 7-11, based on your nutrient levels. If you're running a low nutrient setup, then no need to push your alk to anything higher than 8ish. I think the only long time reefer that has kept his alk in the 9-11 range is Sanjay Joshi, but that's in his very mature reef tank.

I found this article of interest that you might want to glean over.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look into this.
 
Chaeto growth after about 7 days. Has it grown? I think it has, the wifey thinks it's just more dispersed.
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