new to salt...
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also just noticed your other post. thanks.
corrals dont give back to the tank besides looking good??
i guess more details questions for now would be the calcium mangnisum and buffering. could someone break that down on what they do and general 411 on that??
corrals dont give back to the tank besides looking good??
i guess more details questions for now would be the calcium mangnisum and buffering. could someone break that down on what they do and general 411 on that??
Protien Skimmers aren't limited to dissolved protiens they can remove some solids as well. Dissolved protiens can come from food but also from aquatic life itself in the form of decompostion. They also add oxygen to the water.
There are many types of corals - some do eat dissolved matter, others eat microalgaes, microbacterias, and microplanktons to name a few food sources. It's not so much "what" they eat as to the gases generated from physical decompostion of matter IE; Nitrate. Too much dissolved protiens can cause unhealthy rises in Nitrate, in other cases to much protiens can cause obnoxious algae blooms that attach themselves to corals preventing them from opening to feed as well as rob it from there source of light.
Phosphates are also generated from decompostion this can prevent corals/inverts from processing calcium.
There are many types of refrigiums - they are basically a "refugee" tank for other types of aquatic life and flora still using the same water source as the "show" tank. Some refrigiums are used to grow Nitrate eating algae while others are used to grow food sources like copapods and others still to raise new born fish.
Most calcium and mag come from the salt source - some corals absorb it and use it to grow as do shrimp, crabs, clams, mussels etc... as well as the colorful coraline algae. Other sources of calcium are Live rock, Agronite, and either liquid or powder suppliments.
if you are looking at ordering live rock or other live or dry goods take a look at premiumaquatics.com Thier Manado live rock is off the charts and way cheaper than your average LFS live rock. I would wager that the live rock in my tank is nicer and more porous than 95% of other tank owners anywhere and it all came from thier stock.
for less expensive lighting and protein skimmers also take a look at aquatraders.com
I would suggest getting all of your equipment up and running and not stringing it out as it can be hard to get motivated to do once everything is going despite the drastic benefits. Do some searching on here and you will find all of the information that you could ever need.
I would suggest getting all of your equipment up and running and not stringing it out as it can be hard to get motivated to do once everything is going despite the drastic benefits. Do some searching on here and you will find all of the information that you could ever need.
Some Fish keeping PH basics - and before anyone gets nit-picky about PH being a negetive decimal logarithm of the hydrogen ION activity within solution and it's corralation to carbondioxiode emissions, sulfate and flouride IONs, and their relation to the oceans carbonate system - This is a BASIC overview.
PH is a Hydrogen Ion measurement system - Nuetral PH is 7 @ 77 degrees- PH lower than 7 has more Hydrogen ions and called Acidic. PH Higher then 7 has less Hydrogen Ions and is called Alkyline. Natrual Seawater for the most part is PH 8-8.3 - in the "wild" PH is basically governed by numerous outside sources like Tannic acid leach from flora lowering the PH value or a single water source feeding a sulfer rich enviorment raising the value. In aquaria PH is generally giverned by the water source you use to fill or change out your aquarium. The most imporatant thing is that it is stable - not fluxuating suddenly. Things like temperature and sunlight or lack there of also raise and lower PH as well as an over abundance of decomp.
Buffering solutions come in both liquid and solid - they are used to raise or lower the PH value of the water source. My tapwater is PH-8, after combining with Red Sea Salt Pro which contains good levels of Mag ,Calcium, and other minerals, my already alkyline water raise to a stable PH -8.5 with lights on and stable temps of 75. Some ppl aren't as fortunate, their water source can be so acidic they need to raise the PH or the opposite too High in Alkalinity they need to lower it.
okay thanks.
now that you spelled it out for me i realised what your talking about. i think i was a little confussed on the comment buffering compacity but i asked my question wrong. my bad. so keep it to 10% water changes so the buffers can do there job and not overwhelm the tank?? is that what thats getting at??
on a side note, dont try and break up crushed corral to try and make it more sand like. it just turns into powder and is making a big mess in the tank. wish i would have waited till i could have just got more marine sand now. the tank is gonna need a gravel vacumming but i have been trying not to mess with it to much while its setting up.
now that you spelled it out for me i realised what your talking about. i think i was a little confussed on the comment buffering compacity but i asked my question wrong. my bad. so keep it to 10% water changes so the buffers can do there job and not overwhelm the tank?? is that what thats getting at??
on a side note, dont try and break up crushed corral to try and make it more sand like. it just turns into powder and is making a big mess in the tank. wish i would have waited till i could have just got more marine sand now. the tank is gonna need a gravel vacumming but i have been trying not to mess with it to much while its setting up.
