I just wanted to say thank you for these videos!!! I am just starting out and, after reading and watching for well over a year, I finally have a tank (150 gallon) and will be setting it up over the next few months. Your videos have shown me the up's and downs of this hobby, and your willingness to share mistakes is refreshing. Keep it up 🤠
Glad your tank bounced back man. Thanks for sharing and walking us through progress. Some individuals would like to sweep mistakes under the rug, thanks for letting the community learn with you.
I am using Red Sea CPS as well, funny because I am about to run out of my first small bucket and I was also looking into using Fritz RPM! Glad to see it is the way to go, I'll be ordering my box of salt this week! I'm also glad to see that your tank is back on track.
The blue bucket red sea has much lower alk, but like you pointed out it does say right on the bucket. You can use muriatic acid to lower the alkalinity in freshly mixed saltwater (research this first if you're going to do it), but using a lower alk salt is the easiest option. Your flowerpot coral is actually alevepora not gonipora, very similar.
Not sure if this helps but Red Sea do 2 different salts. 1) Red Sea Coral Pro 2)Red Sea salt The latter is for people who want to dose 2part. It's also cheaper than the coral pro.
Even though I don't have a salt water tank, I enjoy watching and hearing you speak. I have learn things from your videos., and I do watch them until the end.Thank you for the chance to learn about new things in my life.
Yep just stumbled across your channel and you do a great job editing and kept me watching till the end. Keep up the great job and love to look at the tank!
Hobbiest here...but watched to the end. So not so sure you'd consider me s hard core member of your reef squad. That said, nice job on your videos. Makes it enjoyable to learn about this hobby and to see the progression of your tanks. Nicely done.
Mochi looked like he was floating through space in that last shot :) Glad you were able to figure out the chemistry issue. Thanks once again for sharing your experience! Another great video
Awesome to see ya keeping detailed notes. this practice for me has always been a challenge. I love the Coral Pro Salt. I have used a few different types and settled on the Pro a couple yrs ago.
I am really glad you made this video very important I needed to to know this before I fill my new tank with corals. I really appreciate it you saved me a lot of frustration and money.
Thanks for the heads up. LFS doesn’t always explain things like that so it helped me not just jump over to “a better salt.” Also, I enjoyed seeing the progress. So many reefers say look for an update but I forget or don’t know if they ever post an update. Thanks.
I'm sure someone has said it or you may have found it yourself but BRS and Tidal Gardens both have very good in depth videos on dosing the 3 major elements and their relationship with each other. The BRS version is more technical vs Tidal gardens that gives more of an overview. Great video as usual. Keep it going.
I had Red Sea coral pro for the longest time and then I finally tested freshsaltwater and my alk was 12 or higher every time. I'm using fritz now and everything is happy
Regular water changes + dosing seems like chasing a moving target no matter what salt you use. Reading the comments is very much deja vu regarding the salt debate that's been going on for decades. It's funny, because Red Sea salt was the hot alternative salt years ago and people in forums compared it favorably to Reef Crystals. Now, it seems that Fritz is becoming the hot alternative salt. Great looking tank BTW!
Great vid! Been using the Coral Pro for a couple months. Might take your approach and start dipping my toes into dosing when I order the next batch of salt. Cheers!
I've been using the coral pro salt since my tank has been started and noticed that lately my euphyllia hasn't been extending nearly as much. After watching this gonna do a bunch of testing to check everything thanks for making this 👍🏻
Was hard to concentrate because of your super cute dog at the door! Watched the entire video. Was about to start a marine tank but seems like a lot needs to be learned about water chemistry.
Great video. I’m just thinking of dosing my 46g. And I’m starting up 160g, just doing the plumbing. And I just switch over to red see. Some good points to think about. Thank thank you yes I absolutely watched the hole vid and I subscribed to your channel.
Where did you get your siphon? Can you start and stop it mid siphon? I only ask for when you clean your sand and want to make it easier for the sand to fall out of the tube without having to pull the siphon out of the water. Thanks!!!
Hey Mark, mine is just a regular 'ol siphon, no auto start/stop and I have to suck on it to get it started (haha). Whenever I siphon my sand bed, I just dig the nozzle in a bit, stir slightly and lift gently to let the sand fall back down. I would get a minimum of sand sucked up but overall it has worked decently for me!
Definitely watched the entire video! Great video as always. Im running kalkwasser in my ATO for now in my tank but you definitely have me wanting to try out a doser. Maybe in the future. Also I will be starting a reef Instagram really soon and possibly a TH-cam channel as well, I'll keep you posted. Ttyl, Thanks for the shout out as well!
Good job ! Nice looking tank. Can i ask how much kwh the 45gallon tank uses each day or in 1 month. Lights pumps etc. And how much is the upkeep as in water change etc.
I have never checked it's electricity consumption actually... most of the stuff are ran off one outlet, I can see if there is some way to measure this.
Inappropriate Reefer there are super handy things you plug inbetween the wall and aquarium. Tells you how much watt and kwh. If you know all the watt of all the pumps lights etc and the amount of hours that there on you can cunculate it. But thats more work then 5doller for that thing. Wanted to start salt water but. Store told me electic bill is 50euro a month for redseamax 250. Ofc wacht the vid untill the end. Let me know if you know more about kwh
I had the same problem with red sea coral pro and their suppliers. That is very hard to manage such concentrated levels in a small tank. I switch to liveaquaria brand which is similar to Fritz. And back to aquavitro supliments. Levels are way more steady. I think red sea was made for larger systems. Which is weird as a lot of their tanks are AIOs and under 60 gallons. You'd think they'd do something that suited their tanks better.
watched the entire video 👍This learning curve is overwhelming but thanks to guys likes you, fishofhex, milehighreefers, ect ect.....I feel like I'll figure it all out. Im not sure if you put a video out focusing on your dosing setup, (because I'm all over the place trying to learn a lil about everything) but I'll be looking for it.Thanks again for taking the time to do what you do on TH-cam. Hopefully I'll have my tank up and cycling soon enough.
Great analogy with alk, cal, ph and aperture, ISO, and exposure time. Definitely a balancing act with both mediums. BTW, won't dosing alk and Ca compound the problem with the salt mix?
You are absolutely right, with the Fritz salt the levels are lower so I could dose without overshooting. Versus if I stick with RSCP, I would probably not need to dose but have to keep my levels steady some other way.
what salt are you using now?? its the last thing i need before i start. i wanted to go with tropic marin but they look really unreliable with stock... whats the next best clean salt out there ? I am going with a mixed reef
I have a question. The flowerpot coral in our tank isn't blooming like yours, let alone blooms at all. Any advice on regarding the flowerpot please? (And keep up the great work on your channel)
Of course I watched to the end! Please tell me you are monitoring magnesium as well. Fritz has had some bad shipments with people seeing over 2000 on their magnesium. While elevated Mg isn't immediately harmful it can hurt things over time. Also, after 11.5 years in the hobby I've learned one important rule: no tank/product is the same. You can't trust each batch of salt to be consistent. You can't trust the dosing methodology of equal parts either. That's a perfect world and we don't live in it. Your tank will uptake certain elements quicker or slower than mine. I always treat Alk, Ca and Mg separately. Test all three routinely and dose accordingly.
Just wanted you to know that I have ordered the 160 we Kessel tuna blue for my 20 hex tank ! I think that should do the trick for my gregorian's in other soft corals in it ! What do you think ? I am going to put a pair of seahorses in it ! Love your videos especially this one I didn't know that either about the trace elements in it and now I know thank you your friend Mike !
That's awesome man! I have been thinking about a seahorse macro algae tank as well but the daily frozen food feeding is keeping me away. Would love to hear your experience once you get it up and running!
Inappropriate Reefer thank you sir I will keep you posted on my new seahorse tank ! just to let you know my green tip bubble anenome has split into two now I had the anemone now for two months now he is about the size of your fist and growing big I will send you a picture of him ! when I get to seahorse tank setup I will send you pictures of it thanks dude keep on reefing !
I always watch to the end, especially since you started including little extra clips. 😁 I use reef crystals specifically because the parameters are on the low end and I can then dose up to where I want my levels. It allows for much better control. I've only been dosing for about 2 years and I'm still learning how to manage it. I also have the jebao dp-4 and it has worked pretty well. I'll be dismantling it next weekend (right now it serves as my ATO for the 29G cube) and recalibrating it to get it set up for the Balling Light method I'm going to use on the RSR XL 425. Haha, I feel you on the rambling, but I don't mind because it's a great way to express a thought process. And kudos for organizing your space! My dining room has looked like a bomb dropped for the past 18 months and I'm on the verge of getting it back to normal....doesn't it feel good to have it all tidy? 🤗
Feels fantastic on tidying the fish spots! Although we will see how long this lasts, lol! Speaking of calibrating the DP-4, I was told by my friend that if I calibrated it using 100ml per the instruction, each 1ml it doses actually comes out as 2ml?? I haven't had a chance to test it yet (he recommends using a measuring container to measure how much fluid come out each dose), but wondering if you have experienced this? Btw, very jealous of your Red Sea tank... and I have to google what this Balling Light method is.
Looking god man 👍 glad you've hopefully sorted your alk swing issue. Leptoseris dont norm like high light, id be trying to move him from the center of the light and that "goni" im 99% sure is an alveopora, very similar but different. Great vid, btw when did you get you green maze brain in the middle? Have one identical, was thinking the sand might be stunting the growth
I got it about 3 weeks ago, yeah I would love to move it off the sand as well (I think the sand may be covering a little bit of flesh around the rims), I may add a flat piece of rock to put it on. Btw I'm dosing soda ash mainly because that's what the BRS 2-parts starter kit came with... although my pH is low so if it could raise pH that would be a nice bonus.
Be careful with that guy, mine sends out seriously at least 100 sweepers about 4-5inch long. Prob a good idea.. i dont have sand to contend with but i know they are sensitive little buggers! I just fragged mine and the thing turned almost white for a few hours. Yeah soda ash is bicarb baked so it raises ph. Good luck with the dosing pump, make sure you test HEAPS
Test your Mg levels for IO and Reef Crystals. You may be very surprised. Best salt is ESV. I didn’t realize how low the Mg was until I started growing hair algae.
If you have too much light on your frogspawn will it not open fully? Im having an issue with mine not opening fully since i switched my light to the kessil a360
In my experience the frogspawn tends to be more compact if the light is strong (although color would usually look more intense). Could you dial down the light and slowly ramp it up over a few weeks to let your Frogspawn acclimate to the intensity?
This is kinda crazy cuz I'm in the same exact situation as you. Water changes kept messing w my corals and my alk would swing too much. Just took my kalk off line and started dosing. It's been a week and I'm still trying to dial in the dose amount. GL. Watched till the end
QuarterBach hey I have one you should feed the anatomy once a week a piece of shrimp or a piece of cut fish that's what I feed mine about every 3 to 5 days a small piece !
I agree with Michael, I think your anemone will appreciate larger pieces of food. If your anemone is healthy, larger chunk, otherwise you can try some frozen mysis first!
QuarterBach you are welcome ! They are meat Eater I have had mine for two months now and it has split into two of them ! just feed it about every three days or so and he will thrive nicely !
Did watch the whole video lol Keep an eye on the Iodine iron and potassium as well Red Sea has a colors test kit. These fall short and they are important iodine especially for crustations that molt.
Is this a good mix? I wish BRS carried it so I could see how it stands up against the others they have tested! I know my lfs loves it and only carries this brand premixed but way to expensive that way! I have always used IO reef crystals as well and brs says that the alk is supposed to be 13! I am like you I never used to check it when adding especially since my corals are just small frags and dont dose! I have always maintained around 9.5 so not sure why If its 13 like BRS says! It dosnt say on box and I am not going to buy it again so I will have no reference! The reason I am not buying again is because I just tested an unopend bag and came back with 6.2!!! I dont get why! I tested 3 times as well! I have always bought off amazon so maybe thats why! LOL. I did use a different seller this time so I dont know what the heck this stuff is but think I will just trash it! Do you know if it goes bad in a hot humid florida garage unmixed and un opened? I trust your opinion so what brand would you recommend for me in m y situation?
All this talk of salt mixes and water changes with no mention of SALINITY? The alkalinity of fresh mixed seawater is 100% dependent on your salinity, so it's paramount to talk about it ( I watched the whole thing)
I should have known better after you live stream on Salinity with Rico, lol! I aim for 35 ppt over here and will make sure that is part of the equation in the future!
I swear, i didn’t understand single thing from this video! Barely learning how to cycle saltwater tanks right now to get a pair of clowns and now im here watching this video alllllllllllll the way to the end! Lol tho this video scares me of the things i have to learn if i end up getting corals 🤪
How long have you been using it? I usually use red sea sea salt but they ran out so I'm going to start using coral pro. After watching this I'm freaking abit
@@Au_Aquatica been using for 14 years , don't really need it for a soft coral tank but don't have to dose anything. Kh can be about 12 if you use it to soon but after 24 hours comes down , good salt imo.
Double check it’s the Blue Bucket 👍 If you are using the Coral Pro, it has very high Alk and unless you are keeping a high Alk tank you may be shocking your tank each time you do a water change. Red Sea blue bucket is what I am using now and it’s Alk is regular level
Hey Bud. I too switched from RSCP to Fritz. You will like the fritz. I am also dosing with the fritz 2 part and mag. They contain the same elements that the salt mix uses so I'm confident it will maintain stability. I'm currently dosing equal parts of alk and calc. Mag is about 1/5. I watched till the end [I'll be damned ]
Check out saltwateraquarium.com, I did not hear too much about them in the past, but recently made a few purchase from them since they seems to have fantastic price on some items plus free shipping.
+1 hardcore reef squad lol... still learning about dosing here also... I use Red Sea Salt (blue bucket) plus dose a fully saturated kalkwasser with no vinegar... What dosing schedule for Mg | KH | Ca thru-out the day did you decide on?
kalkwasser doesn't cause alkalinity swing. It maintains alkalinity. It is really impossible to increase Alkalinity by adding kalkwasser unless youre adding massive amounts. Kalwasser however causes pH swing if you add too much. Your loss of coral tissue is not from Red sea salt, its from rapid change in water chemistry where the coral did not have time to adjust. Also the mixing instructions on Red sea are very specific, less than 2 hours.
Great points, I mentioned using Kalk to increase alk/ca in the video but the initial reason was actually to raise pH (it's sitting around 7.8). I do think the corals really suffered from my increased water change (2-3x 20% a week) with the RSCP salt once I noticed some of the corals looked a little off... which caused the swings you mentioned!
Inappropriate Reefer don't know if it's your case, but I had low pH due to co2 accumulation inside the tank room. Excess co2 was being absorbed into the tank and a window fan was the solution. bumped the pH to 8.1-8.3 without kalk.
Kalk only maintains but doesn't raise alkalinity? I kept adding mixed Kalk in the ATO and in 2 months my alkalinity was 15dKH, of course I wasn't testing until my entire Duncan colony started dropping and LPS corals started looking sad, used red sea and Hannah to test, both confirmed almost 15DKH, I use reef crystals, and carbon dose, nitrates sit around 5 to 15ppm... I was certain the Kalk was raising it. Now I add small amounts of Kalk at a time and it seems to raise it. I'm confused.
You are wrong. Kalk certainly does raise alkalinity. It would also raises calcium. You might not notice it as much if your corals use it up fast but on a tank with few corals it will cause alk spikes.
Well, I starved my frogfish for 2 weeks and tried krill on a string every night with no luck. its stomach was going concave so I just gave it a ghost shrimp. Feeding it frozen is much harder than what it sounds.
I'm getting the same Red Sea salt from the same place you have been, I think. I did a 50 percent change on Projects Starfire and Cubal. Things look better to me, but I don't dose either tank. I'll pay closer attention. Good info!
i watched the entire video! i've made the mistake of not reading labels too. i used brightwell's kalkwasser (assuming it was calcium and alkalinity), and dosed red sea magnesium. after a few weeks, my mag seems completely out of whack at over 1600ppm. i re-read the kalkwasser, and it was kalkwasser PLUS magnesium, hence the name kalk+2. felt utterly stupid hahaha. now i'm back to dosing red sea two part while waiting for my mag to slowly drop back down. thanks for sharing your mistakes, hope it helps the newer reefers out there
Stop switching salts so quickly lol, go verrrry slow when switching salt. 1-2 gal water change max for a few days/weeks. Im glad it somehow worked when u did the fritz change. It should be equal parts alk calc when ur stable (ofc i watched it all :)
Ok, glad my tank did not get too upset with the quick salt switch... I did 3 day back to back 30% water change with the new salt, I will have to remember to go slow next time!
I switched salts too from RSCP to Instant Ocean. Back to the basics and take it from there. Anyway. What is the name of the mushrooms above the struggling green montipora?
and I notice one really important issue in you tank, I am not a pro, I really am not, but I have experience of clams, I have 2 clams.And...I pretty suggest you should put your beautiful clam away from the block of light and corals, in the Open area which it can get more light as possible. And away from any disturb. And make sure the clam can stay deep in the sand, make sure it can grab on a surface no matter sand or rock, once it attached, it will glow by itself and feed it twice a week with clam food.One of my maxima clam almost die after I do a water change which I totally clean out all the dirt in the sand, I know I shouldn't say it. But since you have a clam in your tank, may be you should not change the water quite often cause they are really sensitive. The need bacteria to survive. P.s may be I am wrong but this is how my clams stay healthy.
I just saw this video. Love all your videos btw. First post on your channel. I've been using this salt as well but only my calcium and magnesium have been high since I started weekly 15% WCs. Like high high. Near 1480 mag n 500 calcium. My LFS only stocks this and Instant ocean. I am thinking now the reason is this salt thanks to your vid. Now I cannot dose atm but am thinking of going over to just IO for my reef tank. Never thought it could be the water! Tyvm for this possible option for my issue!!!
First off, I love your tank! I am new to sw and have been planning my first tank for a couple months now. My original plan was to go with red sea coral pro salt and MAYBE dose kalk only if the salt mix wasn't providing enough. Dosing for sw seems rather complex so far and I figured it might cause more harm than good if I tried it early on. From your experience would you say that it was the combination of the two that caused issues or just the extremely high levels in the red sea salt?
alkalinity can wreck a tank, as i found out. I've been thinking about switching to fritz also. i saw that you log your levels in a note book. if you're a bit of a "techie" id recommend the Aquarimate app. its awesome, i love it. you can track multiple tanks and all the live stock. it also graphs your levels so you have a visual indicator as well. good luck man!
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I just wanted to say thank you for these videos!!! I am just starting out and, after reading and watching for well over a year, I finally have a tank (150 gallon) and will be setting it up over the next few months. Your videos have shown me the up's and downs of this hobby, and your willingness to share mistakes is refreshing. Keep it up 🤠
Glad your tank bounced back man. Thanks for sharing and walking us through progress. Some individuals would like to sweep mistakes under the rug, thanks for letting the community learn with you.
I am using Red Sea CPS as well, funny because I am about to run out of my first small bucket and I was also looking into using Fritz RPM! Glad to see it is the way to go, I'll be ordering my box of salt this week! I'm also glad to see that your tank is back on track.
Thanks Andrew!
The blue bucket red sea has much lower alk, but like you pointed out it does say right on the bucket. You can use muriatic acid to lower the alkalinity in freshly mixed saltwater (research this first if you're going to do it), but using a lower alk salt is the easiest option. Your flowerpot coral is actually alevepora not gonipora, very similar.
Not sure if this helps but Red Sea do 2 different salts. 1) Red Sea Coral Pro 2)Red Sea salt
The latter is for people who want to dose 2part. It's also cheaper than the coral pro.
Even though I don't have a salt water tank, I enjoy watching and hearing you speak. I have learn things from your videos., and I do watch them until the end.Thank you for the chance to learn about new things in my life.
Good tips! Most people get into trouble with Alk spikes from large water changes. Always best to do more small ones than a single larger one. :)
Yep just stumbled across your channel and you do a great job editing and kept me watching till the end. Keep up the great job and love to look at the tank!
Hobbiest here...but watched to the end. So not so sure you'd consider me s hard core member of your reef squad. That said, nice job on your videos. Makes it enjoyable to learn about this hobby and to see the progression of your tanks. Nicely done.
Well made video! Watched it till the end. Thanks for your hard work to bring the tanks and videos together on a regular basis!
Thank you for watching Peter!
Mochi looked like he was floating through space in that last shot :) Glad you were able to figure out the chemistry issue. Thanks once again for sharing your experience! Another great video
Awesome to see ya keeping detailed notes. this practice for me has always been a challenge. I love the Coral Pro Salt. I have used a few different types and settled on the Pro a couple yrs ago.
I am really glad you made this video very important I needed to to know this before I fill my new tank with corals. I really appreciate it you saved me a lot of frustration and money.
I'm using Frits salt as well and love it glad you were able to catch the issue in time to save your corals! We all learn together.
Greetings from Poland. I find your videos both informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work !
Thanks for the heads up. LFS doesn’t always explain things like that so it helped me not just jump over to “a better salt.” Also, I enjoyed seeing the progress. So many reefers say look for an update but I forget or don’t know if they ever post an update. Thanks.
I'm sure someone has said it or you may have found it yourself but BRS and Tidal Gardens both have very good in depth videos on dosing the 3 major elements and their relationship with each other. The BRS version is more technical vs Tidal gardens that gives more of an overview. Great video as usual. Keep it going.
Thanks for the heads up Arrick!
I had Red Sea coral pro for the longest time and then I finally tested freshsaltwater and my alk was 12 or higher every time. I'm using fritz now and everything is happy
I had the same issue with the coral pro on the nuvo 40
Regular water changes + dosing seems like chasing a moving target no matter what salt you use. Reading the comments is very much deja vu regarding the salt debate that's been going on for decades. It's funny, because Red Sea salt was the hot alternative salt years ago and people in forums compared it favorably to Reef Crystals. Now, it seems that Fritz is becoming the hot alternative salt.
Great looking tank BTW!
Fritz is garbage
Awesome video. Please advise where you found the alk reagent
Great vid! Been using the Coral Pro for a couple months. Might take your approach and start dipping my toes into dosing when I order the next batch of salt.
Cheers!
Glad you were able to figure out the issue.
great video Mok and I am also starting to test Fritz in my reef as well.
Thank you Scott, would love to see your experience with Fritz as well
I've been using the coral pro salt since my tank has been started and noticed that lately my euphyllia hasn't been extending nearly as much. After watching this gonna do a bunch of testing to check everything thanks for making this 👍🏻
Was hard to concentrate because of your super cute dog at the door! Watched the entire video. Was about to start a marine tank but seems like a lot needs to be learned about water chemistry.
Hai 🙂 between redsea coral pro and aquaforest reef salt which is more suitable for soft coral tanks
Great video. I’m just thinking of dosing my 46g. And I’m starting up 160g, just doing the plumbing. And I just switch over to red see. Some good points to think about.
Thank thank you yes I absolutely watched the hole vid and I subscribed to your channel.
Where did you get your siphon? Can you start and stop it mid siphon? I only ask for when you clean your sand and want to make it easier for the sand to fall out of the tube without having to pull the siphon out of the water. Thanks!!!
Hey Mark, mine is just a regular 'ol siphon, no auto start/stop and I have to suck on it to get it started (haha). Whenever I siphon my sand bed, I just dig the nozzle in a bit, stir slightly and lift gently to let the sand fall back down. I would get a minimum of sand sucked up but overall it has worked decently for me!
Hard core reef squad. Nice. I did the same thing changing the salt. Lost a few nice colonies. . Great video
Definitely watched the entire video! Great video as always. Im running kalkwasser in my ATO for now in my tank but you definitely have me wanting to try out a doser. Maybe in the future. Also I will be starting a reef Instagram really soon and possibly a TH-cam channel as well, I'll keep you posted. Ttyl, Thanks for the shout out as well!
Awesome man, please keep me posted on your YT & reef Instagram
Hey buddy, your tank isn't SPS dominant tank. Why is your alk dropping so fast in 2 days?
I also wondered that, it doesn't look like it needed dosing either?
Coral Pro has the levels right on the front of the front of the bucket. Why it’s so important to read the labels of your products, even the salt.
Good job ! Nice looking tank. Can i ask how much kwh the 45gallon tank uses each day or in 1 month. Lights pumps etc. And how much is the upkeep as in water change etc.
I have never checked it's electricity consumption actually... most of the stuff are ran off one outlet, I can see if there is some way to measure this.
Inappropriate Reefer there are super handy things you plug inbetween the wall and aquarium. Tells you how much watt and kwh. If you know all the watt of all the pumps lights etc and the amount of hours that there on you can cunculate it. But thats more work then 5doller for that thing. Wanted to start salt water but. Store told me electic bill is 50euro a month for redseamax 250. Ofc wacht the vid untill the end. Let me know if you know more about kwh
Great idea Daniel, I just ordered one from Amazon. I am a bit afraid to look at the number...
Inappropriate Reefer hah thats so nice i would really like to know ! Plz update me thanks alot
+Daniel stan I got the unit and got some numbers! This next video is for you!
I had the same problem with red sea coral pro and their suppliers. That is very hard to manage such concentrated levels in a small tank. I switch to liveaquaria brand which is similar to Fritz. And back to aquavitro supliments. Levels are way more steady. I think red sea was made for larger systems. Which is weird as a lot of their tanks are AIOs and under 60 gallons. You'd think they'd do something that suited their tanks better.
Great Video!. Welcome to the dosing world.
Excellent video it's always a pleasure to sit down and listen to what you have to say ..... very good info as always 💖💖
Thanks for watching PB!
watched the entire video 👍This learning curve is overwhelming but thanks to guys likes you, fishofhex, milehighreefers, ect ect.....I feel like I'll figure it all out. Im not sure if you put a video out focusing on your dosing setup, (because I'm all over the place trying to learn a lil about everything) but I'll be looking for it.Thanks again for taking the time to do what you do on TH-cam. Hopefully I'll have my tank up and cycling soon enough.
Great analogy with alk, cal, ph and aperture, ISO, and exposure time. Definitely a balancing act with both mediums. BTW, won't dosing alk and Ca compound the problem with the salt mix?
You are absolutely right, with the Fritz salt the levels are lower so I could dose without overshooting. Versus if I stick with RSCP, I would probably not need to dose but have to keep my levels steady some other way.
Glad that your tank is starting to recover!
what salt are you using now?? its the last thing i need before i start. i wanted to go with tropic marin but they look really unreliable with stock... whats the next best clean salt out there ? I am going with a mixed reef
I have a question. The flowerpot coral in our tank isn't blooming like yours, let alone blooms at all. Any advice on regarding the flowerpot please? (And keep up the great work on your channel)
Make sure it is in proper lighting and flow areas! They will also benefit from feedings.
Someone Forsaken not all flowerpots bloom you may just have a variety that doesn't
Of course I watched to the end! Please tell me you are monitoring magnesium as well. Fritz has had some bad shipments with people seeing over 2000 on their magnesium. While elevated Mg isn't immediately harmful it can hurt things over time.
Also, after 11.5 years in the hobby I've learned one important rule: no tank/product is the same. You can't trust each batch of salt to be consistent. You can't trust the dosing methodology of equal parts either. That's a perfect world and we don't live in it. Your tank will uptake certain elements quicker or slower than mine. I always treat Alk, Ca and Mg separately. Test all three routinely and dose accordingly.
Just wanted you to know that I have ordered the 160 we Kessel tuna blue for my 20 hex tank ! I think that should do the trick for my gregorian's in other soft corals in it ! What do you think ? I am going to put a pair of seahorses in it ! Love your videos especially this one I didn't know that either about the trace elements in it and now I know thank you your friend Mike !
That's awesome man! I have been thinking about a seahorse macro algae tank as well but the daily frozen food feeding is keeping me away. Would love to hear your experience once you get it up and running!
Inappropriate Reefer thank you sir I will keep you posted on my new seahorse tank ! just to let you know my green tip bubble anenome has split into two now I had the anemone now for two months now he is about the size of your fist and growing big I will send you a picture of him ! when I get to seahorse tank setup I will send you pictures of it thanks dude keep on reefing !
Hello, do you use other Hanna tests? Thanks for the video, Im glad everything is thriving back!
Just the Alk Checker at the moment; I hear their Ca checker is hit or miss but all the other testers seems top-notch!
Inappropriate Reefer thanks a lot!
I've had similar problems with coral pro. Switched to blue bucket and corals recovered. What I want to know is how do you use coral pro salt properly?
I got confused when you said you weren't going to test water until it stabilizes. How do you know if it's stable if you don't test?
I just made the switch from Red Sea to neo marine salts by brightwell. Interested to see what your review will be on the fritzs salt in the long run.
I always watch to the end, especially since you started including little extra clips. 😁
I use reef crystals specifically because the parameters are on the low end and I can then dose up to where I want my levels. It allows for much better control. I've only been dosing for about 2 years and I'm still learning how to manage it. I also have the jebao dp-4 and it has worked pretty well. I'll be dismantling it next weekend (right now it serves as my ATO for the 29G cube) and recalibrating it to get it set up for the Balling Light method I'm going to use on the RSR XL 425.
Haha, I feel you on the rambling, but I don't mind because it's a great way to express a thought process. And kudos for organizing your space! My dining room has looked like a bomb dropped for the past 18 months and I'm on the verge of getting it back to normal....doesn't it feel good to have it all tidy? 🤗
Feels fantastic on tidying the fish spots! Although we will see how long this lasts, lol! Speaking of calibrating the DP-4, I was told by my friend that if I calibrated it using 100ml per the instruction, each 1ml it doses actually comes out as 2ml?? I haven't had a chance to test it yet (he recommends using a measuring container to measure how much fluid come out each dose), but wondering if you have experienced this?
Btw, very jealous of your Red Sea tank... and I have to google what this Balling Light method is.
Watched till the end.... I usually do. You're always entertaining, and in fact, going through, what I feel I myself am too going through as well.
Looking god man 👍 glad you've hopefully sorted your alk swing issue. Leptoseris dont norm like high light, id be trying to move him from the center of the light and that "goni" im 99% sure is an alveopora, very similar but different. Great vid, btw when did you get you green maze brain in the middle? Have one identical, was thinking the sand might be stunting the growth
Why soda ash instead of sodium bicarbonate? Do you have a ph issue?
I got it about 3 weeks ago, yeah I would love to move it off the sand as well (I think the sand may be covering a little bit of flesh around the rims), I may add a flat piece of rock to put it on. Btw I'm dosing soda ash mainly because that's what the BRS 2-parts starter kit came with... although my pH is low so if it could raise pH that would be a nice bonus.
Be careful with that guy, mine sends out seriously at least 100 sweepers about 4-5inch long. Prob a good idea.. i dont have sand to contend with but i know they are sensitive little buggers! I just fragged mine and the thing turned almost white for a few hours. Yeah soda ash is bicarb baked so it raises ph. Good luck with the dosing pump, make sure you test HEAPS
Test your Mg levels for IO and Reef Crystals. You may be very surprised. Best salt is ESV. I didn’t realize how low the Mg was until I started growing hair algae.
If you have too much light on your frogspawn will it not open fully? Im having an issue with mine not opening fully since i switched my light to the kessil a360
In my experience the frogspawn tends to be more compact if the light is strong (although color would usually look more intense). Could you dial down the light and slowly ramp it up over a few weeks to let your Frogspawn acclimate to the intensity?
Where did you get the refill for the Hanna checker
Check out saltwateraquarium.com!
What kind of power block is that?
This is kinda crazy cuz I'm in the same exact situation as you. Water changes kept messing w my corals and my alk would swing too much. Just took my kalk off line and started dosing. It's been a week and I'm still trying to dial in the dose amount. GL. Watched till the end
I just bought a sebae anemone today. What should I feed it? The only coral food I have is in a liquid form. Is that good enough? Thanks
QuarterBach hey I have one you should feed the anatomy once a week a piece of shrimp or a piece of cut fish that's what I feed mine about every 3 to 5 days a small piece !
I agree with Michael, I think your anemone will appreciate larger pieces of food. If your anemone is healthy, larger chunk, otherwise you can try some frozen mysis first!
Thanks!
QuarterBach you are welcome ! They are meat Eater I have had mine for two months now and it has split into two of them ! just feed it about every three days or so and he will thrive nicely !
So you were dosing on top of using the coral pro salt
Hey man @Inappropriate reefer nice I liked a Lot this video gave an idea how to dose, I've been doing it manually I think I'm ready to go with doser
Did watch the whole video lol Keep an eye on the Iodine iron and potassium as well Red Sea has a colors test kit. These fall short and they are important iodine especially for crustations that molt.
Do you still use rpm?
Using HW salt at the moment, but I have been switching salts pretty frequently
*looking at the doge in the background
Watched it to the end! Luke from Australia saying hi!
What's up my Australian friend!
Good luck with everything 😃 awesome video 👍🏼
Is this a good mix? I wish BRS carried it so I could see how it stands up against the others they have tested! I know my lfs loves it and only carries this brand premixed but way to expensive that way! I have always used IO reef crystals as well and brs says that the alk is supposed to be 13! I am like you I never used to check it when adding especially since my corals are just small frags and dont dose! I have always maintained around 9.5 so not sure why If its 13 like BRS says! It dosnt say on box and I am not going to buy it again so I will have no reference! The reason I am not buying again is because I just tested an unopend bag and came back with 6.2!!! I dont get why! I tested 3 times as well! I have always bought off amazon so maybe thats why! LOL. I did use a different seller this time so I dont know what the heck this stuff is but think I will just trash it! Do you know if it goes bad in a hot humid florida garage unmixed and un opened? I trust your opinion so what brand would you recommend for me in
m y situation?
All this talk of salt mixes and water changes with no mention of SALINITY? The alkalinity of fresh mixed seawater is 100% dependent on your salinity, so it's paramount to talk about it ( I watched the whole thing)
I should have known better after you live stream on Salinity with Rico, lol! I aim for 35 ppt over here and will make sure that is part of the equation in the future!
I swear, i didn’t understand single thing from this video! Barely learning how to cycle saltwater tanks right now to get a pair of clowns and now im here watching this video alllllllllllll the way to the end! Lol tho this video scares me of the things i have to learn if i end up getting corals 🤪
How long did you let the coral pro mix for , I aways let it mix for 24 to 48 hours.
How long have you been using it? I usually use red sea sea salt but they ran out so I'm going to start using coral pro. After watching this I'm freaking abit
@@Au_Aquatica been using for 14 years , don't really need it for a soft coral tank but don't have to dose anything. Kh can be about 12 if you use it to soon but after 24 hours comes down , good salt imo.
I switched over to Red Sea salt from reef crystals. Should I have used the salt you used?
Double check it’s the Blue Bucket 👍 If you are using the Coral Pro, it has very high Alk and unless you are keeping a high Alk tank you may be shocking your tank each time you do a water change. Red Sea blue bucket is what I am using now and it’s Alk is regular level
Inappropriate Reefer ok thanks
Inappropriate Reefer I only used the Red Sea bucket once and will I be ok if I just switch again to the Red Sea blue bucket
Hey Bud. I too switched from RSCP to Fritz. You will like the fritz. I am also dosing with the fritz 2 part and mag. They contain the same elements that the salt mix uses so I'm confident it will maintain stability. I'm currently dosing equal parts of alk and calc. Mag is about 1/5. I watched till the end [I'll be damned ]
Glad to hear you have good experience with Fritz! Actually good idea to go with Fritz brand 2 part as well if I am using their salt already, hmm...
Are u still using fritz salt
I'm looking into a doser myself so I'll take a look at the Jabo
What are your phosphate and nitrates
I didn't realize you were rambling until you mentioned it. HAHA. Where are you getting the Hanna refills?
Check out saltwateraquarium.com, I did not hear too much about them in the past, but recently made a few purchase from them since they seems to have fantastic price on some items plus free shipping.
+1 hardcore reef squad lol... still learning about dosing here also... I use Red Sea Salt (blue bucket) plus dose a fully saturated kalkwasser with no vinegar... What dosing schedule for Mg | KH | Ca thru-out the day did you decide on?
kalkwasser doesn't cause alkalinity swing. It maintains alkalinity. It is really impossible to increase Alkalinity by adding kalkwasser unless youre adding massive amounts. Kalwasser however causes pH swing if you add too much. Your loss of coral tissue is not from Red sea salt, its from rapid change in water chemistry where the coral did not have time to adjust. Also the mixing instructions on Red sea are very specific, less than 2 hours.
Great points, I mentioned using Kalk to increase alk/ca in the video but the initial reason was actually to raise pH (it's sitting around 7.8). I do think the corals really suffered from my increased water change (2-3x 20% a week) with the RSCP salt once I noticed some of the corals looked a little off... which caused the swings you mentioned!
Inappropriate Reefer don't know if it's your case, but I had low pH due to co2 accumulation inside the tank room. Excess co2 was being absorbed into the tank and a window fan was the solution. bumped the pH to 8.1-8.3 without kalk.
Kalk only maintains but doesn't raise alkalinity? I kept adding mixed Kalk in the ATO and in 2 months my alkalinity was 15dKH, of course I wasn't testing until my entire Duncan colony started dropping and LPS corals started looking sad, used red sea and Hannah to test, both confirmed almost 15DKH, I use reef crystals, and carbon dose, nitrates sit around 5 to 15ppm... I was certain the Kalk was raising it. Now I add small amounts of Kalk at a time and it seems to raise it. I'm confused.
So if you where doing weekly water changes vs multiple weekly water changs would you recommend Rea Sea coral Pro ?
You are wrong. Kalk certainly does raise alkalinity. It would also raises calcium. You might not notice it as much if your corals use it up fast but on a tank with few corals it will cause alk spikes.
Well, I starved my frogfish for 2 weeks and tried krill on a string every night with no luck. its stomach was going concave so I just gave it a ghost shrimp. Feeding it frozen is much harder than what it sounds.
I'm getting the same Red Sea salt from the same place you have been, I think. I did a 50 percent change on Projects Starfire and Cubal. Things look better to me, but I don't dose either tank. I'll pay closer attention. Good info!
i watched the entire video!
i've made the mistake of not reading labels too. i used brightwell's kalkwasser (assuming it was calcium and alkalinity), and dosed red sea magnesium. after a few weeks, my mag seems completely out of whack at over 1600ppm. i re-read the kalkwasser, and it was kalkwasser PLUS magnesium, hence the name kalk+2. felt utterly stupid hahaha.
now i'm back to dosing red sea two part while waiting for my mag to slowly drop back down.
thanks for sharing your mistakes, hope it helps the newer reefers out there
Thanks Lawrence, I definitely learned to pay more attention to what I put into my tank from this!
have u seen mixing other brands of salt can bed bad ??
Stop switching salts so quickly lol, go verrrry slow when switching salt. 1-2 gal water change max for a few days/weeks. Im glad it somehow worked when u did the fritz change. It should be equal parts alk calc when ur stable (ofc i watched it all :)
Ok, glad my tank did not get too upset with the quick salt switch... I did 3 day back to back 30% water change with the new salt, I will have to remember to go slow next time!
Hey reefer, I was wondering if you would like to do a review of my salt. Let me know. I would like to help you with the chemistry work.
Hey whats up reefers?
I f*cked up! LoL
...love your videos. Always watch till the end.
Hey man, it could very well be "I leveled up" or something, LOL! Thanks for watching
Red Sea coral pro is awesome stuff.
I switched salts too from RSCP to Instant Ocean. Back to the basics and take it from there. Anyway. What is the name of the mushrooms above the struggling green montipora?
WHERE DID YOU FIND REAGENTS FOR SO CHEAP
Hey if you don't mind me ask, how do you test magnesium?
I use the Salifert testkit for Magnesium
Inappropriate Reefer what about calcium?
Do you also know that freshly made salt water contains 0.5 to 1ppm ammonia? This was also a huge surprise to me.
Where did you find the refill for that cheap?
Check out saltwateraquarium.com
Awesome video
and I notice one really important issue in you tank, I am not a pro, I really am not, but I have experience of clams, I have 2 clams.And...I pretty suggest you should put your beautiful clam away from the block of light and corals, in the Open area which it can get more light as possible. And away from any disturb. And make sure the clam can stay deep in the sand, make sure it can grab on a surface no matter sand or rock, once it attached, it will glow by itself and feed it twice a week with clam food.One of my maxima clam almost die after I do a water change which I totally clean out all the dirt in the sand, I know I shouldn't say it. But since you have a clam in your tank, may be you should not change the water quite often cause they are really sensitive. The need bacteria to survive.
P.s may be I am wrong but this is how my clams stay healthy.
Do you have an RODI unit or do you buy your water?
I have the BRS 4 stage RO/DI unit
hi my asian friend，how often do you do your water change
I just saw this video. Love all your videos btw. First post on your channel. I've been using this salt as well but only my calcium and magnesium have been high since I started weekly 15% WCs. Like high high. Near 1480 mag n 500 calcium. My LFS only stocks this and Instant ocean. I am thinking now the reason is this salt thanks to your vid. Now I cannot dose atm but am thinking of going over to just IO for my reef tank. Never thought it could be the water! Tyvm for this possible option for my issue!!!
Wait you mean the elevated levels of alk in coral pro will give you more alk. What a thought lol
First off, I love your tank! I am new to sw and have been planning my first tank for a couple months now. My original plan was to go with red sea coral pro salt and MAYBE dose kalk only if the salt mix wasn't providing enough. Dosing for sw seems rather complex so far and I figured it might cause more harm than good if I tried it early on. From your experience would you say that it was the combination of the two that caused issues or just the extremely high levels in the red sea salt?
Mochi at the end lol. Looks like everything is well on the road to recovery!
Always watch to the end!!
alkalinity can wreck a tank, as i found out. I've been thinking about switching to fritz also. i saw that you log your levels in a note book. if you're a bit of a "techie" id recommend the Aquarimate app. its awesome, i love it. you can track multiple tanks and all the live stock. it also graphs your levels so you have a visual indicator as well. good luck man!
Just purchased the app. Thanks for the tip!