Hello,
I have read your forum for a while and it has been helpful in answering alot of questions along my voyage with my tank. Thank you for doing all this. Now I am at a point where I joined reefs.org because I have issues that I am not finding answers to, and thought I would post it for your help.
I have a 75 gallon reef tank with a 30 gallon sump. I have 121 pounds of live rock (added slowly over the course of 2 1/2 years-that is how long my tank has been up). I recently (3 weeks ago) changed out a crappy protein skimmer that came with the sump for a 180 gallon rating needle wheel octupus, which is starting to work great. I also just upgraded my lighting to halides and t5's-which I am loving. When I first set up my tank, I did not know what I was doing and I used my well water to fill it up and then about a year and a half ago I finally understood my mistake and have been using RO/distilled water for changes (about 15% a month) since that time. I had crazy hair algae (and others) blooms for a long time, but finally have that under control and things are looking good.
Since I have my new light and skimmer, I am going to start adding more expense critters from my tank. But before I start going out buying the good stuff, I need some help. My calicium hardness is really high (yesterday was at 150), last week was at 130-so it went up after a 10% water change. My pH has been consistently at 8.5 for almost a year, but seems high to me. My calcium keeps going up even over the last 3 months with out any supplements (I have a 5-6 inch sand bed that includes crushed coral and I have lot's of shells from oysters, etc.. in my sump) and my alk. is hovering around 3 meq/L with the help of some supplement (using reef builder powder). Everything else tests out perfect accept my phosphate. My phosphate levels use to hover at an extraordinary 5, but have got it down with water changes, phosphate removes, and finally used phosbuster to drop it dramatically, but the level remains at .5.
Need some help figuring out this equation. Should I be concerned with what is happening or is it ok? I want to be able to get whatever I want (generally) for the tank and do not want the chemistry to wipe it out. I have lot's and lot's of little tiny critters (amphipods, etc..) everywhere, including my sump, so life seems plentiful. Wondering if anyone had any thougths...
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
I have read your forum for a while and it has been helpful in answering alot of questions along my voyage with my tank. Thank you for doing all this. Now I am at a point where I joined reefs.org because I have issues that I am not finding answers to, and thought I would post it for your help.
I have a 75 gallon reef tank with a 30 gallon sump. I have 121 pounds of live rock (added slowly over the course of 2 1/2 years-that is how long my tank has been up). I recently (3 weeks ago) changed out a crappy protein skimmer that came with the sump for a 180 gallon rating needle wheel octupus, which is starting to work great. I also just upgraded my lighting to halides and t5's-which I am loving. When I first set up my tank, I did not know what I was doing and I used my well water to fill it up and then about a year and a half ago I finally understood my mistake and have been using RO/distilled water for changes (about 15% a month) since that time. I had crazy hair algae (and others) blooms for a long time, but finally have that under control and things are looking good.
Since I have my new light and skimmer, I am going to start adding more expense critters from my tank. But before I start going out buying the good stuff, I need some help. My calicium hardness is really high (yesterday was at 150), last week was at 130-so it went up after a 10% water change. My pH has been consistently at 8.5 for almost a year, but seems high to me. My calcium keeps going up even over the last 3 months with out any supplements (I have a 5-6 inch sand bed that includes crushed coral and I have lot's of shells from oysters, etc.. in my sump) and my alk. is hovering around 3 meq/L with the help of some supplement (using reef builder powder). Everything else tests out perfect accept my phosphate. My phosphate levels use to hover at an extraordinary 5, but have got it down with water changes, phosphate removes, and finally used phosbuster to drop it dramatically, but the level remains at .5.
Need some help figuring out this equation. Should I be concerned with what is happening or is it ok? I want to be able to get whatever I want (generally) for the tank and do not want the chemistry to wipe it out. I have lot's and lot's of little tiny critters (amphipods, etc..) everywhere, including my sump, so life seems plentiful. Wondering if anyone had any thougths...
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
