switching salt question.

[Leandre]

At the moment im using red sea coral pro, the tank is was setup the beginning of aug. total water volume is about 250g lightly stocked i would say

6 chromis
2 black ice snowfalkes
1 yellow tank
1 cleaner wrasse
2 urchins
2 sand sifting stars
2 cleaner shrimp
1 red fire shrimp.
CUC consisting of nassarius, trochus and hermits.

about 20 sps frags,
2 nems
handful of softs and a few chalices.

ive recently bought some aquaforest salt and wanting to switch over. how much water should i be changing each time and how long per change. 10g every 3 days?

 

[mr_tap_water]

Hi there
On my own experience and my own opinion I will take it slowly say one water change a week as the stats on the red sea are quite high so slowly is the key also keep testing your stats To make sure they don't drop to quickly and you shouldn't have a problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

I second, take it slow. If you make too many water changes at once you will disturb the ecosystem and might cause a crash

 

[solitude127]

If it were me, I would do it over 4 or 5 water changes and increase/decrease the amount 20% of each salt.

 

[Leandre]

Thanks for the input guys. So 10% weekly is the consensus. Which is a normsl change lol

 

[reefes pieces]

question. was there something about the RSCP you weren't happy with? Just take your time real slowly and if you see your corals react negatively then slowly go back to RSCP. Those two salts kinda do go at opposite ends of the spectrum for parameters. Also, do you have a CArx or dose? Another salt that's like RSCP is DnD if you wanna try something different but like the high alk.

 

[BeanMachine]

If it were me, I would do it over 4 or 5 water changes and increase/decrease the amount 20% of each salt.

This is what I would do as well. Use both salts until you eliminate the red sea.

 

[Leandre]

nothing inherently wrong with RSCP, just a friend buys salt for me, he switched over to AF and wondered if i wanted to do the same, sold me on the potential benefits and since my tank is relatively new though now would be a good time to do before the tank gets filled more. its more expensive then RSCP, but at this point whats another $20? if it does help the corals grow better, then money well spent. im getting a new nem next week, should i wait till the nem is used to the current water or start changing now?

 

[BeanMachine]

If its not broke, don't fix it.

 

[Zoarder]

If its not broke, don't fix it.

What he said, some salts work better in certain systems, some don't. I would leave it alone and save those $20.
P.S. don't follow the trends...

Good luck!

 

[BeanMachine]

What he said, some salts work better in certain systems, some don't. I would leave it alone and save those $20.
P.S. don't follow the trends...

Good luck!

Yep. A lot of people jumping on bandwagon salts to be honest.

 

[innerspark]

What he said, some salts work better in certain systems, some don't. I would leave it alone and save those $20.
P.S. don't follow the trends...

Good luck!

Agree to all of this. My tank does better when I don't fuss with it and leave it alone.

 

[reefes pieces]

What are your current tank parameters? especially No3 and Po4. RSCP and other high alk salts tend to work very well with nutrient richer systems and have adverse affects on nutrient poor or Ultra Low Nutrient Systems. And salts like AF can make corals look dull and not have as positive impact in terms of growth in nutrient richer systems. If you're seeing good colors and good growth right now, then you should probably stick with RSCP until your parameters start to change or your corals show negative or plateau'd reaction

nothing inherently wrong with RSCP, just a friend buys salt for me, he switched over to AF and wondered if i wanted to do the same, sold me on the potential benefits and since my tank is relatively new though now would be a good time to do before the tank gets filled more. its more expensive then RSCP, but at this point whats another $20? if it does help the corals grow better, then money well spent. im getting a new nem next week, should i wait till the nem is used to the current water or start changing now?

 

[innerspark]

I personally use RSCP and have for years and have never had any issues with it. Yea there are times I wish my salt was cheaper but this works for me.

 

[Leandre]

these are the params from last test (last friday)

SG: 1.026 (test daily)
cal: 450 (red sea)
alk: 8.4Dkh (hanna)
nitrites: <0.05ppm (nyos)
phosphate: 0.00 (hanna)
Mag: 1500 (red sea)
PH: 8.1-8.3 (apex)

i have carbon, Rowaphos and drip 2g with 4 tsp of kalk in the tank daily. running a cheato reactor with a large SSA reactor and a 40b refugium with 2"sand, rock and xenia's inside.
upcoming black friday im getting a DOS with ESV b-ionic

thing is ive already bought the 3 buckets of aquaforest and not enough RSCP left for a full water change, so whats left over from the RSCP ive been using in the QT.
its less RSCP isnt working for me, i just seem to like this one better and want to switch.

 

[reefes pieces]

Well ur dkh is fine for the transition but glad ur getting a doser cuz you'll need to keep alk from dropping too low. Just treat the water changes normal like you already do but with AF salt and keep an eye on ur alk consumption.

these are the params from last test (last friday)

SG: 1.026 (test daily)
cal: 450 (red sea)
alk: 8.4Dkh (hanna)
nitrites: <0.05ppm (nyos)
phosphate: 0.00 (hanna)
Mag: 1500 (red sea)
PH: 8.1-8.3 (apex)

i have carbon, Rowaphos and drip 2g with 4 tsp of kalk in the tank daily.
upcoming black friday im getting a DOS with ESV b-ionic

thing is ive already bought the 3 buckets of aquaforest and not enough RSCP left for a full water change, so whats left over from the RSCP ive been using in the QT.
its less RSCP isnt working for me, i just seem to like this one better and want to switch.

 

[Leandre]

Thanks for the input. I'm gonna see if friend has any more RSCP and do 1 more wc with it, leave the AF till I have a doser. Of you think I'll be ok to do it now?

 

[Leandre]

with RSCP already having elevated alk and dosing kalk, my tank being 8.4, that means my tank has a large alk consumption? i currently do about 15% WC every 2 weeks or so, sometimes 3 weeks. so switching over at 10% wc shouldn't drop the alk too much right?

 

[innerspark]

Another thing to think about is if you do a 10% water change once a week it will take roughly 24 months to fully remove all water and replace it with the new salt water.

 

[Leandre]

Another thing to think about is if you do a 10% water change once a week it will take roughly 24 months to fully remove all water and replace it with the new salt water.

wow....hmm...ok 10% wc till i get doser then starting larger wc like 20% weekly and more frequent testing to keep params in check. at first i was thinking like 10g every other day. but scared it might be too fast