- Tired of debating reef tank chemistry?
Just want a solution that will not just work,
but proven itself to produce some of the highest percentage
past to that dream tank?
The BRStv, Master Reef Tank Chemistry series is it,
and all that's coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hey, this is Ryan with BRStv.
This week, the BRStv chemistry quick guide,
that first episode in our master reef tank
chemistry mini series.
The next few minutes, clear guidance
on how to get major, minor, trace elements,
PH, temperature, salinity, and pollutants, all solved.
Today, the straightforward how to get it done right,
following in episodes in future weeks,
the why or in depth look at the supporting science,
data and experiences for more complete understanding,
everything the BRS team and I have learned
on reef tank chemistry,
part of that growing list of Master Your Reef Tank series,
found on the BRS channel page.
The biggest challenge most of us reefers run into
at some point is that perception
that good is the enemy of great,
and resulting endless debate or pursuit of perfection,
when most of us are just looking for a clear, concise path
that produces an awesome tank.
The BRS quick guide's applying the 80/20 rule
with the right approach and information,
you can achieve 80% of the results
with just 20% of the effort.
That baseline of knowledge
that will produce a successful reef tank.
Reef tank chemistry covers a lot of topics
but in reefing, looks at how to produce high quality water,
maintain that standard of quality in an environment
where corals are constantly removing elements
and we're dumping in pollutants daily,
all combined with temperature
and environmental factors like pH.
Sounds like a lot to juggle, but it isn't.
Getting straight to it,
we recommend the following chemistry parameters,
a salinity of 35 parts per thousand,
pH is 7.8 to 8.3,
temperature 78, calcium of 440,
alkalinity 9dKH and magnesium at 1350.
Using trace element solutions that are difficult to mess up
and pollutant removal via proactive approach
that avoids issues rather than treats them after the fact.
Get this right and water chemistry will never be your issue.
Starting with the foundation of all this,
salinity, because lower or higher salinity
will affect the concentration of nearly every element
in the tank.
Salinity being off by just 10%,
the difference of over 40 points of calcium,
or a full dKH too high or low.
The best guidance is, mix the salt to the suggested level
on the bucket that you picked up
because all of the elements in the bucket
are formulated by the manufacturer to that level.
Most often it will be 1.026 specific gravity
or 35 parts per thousand, something you can check
with a handheld or digital refractometer.
We recommend synthetic salts like HW Reefer and Tropic Marin
because they're cleaner salts.
HW being the more affordable of the two,
and probably the highest value because of that.
Tropic Marin, the high end option, a bit more expensive
but using pharmaceutical grade salts,
and of all the salts we tested, mixes the fastest,
keeps the storage equipment the cleanest,
and has the most stable chemistry in long term storage,
for those who like to mix up
a month's worth of saltwater at a time.
Since the chemistry or quality of the water
will never be better than what you start with,
we also recommend RODI water as a source of freshwater
for mixing up that saltwater
or topping off to replace evaporation.
A BRS five stage unit with dual universal carbon blocks,
being the 80/20 of the RODI world
and meeting the needs of 80% of the reefers
but also upgradable if you ever run into a unique scenario
where there's some added value
from adding additional stages.
Making RODI water at home,
just being the red line screwed onto your sink,
laundry tub, or cold water line,
black line down the drain or attached to it.
And the blue line will produce your RODI water,
going straight to a reef storage bin.
Most commonly, it's just a Rubbermaid Brute trashcan.
I'd recommend getting a container
that's about 40% of the size of your tank,
so you can mix up a month's worth of water at a time
if you like.
The container should have some sort of pump in it
to mix the salt.
I suggest a Hydor Koralia and with most salts,
we find that eight to 24 hours being the best mixing length.
If you end up following our 10% weekly water change guidance
there's no need to heat it.
But I would heat it for 24 hours beforehand,
if you're doing larger percentage water changes.
Eheim making an inexpensive heater option, if you need it.
The tank will also evaporate water
and will need to be topped off with freshwater.
As that freshwater evaporates, the tank salinity will go up,
so you do need to periodically top off the tank
with freshwater to maintain stable chemistry.
Most reefers will eventually automate that task
with an auto top off.
The JBJ A.T.O. being the most common entry level option.
The Tunze Osmolator being by far
the most trusted and popular option
and what I use in all my own tanks.
Next is replacing elements like
calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium
that the corals and other organisms in the tank consume.
Nearly every reef tank manages this with one-part,
like Kalkwasser or calcium formate,
which manages calcium and alkalinity with a single liquid.
Two to seven parts, which manage these elements
with separate bottles, or a calcium reactor,
which is a piece of equipment
which adds calcium and alkalinity for you.
All of these have specialized uses,
where one can be considered best,
but that all depends on things specific to you
like budget, space, tank size, coral types,
and approach to water changes and other equipment choices.
However, in the spirit of
a productive quick guide conversation,
I got one sentence on what I like about each option,
what I don't like, and who I'd recommend each to.
Starting with Kalkwasser.
Kalkwasser or calcium hydroxide is the lowest cost option
for most reefers,
raises the tank's pH significantly,
doesn't raise salinity, it's inherently balanced.
A one-part additive, which is super easy to use
in either auto top off, or even better,
with a reactor and dosing pump for controlled doses.
Downsides the kalk are the risk
of equipment failure related overdoses,
which can cause high pH tank crashes,
no minor or trace elements, concentration in solutions,
less predictable or stable than other options.
Calcium and alkalinity solution is diluted
so you have to have a larger dosing vessel reactor
and the amount you can dose is limited
by the amount that your tank evaporates in a day.
With those considerations in mind,
I recommend Kalkwasswer to anyone,
whose major goal is raising the pH of the tank,
also willing to use a pH controller to protect the tank,
and wants to maintain a tank ranging from a softy LPS
or mixed reef with SPS,
Kalkwasser will take you a lot further
than most people think.
Next, calcium formate, most commonly
Tropic Marin's carbocalcium or All-For-Reef.
Benefits here are one-parts solution
that adds calcium, alkalinity,
and optionally 17 trace elements concentrated
so the dosing vessel can be small, can be dosed by hand,
or the single dosing pump doesn't raise salinity
and doesn't have any pH related risks.
Downside is calcium formate doesn't elevate the pH
like many options.
Testing alkalinity is somewhat delayed
because it can take up to a day or so
for the formate to transform into carbon alkalinity
in the tank.
In theory, there's a maximum dose,
but the biggest downside is reefers
have only been using it for a few years
so there's still some unknowns as to exactly how it works.
As to who I'd recommend it to,
I've been using it on my softy and polyp tank
as well as my LPS tank for a couple years
and Zach on his mixed SPR reef for even longer,
and both of us are very happy.
I've got a feeling that calcium formate,
carbocalcium and All-For-Reef might be one of
the most popular options as the user base expands.
However the best results will be with the people
who are willing to do a bit of research on how it works,
our upcoming master formate video will be more than adequate
but also with reefers who are okay with a risk
associated with being a trailblazer, which in this case,
I actually feel are fairly limited.
Next is a calcium reactor.
This is a fairly large piece of equipment
that melts calcium carbonate, or actually in some cases
old coral skeleton into a solution for the tank,
essentially a one-part machine.
Benefits are no change to salinity,
does dose some other elements
other than just calcium and alkalinity,
scales to basically any tank size demand,
many reefers find them to be the lowest maintenance
option of the bunch, and of course,
a clear winner in the cool factor category as well.
Downside is a calcium reactor can lower
the tank's pH a bit, the media can add a small amount
of phosphate to the tank,
some people feel that they're complex
but really they only require watching
a 30 minutes or so video in how to set it up and tune it,
rest is just managing a dose like any other method
which is pretty easy.
The biggest downside is the cool factor
actually comes at a cost.
The up front equipment makes it not the cheapest
option out there.
But the ongoing maintenance is actually
one of the lower cost options and why they're popular
on bigger tanks.
So who's the calcium reactor best suited for?
This one's pretty easy.
Anyone with a large high consumption tank
will save money in the end
and then avoid salinity issues from the other options
which can also sustain a high consumption tank,
and then technology junkies, where learning about the tank
science and cool gear is a major component of the hobby.
Next up are the two-parts which can really be three,
four, or even seven parts in total,
but two-part just meaning the calcium and alkalinity portion
being two separate bottles.
Spoiler here, this is the one
we're going to recommend today.
Benefits include many raise the tanks pH,
the calcium and alkalinity can be dosed independently
and adjust for subtle differences in uptake.
Many include all the beneficial major, minor,
and trace elements.
The solution is fairly concentrated,
one of the easiest to understand, hardest to mess up.
Accumulated tank crashes are super rare,
the available dosing calculators are super easy to use.
Additions can be tested in real time,
can be dosed by hand or with dosing pumps,
and the up front cost is fairly low.
Two-part downsides, high end options are actually
the most expensive way to manage these elements.
They slowly increase salinity over time.
There's so many options out there it's difficult
to know what to use.
True two-parts are really simple, but the more bottles
you get, the more complex the dosing and testing gets,
and automation requires multiple dosing pumps.
This is why I believe two-part to be the 80/20 answer
to managing element uptake and replenishment.
While the others have caveats and best uses,
two-parts are the universal additive that work well
in at least 80% of the tank sizes uptakes
and styles of reefing.
It's easy to understand, implement, and adjust,
and also has very affordable options.
Affordable, works, and easy to use is like
the recommendation trifecta.
Likely two-part is by far the most popular option,
and BRS Pharma being the most popular option here
because the pharmaceutical quality and bulk prices
are impossible to beat.
The BRS WWC hybrid tank in my office,
a good example of what Bulk Pharma 2-Part can do
in just 12 months, going from one inch frags to this
in just over a year in a simple sumpless system.
In the following master chemistry episodes,
expect to see full run downs and supporting science
of all of these methods and their approach
to major, minor, and trace elements.
Next up is pH.
Our recommendation on this is
if you have a pH of 7.8 to 8.3, leave it alone.
Decades of reefers have produced amazing reefs
in that range.
Too many reefers have catastrophically messed up
the chemistry chasing specific pH ranges
to suggest otherwise.
However, we're talking about mastering chemistry here,
so it is true that maintaining a stable pH closer to 8.3
has benefits so I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear
later episodes in this series will dive deep into pH
and show some methods of getting as much as 50% more growth
by maintaining a specific pH.
Next, temperature.
Temperature plays some pretty complex roles
in reef chemistry but the four things you absolutely
need to know is 78 degrees is the most common range.
If you stay within a degree of that temperature,
it will not be an issue for you.
Second, going over 78 or too high is 10 worse than too low.
Most otherwise healthy tanks with adequate flow
will tolerate short periods of a few degrees over 78,
like 83, for a matter of hours,
but after that, the odds of a rapid tank crash
go up proportionately or even exponentially.
In stark contrast to that, too cold happens very slow.
The tank most often stabilizes a few degrees
above room temperature at 73 or so.
And rather than tank crash, you'll see things
go slowly south over a matter of days, even weeks,
rather than a total crash in a matter of hours.
Third, an aquarium heater is a consumable piece of equipment
that has a limited duty cycle and a lifespan,
has an inexpensive thermostat that turns on millions
of times a year and getting stuck on is a number one
cause of tank crashes.
Because this is a number one cause of total failure
and starting over,
if you only hear one thing today, let it be this.
Waiting for your heater to hit end of life and completely
fail on or off in hopes that you'll catch it in time
is the absolute wrong mentality to have here
and almost ensures a tank crash at some point.
So replacing the heaters before they approach
the end of life is an obvious move.
Replacing it every 12 months will likely avoid
experiencing a heater failure for 80% or more of you.
Alternatively, using technology like a temperature
or full tank controller to instantly catch it
will also reduce it by 80% or more,
probably higher in the beginning,
but reducing that percentage as the controller
and heater age together.
So in a five year time frame, I'm not convinced
that the approach of preempting it or replacing it
before it fails versus the technology behind
catching it the moment it fails
is consistently cheaper or better than the other.
However, together they nearly eliminate the number one
cause of tank crashes, failed heaters,
from the list of things to think about.
I obviously believe in doing both.
Replace the heaters and use a controller
as budget allows for both.
Next component of ideal chemistry is water quality
and managing pollutants.
Pollutants can come from a wide range of sources,
basically anything we put in the tank
intentionally or unintentionally, foods,
low quality additives, salt mixes, media,
sources of freshwater, affects of which happen slowly
and over many months as they build up,
as well as more immediate issues like aerosols used
near the tank, anything on your hands
when they go in the tank, broken or failing equipment,
or pennies that our kids might drop in the tank.
There are two approaches to this, reactive or proactive.
Reactive meaning wait until your fish or coral look sick
then trying to figure out what it is that's doing it.
This requires a keen eye and the type of first-hand
experience that produces intuitively accurate guesses.
Proactive meaning avoiding a vast majority of this
by just assuming some or all of this will happen
in your tank over time which is very likely,
an RODI system for your freshwater source,
decent salt mix and additive system with minimal impurities,
running a small amount of activated carbon
for unintended chemicals and yellowing compounds,
skimmer and filter socks to avoid excess buildup
of phosphate and nitrate, and lastly,
10% weekly water changes limiting the impact
or slow buildup of all kinds of missteps.
This proactive approach and these specific steps
are absolutely the 80/20 of avoiding the buildup
of pollutants in your tank and avoiding a vast majority
of challenges altogether which is a hundred times better
and more effective than trying to guess at them
when the corals or fish are already showing
signs of distress.
The scope of pollutants is pretty large
and worthy of its own episode so it's going to get one,
a deep dive into each of these topics,
the supporting science and why's starting with
the finer details of all the common sources of pollutants.
That, and all of our Master Reef Tank series
on our BRStv channel home page right here,
decades of hard lessons, experience, and research
all in one page.