- Today in the five minute saltwater aquarium guide
is tank chemistry time.
Chemistry, calcium, and alkalinity levels all sound scary,
but once you understand it and do it right,
it's just another thing that makes reefing so cool.
All that's coming up.
(drumming music)
Hey, I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv
and the five minute saltwater aquarium guide.
This is a clear, simplified, and direct path
to setting up a successful first reef tank.
It's time to talk calcium and alkalinity.
The challenge here is many of the corals in the tank
pull calcium and alkalinity out of the water
to build their skeletal structure and grow.
As they do that, the levels in the tank
slowly drop over time.
However if you have a lot of coral,
or the corals get really big, it can actually happen faster.
But in either case, we need to replace it.
If you replace that calcium and alkalinity as it's needed,
the corals will grow fast.
If they don't, they'll grow slow and struggle.
It's really not any more complex than that.
It's another area where there's a handful of ways
to replace it, but we're going to show you by far
the single most popular way, which is two part.
Two part is just one jug of calcium,
and one of alkalinity.
You can use any brand you want and get similar results,
particularly with a tank like these two.
For today we're gonna use BRS bulk Pharma 2-part,
mostly because it's the most popular one we offer,
but it's probably the most popular because
it's the cheapest pharmaceutical grade material,
it's just higher grade than others,
and we provide a calculator
which makes it super easy to use.
BRS Pharma comes in a dry form and you just measure it out
and add purified water to make a gallon of solution.
There's also single use pouches that are pre-measured.
Once it's mixed up in a tank like this,
a gallon will probably last months.
You'll start by testing calcium and alkalinity
every week or two, and where you'll really get to see
how this all works.
Something that you can measure with a kit,
but actually watch the results of how the corals thrive.
These tests take maybe two to three minutes.
When the calcium drops,
pour in the appropriate amount of calcium.
When the alkalinity drops,
pour in the appropriate amount of alkalinity.
There's a calculator on the Bulk Reef site,
which will tell you exactly how much to use.
The calculator works like this.
Choose calcium, liquid calcium chloride, new Pharma Pouch,
and then how big your tank is, say 100 gallons.
The current calcium level you got from testing your tank,
let's say it was 400, and then your desired level,
which in many cases is around 420 parts per million.
And then it says you need 204 milliliters
to correct your tank.
You can dose that 204 milliliters, and if you want,
test again in 10 minutes and it'll be spot on,
at least within the accuracy window of your test kit.
The calculator process is almost identical for alkalinity.
Reefers have their favorite
calcium and alkalinity levels to maintain.
But for new reefers, I find slightly higher is better
because it gives some cushion for a learning curve.
Calcium about 440, and a alkalinity of 9dKH
is a good, safe target.
In the beginning with just a few corals,
you can probably get away with testing every other week,
but once a week would probably be better
just until you get the hang of things.
If you're wondering if one of these two is more important,
alkalinity is, just because
there's a lot less of it in the water.
So alkalinity weekly, and calcium every other week,
might be a solid compromise.
For calcium, I believe the Red Sea test kit
to be the best option.
For alkalinity I believe the best test kit is Salifert.
It's also one of the lowest cost options,
but this is an area where a reasonable investment
in the Hanna dKH Checker gets you a kit
that can be done in less than a minute
and produces a digital readout.
Almost every reefer I know eventually picks up
a Hanna dKH Checker for their tanks,
and their tanks are better for it,
because easy means you actually do it.
Eventually as you pack the tank with corals
and they grow bigger,
you'll find yourself dosing more frequently,
and eventually it's worthwhile to pick up
a couple dosing pumps to completely automate
the dosing process for you.
In fact a lot of reefers will do this day one,
just because it simplifies the entire process.
More or less, test alkalinity today,
and then test it again at the same time tomorrow.
The levels will have dropped a bit.
Use that correction dose from the BRS calculator.
That's now your daily dose, and what you'll set
your dosing pumps to dose for you every day automatically.
In this case, the dose for calcium and alkalinity
should actually be the same for each doser.
Wait a few days and test again.
If the levels dropped, increase the daily dose a bit.
But if they're rising, decrease it just a bit.
It normally takes two or three tweaks
before it's dialed in and automated.
Implementing automatic tools like this,
it solves legit challenges and makes processes easier,
hits that gear junkie in most of us,
and probably one of my favorite parts of reefing.
So this is how calcium and alkalinity
translates into a thriving tank.
If you wanna know even more details,
including the introduction to magnesium,
we have a whole slew of videos on the topic,
but this should get you started.
The next component here is dealing with evaporation.
This is one of those things where
unless somebody told you the right way to do it,
99% of reefers I know get this wrong,
but there's one simple fix.
As always, the entire five minute guide is right here,
but if you wanna know the right way
to deal with tank evaporation,
that's all coming up right here.