Water Chemistry

Lately I noticed I have been having a Nitrate and Phosphate issue in my tank, so I started looking into dosing Vodka to try and help out with this problem. In doing more research I came across an article called VSV dosing which stands for Vodka Sugar Vinegar. The purpose behind this method over just vodka dosing is to create a more diverse bacterial growth vs a Mono based growth with just Vodka. I have read up on both and they both have the pluses and minuses. I think that there was someone on this ...

Does anyone know how much I need to use to raise the Ca in a 50 Gal system by 50ppm? The directions on the bottle only say to use up to 5ml per 50 gal per day, but don't say what the result is.

I started paying much closer attention to my tank parameters since I added an SPS a few weeks back. It's doing well and showing noticable growth. But my kalk top off isn't keeping up with Calcium demand since I started dosing baking soda to keep my Alk up at 8.0 or higher. I'll ...

Hi,

I just started with this fantastic Hobby, I got an 90 Gal Tank with a 30 Gal sump, i use dry/wet, I have 20 Lbs of live rock, and 6 fishes ... This tank is 5 month old, Ammonia, Nitrites, are 0 ppm, Ph 8.2,, but nitrates are some time 20 ppm or 40 ppm.... i do 15% water change every 2 o 3 week... I feed them 1 once a day, and i make sure the eat every thing and try not to over feed...

any hint on how to have better control of nitrates?

Saludos,

LOL! I hate that it happened, because it is such a mess, but I am pretty sure that is what happened to my tank last night. I went home yesterday at lunch, and introduced my Berghia nudis to the tank. Since they were new to the surroundings, I turned all the lights off. So, anyway, I get home at like 8 last night, and turn on the lights, and it was a total white out. I freaked, and started to frantically open cabinet doors, turn off pumps, etc. SO, all of the sudden, I see that ...

The fed ex guy came to my door today. (yay company!) And brought me this nice little brown box from Melev's Reef. I got new filters for my RO/DI unit I purchased from http://www.melevsreef.com/rodi.html in August of 2008. Since I don't have a tank right now, the unit is residing underneath my kitchen sink and provides me with RO drinking water. I kid you not that I get compliments on my water when guests try it. "What kind of water is this, it tastes really good." So that's just a side benefit ...