Sandbed ?

[gaspusher]

I have upgraded my 29g set up to a 50g 2 wks ago. I transfered a small amount of my crushed coral and mixed some new arogonite to the new tank, making it 1/2" thick throughout. When I do my water changes do I need to siphon this bed? I siphoned my 29g because it was about 1.5-2" thick throughout. This bed is for looks not for any bio purposes. Also, does anyone buffer their ro water prior to adding to tank and how much water in gallons should I change? I plan on doing reg changes every other week

Thank you

Steve

[David Grigor]

Yes, I would siphon the substrate with every water change. The more gunk/detritus you can remove before getting broken down the better.

When replace evaporation for RO water. No buffers etc. should be needed.

Np reconstituting type buffers need to be added if that's what your referring to when mixing salt water. Most salts are designed to be mixed with RO/DI water.

However, for me when mixing fresh saltwater, I do add some magnesium and Ca additives to my freshly mixed salt water to bring them up to the levels that I maintain in the main system. I use IO and/or ReefCrystals. Both of which need additives to get to the levels I like them to be. ALK typically doesn't need adjusted as usually tests out at or near 10dkh.

% per water change is totally up to you. General consensus is usually 10-20% but nothing set in stone and could even be 50% or more as long as your newly mixed water matches pretty closely in temp,PH,CA,ALK,Mg as your show tank.

[gaspusher]

Okay, I am currently mixing up a batch of ro water for my biweekly change. I am using reefcrystals and the pH was about 8, so i added kent buffer to the mix because my show tank is 8.3 and now my water is cloudy. i have powerheads for circulation. does any one know what the problem could be? Will this settle? I have not rechecked my pH becuase it hasn't been 24hrs yet.

[David Grigor]

Never, never, never, never, never, never use PH buffers/adjusters. These are only temporary and make your ALK readings go sky high way out of whack with your CA. If too far out of whack with CA then you can precipitate CA which is likely what your seeing.

Providing your ALK levels are at or above SW levels, PH is going to be limited by the amount of Co2 in the system which typically is near equilibrium with the CO2 levels in your home. Attempting to adjust with a PH adjuster isn't going to solve that and only going to make havoc with your ALK levels.......