Chemicals
 

As a starting out reefer I have a question
What chemicals should I have on hand at my house at all times?

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC). Even if you are not using it regular, it's nice to have it on hand in case of emergency.
Of course there are ton of other chemicals you will need when you go along. Start reading the forums and you will know what you need.

salt :-)

:rolleyes:

In my opinion all of those fancy bottles of "Strontium" and "Coral Snow" and "Zooplex" are a useless money grab (At least for a few of them). A successful reef needs good water changes, a proper nitrate sink, good light, flow and above all else STABILITY.

So for things always on hand Salt, RO water and Carbon.
Levi

I don't fully agree with zoaElite... Depending on what you want to keep, will depend on what you need. Usually SPS will need at least some additional supplements, that salt just can't keep up with, even the expensive salt.

I would research what you need, depending on what you decide, will also decide what type of light you need. Let us know what some of your decisions are and then we can maybe add our 2 cents worth for you.

Personally I am one of those guys that use the Zeo products with the new NP BioPellets and all I can say is they do work. Others may disagree, but these decisions are yours to make and no one elses.

Have fun!

I will be keeping alot of Soft Corels and I am using a T5HO Nova Extreme 6 bulb light. I am also using a 30 gallon sump

Hey Scar,

For soft corals, you should be fine and really not needing anything else but good water changes, using a salt like Instant Ocean or H2O. Also the lights should be great.

Just have the necessary test kits avalaible to make sure of the following:

- Calcium - 400-450
- DKH - 9-11
- Nitrates - of course as low as possible
- Ammonia - again, as low as possible
- Use a refractometer for measuring your salt - 1.023 - 1.026
- Temp - 78-80 F

I hope this helps

Re: Chemicals
 

There are lots of people who use these additives in their reef with great success and there are lots of people who do not use these additives in their reefs with great success :-). Thus you will get opinions from both sides.

Only you can decide what camp you want to join. Team Jacob or team Edward? :-)

If you are just starting out I personally would not even think about these additives yet. Start with the basics, salt and water. That's all the fish really need. When you are ready for corals then evaluate their needs on a species by species basis as they are all very different in their requirments.

Every home has water, so to answer your original question the only thing you really need to stock up on at the moment is salt :-D

This might be a stupid question but as a new reefer myself, I have purchased all them fancy bottles of chemicals needed in reef keeping. My concern is that won't the protein skimmer and carbon just remove most of the chemicals anyways before the corals can absorb them???

Do you guys keep the protein skimmer and canister filters running when you dose your tanks?

BTW: Thanks kien for the Calcium and Alk tutorials! Love the threads!

I slightly disagree with you brother.....I think if we all payed a little closer attention to the big three (Ca, Mg and DKH) sooner in the tanks life, the tank will mature and settle in alot better...If the tank is cycling and brand new, ya, dont worry to much about it......but when you start adding corals, pick up those test kits and get used to the idea of testing and dosing...its gonna happen sooner or later so you might as well embrace and encourage the monitoring and adjusting of those parameters:wink:

Yes, your skimmer will skim out some of these products.....exactly why you need to add them:biggrin:.....my skimmer runs 24/7 regardless of when I dose.....

Yes, I think we can probably both agree to disagree here :-) I don't think that it will always happen. There are lots of people that are perfectly happy with their saltwater fish tank with a few softies. I for one would not subject a newbie to reef chemistry 101. You pile all of that up with everything else and it can seem quite daunting and possibly discouraging.. when all they really want is to keep a few saltwater fish and some softies maybe? :biggrin: I'm not suggesting that we don't need to teach/learn it but maybe not on day 1/ground zero.