alk vs salinity?

[146clark]

Has anyone ran a successful sps dominate reef while keeping a salinity of 1.023? The reason I ask is because I'm running a zeo system and not a fan of the rbs so I use h20cean at a salinity of 1.023 which gives me my parameters to the one needed for zeo. My tank is running with just the basic zeo system and has livestock no corals. I read most acro can dwell in a salinity of 1.023-1.026. But before adding sps just wanted to here what other think or have done. Thx in advance

[Aquattro]

which parameters exactly is this giving you?

[reefwars]

Don't use salinity to keep track of parameters , if you must use a different salt or do other things to get your parameters where you want them.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by reefwars

Don't use salinity to keep track of parameters , if you must use a different salt or do other things to get your parameters where you want them.

Agreed, but I still want to know what the target "zeo" parameters are. I can't come up with any argument to deviate from 1.026 ever, so let's start this from the beginning

[146clark]

Zeo parameters are dkh of 6.5 to 7.5
Cal between 400-450
Mag between 1250-1350
Potassium 380-400

H2ocean covers all aspects except when mixed at 1.025-1.026 the dkh is 8.3-9

[Aquattro]

FWIW, I ran zeo with an alk of 9 for years. I use IO and it mixes high. I would stay with 1.026 if it were my tank.

[146clark]

My parameters are stabile for the last 3 months at
Dkh 7.2-7.5
Cal 400
Mag 1280
PO4 0.01
Salinity 1.023-1.024
Temp 78-79
Orp 400-430
Nitrate 0

[146clark]

Zeovit says a dkh of 6.5-7.5 because you want as close to nsw as possible. It is also stated that a higher dkh could potentially cause unwanted rtn, stn. Personally I've seen people run 6.5 and have beautify sps reefs while others run 12 dkh ( non zeo)and are just as nice. I have run systems at 9 dkh aswell and worked great just wondering about salinity in the 1.023-1.024 range for coral health really. I believe that as long as the alk cal mag and other crucial parameters are in line thing should go as norm? I was under the impression that lower salinity would also alow for more o2 saturation in the water column but could be wrong.

[Aquattro]

Not sure I'd even consider O2 values, if it made any difference, it would be miniscule. I can't see why a lower salinity wouldn't work if all the other values are where you want, but again, I run alk high and it never bothered me. Not sure anyone with a "successful" SPS reef has ever done this on purpose I'm sure some have, and I'd guess it could work. I dunno

[reefwars]

if you want to drop alk in salt mix its quite easy to do before even adding it to your system , again using the salinity values to monitor parameters like cal and alk is going to be impossible to do as every bucket of salt is different then the one before slightly and some drastically

you have to realize that salt alone almost always never keep alk and cal in check for mature tanks unless the tank is tiny and changes are large , in a heavily stocked hard coral tank with lots of coraline youll have to do about %50 per day to keep levels stable....thats not really a good way of doing it unless money is no object lol even then the jumps are not healthy either.


if you don't have corals im not sure why your worried about rtn on acros?


are you going ULNS?