NSW Additives?

I use filtered natural seawater and have live sand collected from a local beach. I do a 10 gallon water change in a 55 gallon tank, once a month. Do I need to worry about the different water parameters like calcium, alkalinity, etc? I do ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests and am wondering if this is enough.

 

you do need to test for these parameters. while water in the ocean is great there, our reefs are closed systems and require a little more attention to the details. I would test so you know what you need to adjust.

Edit... oh and with only doing one larger water change a month, as opposed to smaller, more frequent changes, your params can vary greatly from week to week so this would make it even more important to test and adjust as needed.

 

Well as far as testing goes you really shouldnt have to test for ammonia or nitrite once your cycle is over. You alk. yes you should test for it effects your PH and your cal. mag. you should test for ecspecally if you have corals in your tank.

Also i wouldnt use beach sand for a tank, it contains pollutants that you dont want or need. Others will chime in on this im sure.

 

I agree...Have you seen those black oily stripes in beach sand as you dig.. Also, i have heard that for beaches, they sometimes just fill with silica sand as the sand washes away from huricanes and such???? I may be way off base here, but you wouldnt want just any ol' sand from the beach in a reef aquarium??

 

While the ocean is great, and sand from a reef would be great, coastal sand and water is not necessarily great. A lot of people dump a lot of pollutants into that sand, and it may come back to bite you.

 

Thanks guys! Ill have to start monitoring those other parameters then. As for the sand, I dont believe we import our sand to Hawaii (for beach replenishment) and the water tends to be pretty pristine. We also dont have those black tar things that Ive seen on East Coast beaches. I should be ok.....right?

 

Ah, i did not see that you are in hawaii, that may help you might be ok.. no one really knows, but if its working, then go for it and enjoy. Do you have a quality skimmer?

 

If it were me depending on how far i was into my system (1 week 1 month and so on) i would replace the sand with something either store bought or something that you know is clean and pure. But thats just my 2 cents.

 

Good point, a skimmer would prob help a lot if there were impurities in the sand or water.K+

 

Hey Isurus79, i noticed on the new pics you posted to the sight... called "inverts" you have some nice pretty aiptasia anemones in your tank... NOT good... but can be delt with if your not dealing with them already