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Tag: water change

  • Aquaforest Reef Salt: Two Water Changes in My 45 cm Reef Tank

    Aquaforest Reef Salt: Two Water Changes in My 45 cm Reef Tank

    I had been using Reef Crystals, which is relatively nutrient rich. To keep my KH/Alk where I wanted it, I switched to Red Sea Salt rather than Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and was happy with it. Then I could no longer find a seller for the 7 kg bag.

    The 22 kg bag is more salt than I want to keep around, so I bought Aquaforest Reef Salt as an alternative and have now done two water changes with it.

    My 45 cm cube holds roughly 80 L. I change 20 L once a week, mixing 900 g of salt to aim for a specific gravity of about 1.025.

    I did not record the first water change, so unfortunately I have no data from it.

    I thought I had recorded it. When I realized I had not, I made sure to take better notes during this water change.

    These were the parameters after my last water change with Red Sea Salt:

    • NO3: 5–10 ppm
    • PO4: 0 ppm
    • KH/Alk: 8.8 dKH
    • Ca: 410 ppm

    Two weeks later, after two weekly water changes with Aquaforest Reef Salt, I measured:

    • NO3: 5–10 ppm
    • PO4: 0 ppm
    • KH/Alk: 9.6 dKH
    • Ca: 420 ppm

    The other values were about the same. KH/Alk rose from 8.8 to 9.6 dKH, and I measured 10.9 dKH in the freshly mixed water before adding it to the tank.

    I did not have time to test the other values in the freshly mixed water. If I were not writing this blog, I probably would not have measured even this much.

    It came out lower than Reef Crystals and Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, but higher than regular Red Sea Salt.

    I aim for 8–10 dKH, but I ran this tank above 13 dKH for more than a year and a half without problems that I could trace to that number. I have 6 kg left, so I will use it all before deciding anything.

    In an earlier post, I compared the listed specs and expected a lower number than 10.9 dKH. Water-change volume, temperature, and other target conditions vary a little from tank to tank, so measuring it in my own tank was still the useful part.

    Two white buckets used to mix saltwater for a water change

    A machine that made water-change water for me would be nice, though.

    At least having a blog means even a water change can become something to post about. Maybe that is a good thing? Haha.

  • Why the Return Pump Flow Had Slowed Down

    Why the Return Pump Flow Had Slowed Down

    Recently, I noticed that the return pump flow had become noticeably weaker than when the tank was first set up.

    At first, the water surface would still move even without the powerhead running.

    But whenever I turned the powerhead off for cleaning or a water change, that surface movement kept getting weaker. At this point, it barely moved at all.

    The tank surface showing very little movement with the powerhead turned off.

    I already had a powerhead in the tank, so part of me wondered if the basic water movement was still enough.

    During the water change, though, I looked at how quickly water was coming from the sump back into the display, and that changed my mind.

    This was not just a small drop in flow that I could ignore.

    The problem seemed to be on the return pump side.

    I am not especially handy, and the return pump I use is not an expensive piece of equipment, so at first I was thinking about just buying a new one.

    Still, I decided to at least try taking it out once.

    I could not say for sure why the flow had dropped, but I had solved a similar issue with a powerhead by cleaning it before. At minimum, the return pump needed to be checked and cleaned.

    The best timing seemed to be during a water change.

    Preparing a 20-liter water change for the 45-cube reef tank.
    Adding about 430 grams of reef salt for roughly 10 liters of water to target around 1.026 salinity.

    Right when I worked up the nerve to pull the return pump out, I ran into a problem.

    The two outlets from the rear sump into the display, and the two parts that looked like pipes or hoses, did not come loose as easily as I expected.

    I did not want to force anything and break it, so I did not fully remove the pump this time.

    It was frustrating. I had finally decided to take the pump apart and clean it, but I got stuck at a part I had not expected.

    Was there another option? Was there at least a temporary way to improve the flow?

    If an internal part of the pump was broken, or if the broken part was something I could not disassemble, there would not be much I could do. But if debris or algae was blocking the intake, maybe cleaning that area would be enough.

    So I checked it right away.

    The return chamber in the rear sump before turning on the phone flash, with the intake area hard to see.
    The return chamber with the phone flash on, showing algae clearly blocking the intake area.

    That was a shock. Algae was covering the intake. The return chamber barely gets any light, so I still do not know how algae managed to grow that much there.

    Seeing that made me want to pull the whole pump out even more and clean it properly.

    But the outlets and piping were still too firmly attached, so I decided to leave the full disassembly for later.

    It was summer, but I was also worried that leaving the tank drained for too long could drop the water temperature and stress the livestock.

    For now, I did what I could.

    Using a pipette, I pulled out some of the algae stuck around the return pump intake.

    I do not know exactly what kind of algae it was, but I could see material sitting around the intake, so I removed what I could reach.

    Cleaning around the return pump inside the rear sump with a pipette.
    A few pieces of algae pulled out with a pipette, sitting in a small fish net before being discarded.

    After that, the flow definitely felt like it had come back.

    Even without the powerhead, the water surface moved a little again, and the corals showed a bit of movement too.

    Still, when I put my hand near the outlet, it seemed weaker than it was at the original setup. I will probably need to fully remove the pump at some point.

    Algae already bothers me because of how it looks, and sometimes it even covers corals. After this, I disliked it even more.

    It even made me wonder if I should keep snails in the return chamber too.

    A clownfish hiding behind a torch coral during the water change.
    The clownfish, unaware of all this, hides behind the torch coral every time I do a water change.