Reef Aquarium Diary Part 4

by Mr Core Shop March 18, 2022

Heres some video footage from the soon to be old tank - everything in here will be transferred to the new Blue aquarium in due course - this tank will then be shut down.

I thought it might be interesting to do a full professional lab test of this aquariums water. It could be insightful for several reasons, Ive never dosed the tank with anything except food - no buffers or trace elements ever added. I want to know whether relying solely on regular water changes can really keep the mineral levels up long-term - obviously waste can be controlled in this way but can all the elements of seawater be kept correctly?

The animals in this tank have lived happily for many years, hardly a mortality for several years, the anemones have thrived and reproduced, as have the green mushrooms and other soft corals. Zoanthids on the other hand I seem to have a problem keeping but I assume that's down to some sort of pest in the tank or maybe a constant nipping by the 2 species of dwarf angelfish in there? Of course hard corals / SPS may not have favoured so well in these conditions without more closely monitoring alkalinity and calcium etc....To be honest I hardly ever test for these.🙄

So im thinking of sending a vial of water to a proper lab such as Triton and lets see what the results say - sorry if this is too fish geeky for you but anyone who actually keeps marines should understand what Im saying 😊 It should answer the following question - How does the mineral content of an established saltwater aquarium change of time? Specifically when no buffering or additives have been added, apart from fresh make up water during water changes. The water was changed approx 5% weekly on average and this tank running around 5 years.....lets see TO BE CONTINUED

UPDATE - THE RESULTS ARE NOW IN SINCE WRITING THIS ARTICLE - SEE LIK AT VERY BOTTOM TO VIEW CONCLUSIONS

Meanwhile I'm thinking of attempting to catch a couple of fish and add them to then new tank to start the transfer process - eek - exciting 😎

blue tang aquarium saltwater reef coral food