Tanknicians Tips! How to balance calcium and alkalinity in a reef aquarium the easy way!

[@craigscott3213]

Nice video anyway to download the charts

[@anthonywootan9092]

Man I think Tommy knows the most out of anyone about saltwater!!!!!! I hope to get a saltwater tank for myself soon!!!!!!!!!

[@tanknicians8839]

It is a fantastic hobby!

[@junior-1724]

You are not lying reef pro is the easiest way to dose your tank I switched from red sea to reef pro wish I would of did it sooner!

[@junior-1724]

By the way Paul recommended your channel

[@greg9200]

Paul sent me. And I’m glad he did. You have an absolutely amazing way of explaining things. Thank you for all that you do and never stop!

[@tanknicians8839]

Thanks Greg!

[@rja9784]

Brilliant video! Learned a lot and subscribed

[@candicewdub2269]

Show us your tanks 😉🐠🐟

[@tanknicians8839]

Coming soon!

[@ryanthomas985]

Very informative

[@_Shoaib_Ali_]

Awsome video man

[@tanknicians8839]

Appreciate it!

[@tristanhammer6564]

Love the videos Tommy keep up the good work

[@fishingbrostv5833]

Awesome video I the next one can you include a pdf link so we can print out the paper you use

[@tanknicians8839]

We are looking into how to do this 👍

[@fishingbrostv5833]

@@tanknicians8839 thankypu for replying Tommy

[@Justin2679]

I still cant wait to see you unboxing saltwater fishes videos and hope you have a new saltwater aquarium too.

[@tanknicians8839]

We are installing a large red sea aquarium this weekend- will try to get some footage 👍

[@Justin2679]

@@tanknicians8839 ok Tommy

[@Justin2679]

@@tanknicians8839 You the best Saltwater tips ever👍

[@mrrandom2774]

Keep up the good work Tommy!

[@smellyj5758]

Thanks great job 👍👍👍

[@DM-ll7he]

I just found your video and loved it. Could I please get a copy of the sheets used in this video?

[@tanknicians8839]

Thanks so much! Send us an email at [e-mail]

[@patelmalhar1453]

Keep going keep making 😁😊

[@adamski7956]

I cant wait to get a saltwater tank!! Another amazing video!!!

[@tanknicians8839]

You should!

[@yahshivpillay2982]

Great to see another informative video. Going to keep smashing this like button till KZbin sends your viral.

[@tanknicians8839]

Much appreciated!

[@AutisticReefer]

Doing great! Something you should of done a long time ago. I can see your life changing very quickly ❤️👌

[@0121jair]

Loved the video. I had no clue those are the parameters to be around and thanks for showing how you track. Also once it's in perfect parameters and it's stable do you continue to dose or do you stop dosing? And if you stop dosing for now long? And if you continue to dose, than how much? I'll be making a book for myself. Can you make a video on water parameters for a mixed reef aquarium please. That's my goal. I want to get a tank (or hopefully win one lol) and make a mixed reef tank but when I look for videos they have none or the ones they have don't have clear understanding of any of what they speak of. Keep up the phenomenal work Tommy

[@tanknicians8839]

Typically, people dose consistently-even if small amounts at a time. You are logging consumption over time, and the more stable you can keep these parameters the faster your corals will grow.

[@0121jair]

@@tanknicians8839 so than once in stable numbers just dose at the 25 percent of before and increase or decrease as needed. Man thanks for the heads up. I'm writing a log of things to know before I start a salt water tank. I want it to be perfect. Thanks so much for the insight.

[@oranjmusemeyer968]

Great video- charting is a such an easy tool too!

[@tanknicians8839]

Absolutely!

[@carlosaguirre742]

✨Perfection😎👍

[@blakemaliphant3422]

Great videos mate!🙂

[@tanknicians8839]

Glad you like them!

[@xjd8375]

Good Stuff!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@samporter8542]

Love the vids Tommy!!!

[@kristianeldiablo4471]

Anyway to get a copy of the sheets your using?

[@Neo-qu2ce]

Keep up the good work🥰

[@johnsantmyer1968]

Don't have tank up yet still getting items together (Started at end of October). It is going to be a small tank 29 gal. My question is when you dose do you dose to tank size or the amount of water? I think I heard you say your tank was 50 gal not sure if you meant size of tank or amount of water (tank size minus sand, rock, heater, wavemaker and what not) for dosing. BTW got here from Paul's channel.

[@graaltutorials9558]

Keep up the good work!! Learned alot. Also I was wondering how many fish tank you own

[@tanknicians8839]

I currently have one freshwater planted display.

[@graaltutorials9558]

@@tanknicians8839 heck yeah! I would have thought you would have more to be honest

[@jackfletcher9882]

Tommy can you do a step by step on how to do a saltwater tank im a fresh water scrub and wanna start one !

[@tanknicians8839]

This is coming soon 👍

[@fdzone2615]

Hi bro can you do a video who you show every step for doing a saltwater aquarium !

[@tanknicians8839]

Soon we will have a full series on this topic.

[@veerajjain6905]

Love the tips Tommy! Any idea on how to Lower ammonia in a fish tank?

[@tanknicians8839]

Ammonia in the water is caused by either an immature biofilter or too much decaying organic matter (uneaten fish food, waste, etc). The ammonia removing products are at best stop gaps, its generally recommended to do large water changes until ammonia stabilizes at zero. What test kit do you use and is the tank fresh or saltwater? Hope the fish are doing ok with the ammonia, best of luck addressing the issue.

[@veerajjain6905]

@@tanknicians8839 it’s a question I’ve had for awhile. Usually I just do water changes but it’s kind of tedious. I use the API master water test kit and a separate one for ph. I am specifically asking for fresh water though because the salt water aquarium has a decent filter that makes changes easy. Not the fresh water though. Any products you recommend? Don’t worry about the fish because I moved them to a different tank until I get this issue resolved :) thank you for the help Tommy

[@tanknicians8839]

I would probably start with double checking the test kit with one that is more reliable, and checking that the substrate is clean from debris

[@veerajjain6905]

@@tanknicians8839 ok sounds good thanks so much Tommy! And last thing I swear 🤣 is there a test kit you recommend?

[@tanknicians8839]

@@veerajjain6905 Not at all! glad to hear fish are safe, unfortunately it is difficult to give this specific of advice over a youtube chat- but this would make for a good video in the future. The API test kit measures total ammonia, Seachem makes a product that differentiates between ammonia and ammonium and also the alert badges that measure only free ammonia. If you haven't already, try looking into the differences between Total Ammonia Nitrogen and free ammonia- you might find insight.

[@patelmalhar1453]

👍🏿🙏🏿

[@sadunifernando9758]

Need you see your tanks

[@shanewunder6722]

First Timmy love the vids

[@shanewunder6722]

I meant tommy

[@carlossierra1832]

Great video! So the dosing is done weekly? Or can it be done every three or four days or so to try to get it spot on a bit quicker?

[@tanknicians8839]

Great question! This depends of consumption rate and that will make itself apparent in the logs. Some tanks require dosers adding calcium and alk a couple times a day but most can be dosed manually once or twice a week. You will likely find is that your corals grow faster as you get the levels more consistent, increasing consumption rate 👍

[@pieceoftheocean626]

Do you have those logs available for download ?

[@tanknicians8839]

I don't, we do give binders to all of our customers and consults, but we will look into making them downloadable- great suggestion!

[@pieceoftheocean626]

@@tanknicians8839 too bad I live in NY and your located in FL. Would love to pass by the store and soak up some knowledge.

[@Caveman_1987]

What should you do to lower calcium

[@TekNickall]

I think slowly increasing Alk will eventually lower Ca, but I could be wrong. I have been dealing with this in my aquarium lately. I have been testing every 2 days and my Alk is pretty stable around 8.5, but my Ca is about 520 which I know is really high. I have been looking for a solution to lower my Ca without raising anything else and most forums I find suggest slowly increasing your Alk.

[@lowmile_sti_05]

Noob question.. what if my alk is alittle to high? How can I lower it?

[@shaneluckey09]

Ok here's my situation. (30 gallon tank) my calcium is 570 and alkalinity is 9dkh. Obviously that's too high and need to bring it down but I'm having a hard time doing so. What do I need to do to bring my calcium down? Thanks

[@tanknicians8839]

Frequent small water changes is probably best bet, what is calcium of your replacement water?

[@pieceoftheocean626]

Would only dosing 1x per week cause big fluctuations in the Alk and Cal? ... I never dosed before. Looking to start soon. So far mostly soft and los corals.

[@tanknicians8839]

I have kept sps dominant aquariums that were manually dosed almost 2ml/day without issue (not that I am recommending this)- most softy dominated aquariums will have negligable fluctuation dosing twice a week.

[@pieceoftheocean626]

@@tanknicians8839 thanks again

[@isaactorres954]

Did you go to school to study marine life ? If so how long did it take to complete ?

[@tanknicians8839]

Yes, I got my B.S. in Marine Sciences in 5 years, most people accomplish this in four though.

[@javiergamez3343]

My calcium levels are the opposite, very high, how can i lower?

[@tanknicians8839]

Stop adding calcium and do some water changes. First I would check the test kit and make sure it’s reliable 👍

[@anthonywootan9092]

Fourth

[@rachelyanney9768]

How do water changes figure into this? I have a nano tank so I was planning on my weekly water changes to keep things stable. Is this a good plan or should I plan to dose? I have an EVO 13.5.

[@candicewdub2269]

Do you do water changes with salt water tanks?

[@tanknicians8839]

It depends on consumption, every tank is different. The answer will reveal itself in your data. That being said, when we do our series on the EVO, one of the tanks we set up will be softy dominant and only require small weekly water changes👍

[@charleshaney1208]

My calcium is testing about 500 and my ph is about 7, what do I do?

[@tanknicians8839]

What test kits are you using?

[@charleshaney1208]

Api

[@charleshaney1208]

@@tanknicians8839 we have 2 api bought at different times and both are reading 500+ and my ph today is 7.4

[@tanknicians8839]

I would distrust the API reading, unfortunately pH can’t be measured away from the fish tank so bringing a sample to a fish store won’t help, what is your alkalinity?

[@charleshaney1208]

@@tanknicians8839 all we have is a kh test that came with the api, where do you get your testing drops from? Here are our results from taking the measurements today 12/13 Temp 78 Ph 8.2 Ammonia .25 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 40 Phosphorus. 5 Calcium 540 Salt 1.025 Kh is so high there's no reading for it, not really sure what that means Tomorrow is water change and clean the sponges in the canister.

[@echo6l956]

if i get rich one day and i want a big saltwater tank built im calling tommy first

[@tylerwaren5959]

You need to give your chameleon a better house than the one it’s in if you have a chameleon

[@tanknicians8839]

Hey tyler, Really appreciate the comment but, don't worry, this is not her primary enclosure. She spends most days in an outside enclosure, but when it is colder than 60 degrees at night I bring them inside. We actually have three chameleons, two females around 4-6 months old and a 2 week old hatchling.

[@tylerwaren5959]

@@tanknicians8839 ok just making sure I did think you would do that because you are so smart with animals by the way I loved what you did with Paul

[@tanknicians8839]

@@tylerwaren5959 I really do appreciate the comment. A lot of people and stores care for chameleons incorrectly and I hate seeing stressed out animals. These ones are healthy are quickly associating us with food to the point of being obnoxious haha.

[@tylerwaren5959]

@@tanknicians8839 I love chameleons and it just pains me to see when chameleons aren’t treated right so thank you for being somebody that’s cares about there animals you should make a KZbin video about them

[@jessikawoodbury5344]

Id be interested in chameleon content! Recently got a juvenile panther and I've become quite obsessed with him. I like your teaching style and your videos are great! Smart and handsome is hard to come by so good for you 👍