my first water change

hi again everyone.

i have converted from a tropical tank which was easy as pie to look after but i wanted to get more of a colourful life and convert to marine. many people told me not to as it was to much hard work. i am through a week and life is beginning already and ive learned loads.

i have just done my first clean and tests and everyone knows how it can get. lol
anyway i only have a 48ltr nano tank and ive just changed 20% water with ro water. one thing i had noticed is that the salinity of the water when i first bought it was reading about 1018 on the hydromiter thingy i got and the green line sias it is supposed to be 1020 is there a problem there or not. my first thought was, the shop sold it like this to take in mind for evapouration. also i have not cleaned any of the filtration system as i wasnt sure that i should clean it while trying to build life in the reef. i have been told that i should clean it bit by bit.

i have added a diagram of my filteration system if anyone can give us some advice on when and what i should clean i have also heard that using live rock instead of ceramic rings. hmmm

thaks all ye great fish lovers out there your knowledge is all taken on board and digested greatfully, im glad i didnt listen to the others telling me to stay away

 

a couple things, did you ever use copper additives to your freshwater tank like Ich treatment. if so you could leech copper into water.
If not, good and as for the sg of your water your hydrometer if it a floating type will read diffrent according to the temp of the water.

 

If it has been up for a week dont worry about water changes. You cycle can take 2 to 8 weeks (leaning toward the 8 week side) for your tank to cycle.

Your salinity should probably be a bit higher. I tend to keep mine about 1.024. Did you clean out your tank between freshwater and saltwater? If so you shouldnt have to worry about cleaning now.

How are you cycling the tank?

 

well the its good to use ro water, but with waterchanges you need to mix the salt in the water. you only us just ro water(no salt) to replace water thats evaporated. while the fish will live in anything between 1.009-1.035(as long as it changes slowly), its is best to keep salinity at 1.025 for optimum health. most lfs keep there salinity lower because its suppose to lower the stress on fish, in the long run it causes there kidneys not flush properly and make the fish sick.

i dont see the diagram

 

no addatives added i was told by the marine specialist i bought the ro water from that everything was mixed up ready, thats all i had to do was to add live rock and build it up over the next few months, i just wanted to add rock and fish and be done with it. lol, i found out that this wasnt the case. the water temp im playing with at the mo but its always 25.3-25.8, it had gone to 26.2 but only the once.

i have tested water salinity the day i bought it then again today when participating in making my floor wet changing their juice today. all chemical tests came out as id liked especially once i had installed phosphate remover but the salinity thing has started to get to me as its the only thing that isnt spot on and hasnt been since day one.

 

no freshwater introduced to the tank whatsoever. tank is perfectly clean and fresh. theres only a fire shrimp wandering about happily at the mo, is name is jaque (figures) and hes already hand tame, and greedy. after a week everythings coming alive faster than i thought, i have bought 3 soft corals which are loving it, found 1 aptasia which i think will have to go before adding fish and few other critters i cant describe.

cleaning the tank i just took 3 gallons of salt out and added fresh ro salt mix in theis was bought ready made aswell.

 

i think in the long run, you might find it better to mix your own salt water. dry salt is probably much cheaper than the pre mixed stuff. also, i have heard of LFS selling their "old" saltwater, not newly mixed stuff. how long has your tank been set up?

 

the salt water/ro aswell, is bought from a shop. the tank they hold it in is about 3-400 gallons there isnt any other thing in this tank apart from water i asked the guy if i needed anything else to mix but they said no nothing else was needed.

the other option at the time was to speand about 70 pounds on an ro unit. then the salt then the messing about with gravity. i think in the long run il be doing thid but at the mo im gunna stick to buying the stuff. i figure its just one thing i cant get wrong. lol.

tank has been set up for one full week now everything seems ok apart from the salinity

 

You shouldn't be adding any livestock or corals if the tanks been running for just one week, Nor should you be doing any water changes... Your parameters are going to spike over the next month or two...

 

You have 3 corals and a fire shrimp after 1 week?Just my opinion but i think you might want to take back what you bought and see if your lfs will give you credit or just keep them for you until your tank finishes cycling and you understand how to control salinity etc.Good Luck