Whether your keeping salt water fish or your planning a full blown reef aquarium it is important that your marine aquarium water parameters are in check. For most reef aquaria and for salt water fish only tanks the parameters are as follows.
Calcium: 380-450 ppm
Alkalinity: 2.5-4 meq/L, 7-11 dKH
Salinity: 35ppt or a specific gravity of 1.024-1.026
Temperature: 77-83 F
pH: 7.8 – 8.3
Magnesium: 1250-1350ppm
Phosphate: Should be undetectable
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: Should be undetectable, unless cycling.
Constant testing will usually prevent and help any marine aquarium water problems. Weekly water changes replaces used traced elements and keeps ammonia, nitrite and especially nitrate to near zero conditions as well as replaces calcium (if not already dosed).
When receiving corals online or through a reputable dealer or from a fellow reefkeeper, It is important to obtain the healthiest specimens. There are many reasons for picking healthy specimens but one extremely important reason is that you don’t want to expose your saltwater reef aquarium to unwanted parasites or disease.
One way of making sure you are not bringing unwanted parasites into your reef tank is using a coral dip. A coral dip is simple to use and every one has a different set of directions that are easy to follow. Mainly you will add a little coral dip (or Lugol’s solution, iodine solution) to some tank water and soak your new coral for a period of time. The soak time is dependent on the solution you are using, the MediCoral Coral Dip – 60 mL – 2 oz. as shown above has a soak time of 8-11 minutes for soft corals and 7-10 minutes for sps corals.
The Medicoral Dip comes in two size bottles a 2oz and a 1oz bottle. You may be thinking that it may not be worth to spend the $10-$20 bucks on a bottle but keep in mind that only 20 drops of this solution is combined with one gallon of saltwater (you can use fresh made saltwater). Also that dipping your corals will prevent coral eating organisms from destroying your whole tank, this hobby is expensive and a little preventive care goes a long way.
I chose Medicoral dip for dipping my corals because it has a good name among reefers on the online forums. When I started out on this hobby I had pyramid snails, sundail snails, zoanthid spiders and flatworms that all caused big tank problems. I wouldn’t even think about adding another piece of coral without dipping it first.
These worms really creep me out but they are harmless detrivours that are beneficial to your reef aquarium. These can sometimes have an orange tint to them.
