Your fish are swimming in their own poo!
Good water quality is thee most important thing to maintaining a successful Saltwater Aquarium.
To maintain good water quality....20 % water changes are a must do thing every two or three weeks after your tank is totaly established. This means draining at least 20% of your water and adding 20% fresh clean water. This cleans out the fish poo, and bad stuff in the water making it clean again..
Salt is needed to add back to the water when filling the tank back up after the water change..
Alway's have extra salt for your tank, just because you may need it...<"))))>(
Water Evaporation
Water evaporation will leave salt in the water... making the Gravity,or salinity higher. When filling the tank back up, add strait water without adding salt... this will even out the Gravity readings if they are high. If they are low...add salt. Sometimes salt will eventually need to be added after adding strait water to the mix a few times.
Note To Self
There are a few things that I have learned about water quality that are most important to remember.
20 % water changes are a must do thing every two or three weeks...
If possible do not use water to fill your tank strait from the tap. Most city water is hard,
and the chlorine and crap that you get in tap water isnt good for fish tanks.. .
I ended up testing a 11 for hardness for city water where I live....The Normal being 7.
Chlorine is also at high levels. I don't wanna drink this water, let alone let my fish live in it.
R/O Water
I then started looking into R/O water (Reverse Ozmosis) systems.
What is Reverse Ozmosis you ask? Water is forced through a simi-permeable membrane , leaving unwanted substances behind producing crystal clean water. The Unwanted substances are then flushed.
The tap water travels through a three stange filtration system...then drips through the membrane...then the clean water is stored in a holding tank until ready for use. I normaly keep 1 gallon milk jugs filled up and at room temerature ready for adding the water to my tank. My R/O water comes out of the tap cold, so I must store it at room temperature. I keep strait R/O water for when salt is not needed, and mixed R/O water for when salt is needed. Simply just add a jug or two to the tank daily.
Always make sure you test the gravity of the water with your hydrometer before adding water.
"SaltyDog Say's"
R/O water is known for stopping unwanted algae growth.
Tap Water
If you're not using R/O water, be sure to condition the water with SressCoat to take the chlorine out of strait tap water. R/O water can also be bought by the gallon at your local Super Stores.
Prices may differ from place to place.
R/O Links
I will throw a few links up for R/O systems online.
Just go to our links section. There you will find info on R/O systems for your home.
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