Chemistry Control

You’re a few weeks into conditioning your brand new reef aquarium. You’ve been testing the water like crazy. The nitrifying bacteria you added are clearly established and working their magic, as the initially high ammonia, and then nitrite, levels are no longer within detectable range. Similarly, the wave of nitrates that followed the first activities of the nitrifiers has been curtailed by the denitrifying bacteria and macroalgae you added. Your tank is now positively “cycled.” So, can you put that master test kit away now? Hardly! In many respects, your time dealing with chemistry control is just revving up. As a matter of fact, you’re about to find that even more than a biologist or an engineer, a reef aquarist is a chemist. Once you start putting fish, corals, clams, etc. into the tank, it’s game-on. Nitrate or even ammonia can make reappearances. Phosphate and/or silicate may rise. Alkalinity and/or pH might drop. Important trace elements such as boron get depleted. Sure, you could just perform 50% water changes every couple of days. Right? Or, you could simply take control over your precious water assets. But you’re just taking swings in the dark if have no idea what your parameters are to begin with. This is why frequent testing (or, better yet, continuous monitoring) is critical. When many beginner aquarists think “chemistry control” they think “water filtration”. And that is definitely a huge factor, with regards to your make-up and top-off water as well as your aquarium system water. But “water treatment” is at least as important in the long term. When you think water treatment, think about restoring buffering capacity, replenishing essential trace elements, bioremediation with macroalgae, phytoplankton or bacteria, and so on. In this section, you will learn how to monitor water chemistry using various types of testing equipment and maintain tight chemistry control using certain chemicals, organisms, etc.