Reef nutrition

Heya!

Jet Black

Supporting Member
Hello all!

I recently moved from Sacramento to San Francisco. Moving my 90 gallon reef was quite an ordeal but it is now in my apartment...

I started with freshwater in 2008 and moved to coral a couple years later. I was at one point on the board of the Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento but haven't been as socially active as of late. A few years ago I started a job working with the EPA involving a lot of field work. It is amazing but I'm not home for maintenance!

I started my Red Sea 425 in 2020, I love LPS and softies but dabble in some SPS to keep things interesting. I had the tank plumbed with a mixing station and huge reservoir to keep it running during my travels but unfortunately theres only so much compensation for lack of care. Over the last year I let things go as I dealt with work and moving. My fish handled the move fabulously but I will have to rebuild almost all of my coral. -Shout out to the mushrooms and zoas that held through.

I was in a pinch and used de-chlorinated tap water for setup a couple months ago. I've been debating bringing my seven stage RODI from Sacramento but I am not sure if that is necessary as things seem to be going well. What do people use for San Francisco water? I can concievably install my bulkly filter under the sink but could I get away with a couple of chloramine carbon blocks?

Im happy to see you still have meetings, looking forward to get to know everyone!
 
Water will vary be season and availability here. Usually very low tds
I would think a sediment, carbon block, and maybe a Di resin would work ok. Might use resin quickly, but easier than an RODI in an apartment.
I would not try to get it under a sink if you do set it up. There are usually other ways. Depends largely on your apartment tho
 
Welcome and thanks for becoming a supporting member! The good thing is that with a flush kit and the low TDS source water here in the Bay, my RO membranes last years typically, even when being used inefficiently for drinking water. The BRS 5 stage kits fit pretty well under the sink or temporarily attached to the tap with the included adaptors when you need to make water (I think @FullerReef uses his that way). 0 TDS water with minimal DI resin use.

This is how I set it up: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/thomas-29g-truvu.31938/page-2#post-469817

Check the featured threads to join us at the January potluck to meet some folks in person too! https://www.bareefers.org/forum/thr...ard-ross-talk-and-mini-frag-swap-01-07.34884/
 
Hello all!

I recently moved from Sacramento to San Francisco. Moving my 90 gallon reef was quite an ordeal but it is now in my apartment...
Welcome to BAR Jet! Glad you were able to keep the reef and made it through the move.

There's an upcoming potluck event next weekend if you're up for it. I'll tag you in the thread.

As for tap water and making water...you're putting a lot of trust in your water utility to not make any mistakes on that particular day when you happen to be using water for your tank. Not worth the risk imo.

I would prefer to have some containers filled and prepped with some RODI water. But I'm not sure what you're living space is like to be able to make that happen or justify the clutter of water storage containers.
 
Welcome to our place in space
And thank you for becoming a $upporting member
It shows your dedication to both your reef aquarium and to this club

I use natural sea water
 
Welcome!

SF water is legendary for its relative purity, better than most areas in the bay. You have some good experience-based advice above regarding your water question. As I recall from our Steinhart Aquarium tour in 2019, they use city tap water and just run it through a huge (really huge) carbon filter, then use it. No additional filtration.

I’m in East Bay not SF, but even if I had supposedly perfect tap water I’d still use at least a sediment filter before and a DI canister after carbon, personally. At that point you’re almost at a small RODI system anyway.
 
Thank you all for the warm welcomes! I am planning on attending the potluck next weekend.

Ill see how much of my monster RO unit I can fit in my place. I'm thinking sediment and carbon blocks into a DI but at that point Ive will have most of the system already. No garage means I can't bring my pickle barrel or rubbermaid can for storage unfortunately. I appreciate all of the insight, @Darkxerox I might be PMing you with questions if you don't mind!

Looks like Ill need to start a tank journal.
 
Welcome to our place in space
And thank you for becoming a $upporting member
It shows your dedication to both your reef aquarium and to this club

I use natural sea water
You use natural seawater that's been heavily filtered because he delivers 300 gallons at a time to you. He won't deliver for a 90 gallon aquarium. :)
 
Thank you all for the warm welcomes! I am planning on attending the potluck next weekend.

Ill see how much of my monster RO unit I can fit in my place. I'm thinking sediment and carbon blocks into a DI but at that point Ive will have most of the system already. No garage means I can't bring my pickle barrel or rubbermaid can for storage unfortunately. I appreciate all of the insight, @Darkxerox I might be PMing you with questions if you don't mind!

Looks like Ill need to start a tank journal.
Welcome. There are people in the city that will deliver good RO and mixed salt to you.
 
That's cause his truck could catch fire any minute and it's gotta be worth his time lol
That truck is really something else. It looks like a clapped out mad max rig, but has an extended bed on a tow truck frame that hauls around 8,000+ lbs of water. o_O

He put the engine in from something else too (maybe also a tow truck)?
 
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