well i have seachem reef buffer that raises Alk, but i dont use it seeing how my KH is around 11. but my ca drops when it gets into the tank, but i only have a few small coral frags, that i cant imagine would use that much Ca to make a drop.
20 long reef build
- Thread starter Fishfiles1
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i lost my jaw fish, he manage to jump through the screen top, i am now investing in smaller screen and make a better lid to avoid this. if this was a blue spot jawfish i would have cried
That sucks.. it is always a battle keeping jumpy fish in. I have lost 3 dartfish that made it through an eggcrate top. So far nothing has made it through my BRS screen top.
As for the parameters, something else isn't quite right. Sounds like a test isn't accurate. Calcium will be used up by the sand as well as the rocks in the tank, but that doesn't account for much, and small frags won't consume much either. This is the first thing you should try and figure out before dosing, why did you have a sudden large calcium drop? Is it from a faulty test, faulty water change between tests (like using Instant Ocean instead of Reef Crystals), anything you can think of so you understand exactly what happened. Once you understand the cause, you can feel secure knowing the proper solution will solve it.
As an example of how to do things really badly in a panic, I have a friend who had an extremely nice 300G SPS reef tank. A few different events transpired at once which gave him a false idea on the solution to the problem and ended up killing all his corals and 1/2 his fish. His issue was he changed out a controller and the one he replaced ended up having a faulty ORP probe, which somehow makes the pH reading go very low. This was a known issue on the forums for this controller, but he hadn't read about that yet. So thinking his pH was really 7.2 as the reading said, he ran an alkalinity test, and he did that wrong as well several times. He had it in his head to use 5ml of water because that was the syringe it came with, instead of the 2ml really required. This ended up giving him really low Alk test readings. So thinking his pH was very low and thinking his alkalinity was really low he ended up dumping in about a gallons worth of Alkalinity supplement to get the pH to read 8.1 on his controller. After a couple of days of this his corals were all but dying. It was then he realized he was running the Alkalinity test wrong, and doing it correctly showed alkalinity was off the charts. I had googled the pH issue with his controller and found out the relation of the problem to the ORP probe and once he removed that probe his pH readings were up in the 8.8 area. Needless to say, it all but wiped out his beautiful tank. Not even a 100% water change (300 gallons!) could save the corals at that point.
As for the parameters, something else isn't quite right. Sounds like a test isn't accurate. Calcium will be used up by the sand as well as the rocks in the tank, but that doesn't account for much, and small frags won't consume much either. This is the first thing you should try and figure out before dosing, why did you have a sudden large calcium drop? Is it from a faulty test, faulty water change between tests (like using Instant Ocean instead of Reef Crystals), anything you can think of so you understand exactly what happened. Once you understand the cause, you can feel secure knowing the proper solution will solve it.
As an example of how to do things really badly in a panic, I have a friend who had an extremely nice 300G SPS reef tank. A few different events transpired at once which gave him a false idea on the solution to the problem and ended up killing all his corals and 1/2 his fish. His issue was he changed out a controller and the one he replaced ended up having a faulty ORP probe, which somehow makes the pH reading go very low. This was a known issue on the forums for this controller, but he hadn't read about that yet. So thinking his pH was really 7.2 as the reading said, he ran an alkalinity test, and he did that wrong as well several times. He had it in his head to use 5ml of water because that was the syringe it came with, instead of the 2ml really required. This ended up giving him really low Alk test readings. So thinking his pH was very low and thinking his alkalinity was really low he ended up dumping in about a gallons worth of Alkalinity supplement to get the pH to read 8.1 on his controller. After a couple of days of this his corals were all but dying. It was then he realized he was running the Alkalinity test wrong, and doing it correctly showed alkalinity was off the charts. I had googled the pH issue with his controller and found out the relation of the problem to the ORP probe and once he removed that probe his pH readings were up in the 8.8 area. Needless to say, it all but wiped out his beautiful tank. Not even a 100% water change (300 gallons!) could save the corals at that point.
ok im going to figure this out, here is my plan
5 gallon water change
test tank Ca and all first
test new water for Ph,Kh,and Ca
test tank after water change
then test everyday until next water change to see when it starts droping
the only thing i changed when the drop started is i add activated carbon and some Phosgaurd until i could get my RO/Di system, im still waiting for the RO and the protein skimmer 12,25,2013 couldnt come any sooner.
I have the BRS screen on order, i have heard nothing but good reviews about this stuff
im lucky my dartfish hasnt figured out how to jump out. fingers crossed
5 gallon water change
test tank Ca and all first
test new water for Ph,Kh,and Ca
test tank after water change
then test everyday until next water change to see when it starts droping
the only thing i changed when the drop started is i add activated carbon and some Phosgaurd until i could get my RO/Di system, im still waiting for the RO and the protein skimmer 12,25,2013 couldnt come any sooner.
I have the BRS screen on order, i have heard nothing but good reviews about this stuff
im lucky my dartfish hasnt figured out how to jump out. fingers crossed
thank you, ok it has been some time since i updated this, so here it goes. i have my RO system, and after a few test i found out for some odd reason when using tap water it would absorb the Ca, when i mix my salt, i would get a reading of about 420, then after 6 hours of mixing and adding O2, it would drop to about 360-380. i started using RO and now is right at 420, and has not dropped.
Good news i have the Reef Octopus BH1000, and it is amazing, not to much protein removed and lots of micro bubbles, im not sure why they have the hole up at the top that seams to be where the micro bubbles pour out into the overflow to the tank, any ideas of how to stop them? should i plug the whole. also how should i adjust the O2 going into the skimmer, right now it is full blast? here is some quick specs
Ph-8.2
KH-11
no ammonia or NO2 or NO3
P-0, and CA-420
also i have received a new coral, its a candy cane/ trumpet coral with three heads, and one is starting to split, i will post some pics soon
Ben
Good news i have the Reef Octopus BH1000, and it is amazing, not to much protein removed and lots of micro bubbles, im not sure why they have the hole up at the top that seams to be where the micro bubbles pour out into the overflow to the tank, any ideas of how to stop them? should i plug the whole. also how should i adjust the O2 going into the skimmer, right now it is full blast? here is some quick specs
Ph-8.2
KH-11
no ammonia or NO2 or NO3
P-0, and CA-420
also i have received a new coral, its a candy cane/ trumpet coral with three heads, and one is starting to split, i will post some pics soon
Ben
Leave the air wide open at least for a week or two. You'll probably want to leave it open full time though.
You're gonna have air bubbles at first with any skimmer but HOBs are known to produce more. This guy put the mesh filters at the outfall point.
About 1/2 way through...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbnUT_smUg
You're gonna have air bubbles at first with any skimmer but HOBs are known to produce more. This guy put the mesh filters at the outfall point.
About 1/2 way through...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYbnUT_smUg
so the micro bubbles have gone down a lot. and the skimmer is pulling very slowly a thick black spotty gunk out with a brown colored water, does this sound like my cup its at the right level? I also have the RO/DI from spectra pure now, and have done a water change, and have bottled 2 gallons of top off. how long will the water in the gallons jugs stay good, can i make like 10 gallons jugs up, they would last me about 2-3 weeks. i know if i leave a bucket with water in it for more than 30 hours it will start to build up ammonia, but can this happen in a sealed gallon jug?
