Update! With Pics.
So, it's been, almost 6 months. I have a Fungia, green tree, green star polyps, Blastomussa merletti, and wellsi, red mushrooms, two different colors of zoas, and colt/kenya tree corals. Also, some kind of anemone I bought for $5, as a polyp. Fish: Purple firefish, reg. firefish, two ocelleris clowns, yellow watchman goby, lawnmower blenny, bangaii cardinal, one p.j. cardinal, yellow tang, neon cleaner goby, a sixline wrasse, and two p.j. cardinals in my 20H quarantine/hospital/frag tank. I added a HOB fuge, with chaeto, and two clip on bedside lamps, with two daylight flourescents over it. My live rock has shifted some, and I've rearranged it a bit. I was having huge issues with cyano., until I read that you should be vacuuming the gravel, as maintenance, and that cured that. My zoas are still, sort of, dissappearing, slowly. I got the sixline to deal with, what I think was a pyramidellid snail, but now, am not sure it was. I found several snail hitchhikers, and they looked like pictures I found. Removed what I could of them, and prayed. My green tree coral won't open, and it's been a week, and a half. I'm getting some kind of brown slime strings attached, and waving around, that are easily waved off with my hand. My zoas are reproducing, the kenya is huge, compared to it's original size, the green star polyps spread some, the anemone has gotten bigger, and the other corals are too new to have grown much. I started adding Purpleup, and that's when my green stars started to spread. I, finally, got my API test kits in(Reef master, and Saltwater master), tested all the parameters, and decided to get some Superbuffer DKH, added the suggested amount, ordered a Calcium additive, added some to raise calcium, started to add kalk. before that, for a while, and have been trying to get the water params. stable for a few weeks, now. Every time I test, I get different levels. Too low alk. one week, too low calcium, after I dosed alk., kalk. seems to make no difference, because I don't get enough evap. to add very much.(Approx. 1 1/2 liter per night.) I do weekly 10 to 15 gallon water changes, with reef crystals. I still use wll water. I re-read Ace's 75 gallon build, and will start to rinse my frozen food, before I add, but I'm lost. I've read a ton on additives, and still don't understand it all. Read the reefcentral kalk., and additive articles, and feel I'm not dosing enough Kalk., but can't do more without lowering the salinity. Heeellllpppp!!! The corals aren't all happy, and I know I'm not dosing correctly. Fish are fine, but I've had corals closed, and wierd test readings. I don't, totally, understand what people mean when they say "balanced " calcium, alk., and pH. I've lost a finger leather that I believe was in poor shape when I bought it, some zoas, a rock of Mushrooms I bought at Petco(they keep them under T8's for crying out loud, I bought them too late. From now on I buy them only one or two days in the store, no later.), so, nothing that I can tell was really my fault, but am afraid of losing the green tree or more. Any advice on kalk. dosing, additives, and general helpful comments would be great. Some corals are fine, and others not so much. Pics. are from today. I do my maintenance, and water changes on Mondays. I desperately need to clean the fuge, again, and general tidying up. Chemical media is Chemipure, and chemipure elite, carbon, GFO, and biochem zorb in a canister. 9watt UV sterilizer run all the time, two protein skimmers, rated for 75 gallons each. 1, 4 bulb T5HO, and 1, 2 Bulb T5HO fixture over the the tank. Params. tested Friday were High Alk., low Calcium, Ph 8.2. I don't always test Amm., Nitrate, Nitrite, and Phosphate, becuase so far they've been zero. Sorry for the huge amount of info. I believe it to be better to have too much info. than not enough. Thanks.
So, it's been, almost 6 months. I have a Fungia, green tree, green star polyps, Blastomussa merletti, and wellsi, red mushrooms, two different colors of zoas, and colt/kenya tree corals. Also, some kind of anemone I bought for $5, as a polyp. Fish: Purple firefish, reg. firefish, two ocelleris clowns, yellow watchman goby, lawnmower blenny, bangaii cardinal, one p.j. cardinal, yellow tang, neon cleaner goby, a sixline wrasse, and two p.j. cardinals in my 20H quarantine/hospital/frag tank. I added a HOB fuge, with chaeto, and two clip on bedside lamps, with two daylight flourescents over it. My live rock has shifted some, and I've rearranged it a bit. I was having huge issues with cyano., until I read that you should be vacuuming the gravel, as maintenance, and that cured that. My zoas are still, sort of, dissappearing, slowly. I got the sixline to deal with, what I think was a pyramidellid snail, but now, am not sure it was. I found several snail hitchhikers, and they looked like pictures I found. Removed what I could of them, and prayed. My green tree coral won't open, and it's been a week, and a half. I'm getting some kind of brown slime strings attached, and waving around, that are easily waved off with my hand. My zoas are reproducing, the kenya is huge, compared to it's original size, the green star polyps spread some, the anemone has gotten bigger, and the other corals are too new to have grown much. I started adding Purpleup, and that's when my green stars started to spread. I, finally, got my API test kits in(Reef master, and Saltwater master), tested all the parameters, and decided to get some Superbuffer DKH, added the suggested amount, ordered a Calcium additive, added some to raise calcium, started to add kalk. before that, for a while, and have been trying to get the water params. stable for a few weeks, now. Every time I test, I get different levels. Too low alk. one week, too low calcium, after I dosed alk., kalk. seems to make no difference, because I don't get enough evap. to add very much.(Approx. 1 1/2 liter per night.) I do weekly 10 to 15 gallon water changes, with reef crystals. I still use wll water. I re-read Ace's 75 gallon build, and will start to rinse my frozen food, before I add, but I'm lost. I've read a ton on additives, and still don't understand it all. Read the reefcentral kalk., and additive articles, and feel I'm not dosing enough Kalk., but can't do more without lowering the salinity. Heeellllpppp!!! The corals aren't all happy, and I know I'm not dosing correctly. Fish are fine, but I've had corals closed, and wierd test readings. I don't, totally, understand what people mean when they say "balanced " calcium, alk., and pH. I've lost a finger leather that I believe was in poor shape when I bought it, some zoas, a rock of Mushrooms I bought at Petco(they keep them under T8's for crying out loud, I bought them too late. From now on I buy them only one or two days in the store, no later.), so, nothing that I can tell was really my fault, but am afraid of losing the green tree or more. Any advice on kalk. dosing, additives, and general helpful comments would be great. Some corals are fine, and others not so much. Pics. are from today. I do my maintenance, and water changes on Mondays. I desperately need to clean the fuge, again, and general tidying up. Chemical media is Chemipure, and chemipure elite, carbon, GFO, and biochem zorb in a canister. 9watt UV sterilizer run all the time, two protein skimmers, rated for 75 gallons each. 1, 4 bulb T5HO, and 1, 2 Bulb T5HO fixture over the the tank. Params. tested Friday were High Alk., low Calcium, Ph 8.2. I don't always test Amm., Nitrate, Nitrite, and Phosphate, becuase so far they've been zero. Sorry for the huge amount of info. I believe it to be better to have too much info. than not enough. Thanks.
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