bryopsis help!!!!!

[My2heartboys]

You can use epson salts to raise your mag levels very easly so be careful,say a cup and a half to a gal. of ro/di [just make sure it all desolves, you can probably add even more but that should be close] and add to high flow area. The amount of the mix you add depends on your tank size, so add and test mag levels. It well stay up on its own for quite awhile, it well take quite along time to get it down again without doing big water changes which won't hurt alot.

Yeeaahh, uuhh, just tried that and my fish started acting freaky as well as the sarco that I have. Must not have liked the sulfate--so will try to get some other mag supplement later. Sarco curled up and started to pull in its tentacles, skunk clown went in and hid under sarco (which is not unusual--but just acted a little more freaky), nemo (our true clown) went and hid under a large clam shell that is in there and blue damsel just didn't quite know what to do.

Boy, talk about a hands on lesson with chemistry, I only had that drip going for about 5-10 minutes. I started noticing that behavior and turned it off asap. I would guess that only a few milliliters went in.

Sarco is still acting a little freaky, but I think it will settle down.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

sorry to hear that,I don't know what happened as alot of people have used this method, I believe Randy Holmes Farley even mentions using epson salts. I used it to raise my mag levels a couple yrs ago per Mikes [mojo] advice and had no problems. I did not even trip it I just poured a little, say 1/4 gal at a time in my sump and tested and had no problems,that was on a 75. Did you buy it from the drugstore and make sure it is pure eptson salts. It should be fine but if for some unknown reason its not working for sure discontinue.

 

[tacocat]

Which species of urchin?

 

[My2heartboys]

sorry to hear that,I don't know what happened as alot of people have used this method, I believe Randy Holmes Farley even mentions using epson salts. I used it to raise my mag levels a couple yrs ago per Mikes [mojo] advice and had no problems. I did not even trip it I just poured a little, say 1/4 gal at a time in my sump and tested and had no problems,that was on a 75. Did you buy it from the drugstore and make sure it is pure eptson salts. It should be fine but if for some unknown reason its not working for sure discontinue.

Yes, it says Magnesium Sulfate U.S.P. MgSo(4). 7H(2)O and it is the Swan brand. Not sure why it did not work as well, but it didn't. It also could've been me just being really ancy about it and misinterpreting behaviors because I am so new at this.

What ever it was, I stopped the drip immediately and so far there has been no harm evident. Everybody in the tank is acting pretty happy and relaxed. Also what ever it was also affected my pimpled shrooms. Had on shrivel itself up to where it looked like a cup or bowl. Talk about a "whoa dude" moment.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne Epson salts shouldn't effect anything if dosed right. I poured it into my sump atleast a half gallon at a time slowly, slowly meaning it took me a minute and i'm being conservative with you so as not to have you do things to fast. You should get on reef central and go to the chemistry forum on there, it is run be Randy-Holmes-Farley and he is the guru og chemistry. You alsoive in spokane I see, you have one of the best guys around you there is in Kevin at Aquatic Dreams, use him, he is a great guy and loves to help people. The reason for using epson salts is it well raise you mag. very quickly as I stated above and to raise your mag to 1500 using commercial fish store mag additives would take alot of product and would stress stuff worse from the volume you would have to use. Unless you have been keeping sps, in which case you have to watch your mag levels along with other chems., your mag levels are probably low to begin with. You need to get a good mag test kit before doing anything, don't skimp on price, say a salifert kit and it sounds like you need to read some of Randys stuff on dosing mag. and atleast talk to Kevin, he is a sponsor on this site. Good luck and take it slow, you can always keep pruning. Also are you running a ggod quality protein skimmer and doing water changes? If this alge is growing as bed as you say it sounds like you have some water quality issues that need to be addressed.

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne Epson salts shouldn't effect anything if dosed right. I poured it into my sump atleast a half gallon at a time slowly, slowly meaning it took me a minute and i'm being conservative with you so as not to have you do things to fast. You should get on reef central and go to the chemistry forum on there, it is run be Randy-Holmes-Farley and he is the guru og chemistry. You alsoive in spokane I see, you have one of the best guys around you there is in Kevin at Aquatic Dreams, use him, he is a great guy and loves to help people. The reason for using epson salts is it well raise you mag. very quickly as I stated above and to raise your mag to 1500 using commercial fish store mag additives would take alot of product and would stress stuff worse from the volume you would have to use. Unless you have been keeping sps, in which case you have to watch your mag levels along with other chems., your mag levels are probably low to begin with. You need to get a good mag test kit before doing anything, don't skimp on price, say a salifert kit and it sounds like you need to read some of Randys stuff on dosing mag. and atleast talk to Kevin, he is a sponsor on this site. Good luck and take it slow, you can always keep pruning. Also are you running a ggod quality protein skimmer and doing water changes? If this alge is growing as bed as you say it sounds like you have some water quality issues that need to be addressed.

Right now I was just curious as to what product Hooked had used. My main problem is getting my mag levels up and keeping them where they need to be. Don't have a whole lot in my tank--but what I did have had a negative reaction to the epsom salt and I was using a Kent doser dripping it in slowly. Not sure why they reacted the way they did, but think I will stick to products developed for aquarium use. I do plan on switching to powdered supplements at the beginning of the month so that will give me more product for my money.

Other than mag levels being current problem, I have a little bit of red slime (I think) growing on sand and rocks. I have been siphoning the stuff off like crazy, but seems to grow as fast as I can siphon. More of a nuisence than anything. On the first I will be getting some Kent's Poly-ox or something similar (as long as it is not an antibiotic) and use it. After the recommended time, I will change out a substancial amount of water as well as all of my filter media. I did notice that it seemed to recede the day that my mag levels made it up where it should have been.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Its sounds like you have a nutrient problem if you have cyno also. Are you running a protein skimmer? That would be the very first thing I would want and run one rated for twice the size your waqter volume is. What size tank do you have and are you running a sump? I would not put any of the cyno removers in your tank. They make your skimmer goe crazy and it stresses you inhabidents. You need to address the issue of the nutrients in the water that is feeding this stuff. Water changes, really good skimmer. sump if possible instead of cannister filters and no bio balls or such. Keep any filter media fresh, It sounds like if you did a nitrate test I bet they would be pretty high, for sure your phos. levels are.

 

[DrDeano]

for what is worth i am with Anne on this one... after four years of reefkeeping, bryopsis in my tank... corals doing perfectly fine... just don't go crazy chasing every little thing that ends up in your tank... (good prevention for insanity)... what I can promise you is that if you keep going after every "bad" tank inhabitant in the system you will ultimately destroy more than what you would had you just left well enough alone... 'tis the way of the ocean after all... IMO

Dean

 

[My2heartboys]

Its sounds like you have a nutrient problem if you have cyno also. Are you running a protein skimmer? That would be the very first thing I would want and run one rated for twice the size your waqter volume is. What size tank do you have and are you running a sump? I would not put any of the cyno removers in your tank. They make your skimmer goe crazy and it stresses you inhabidents. You need to address the issue of the nutrients in the water that is feeding this stuff. Water changes, really good skimmer. sump if possible instead of cannister filters and no bio balls or such. Keep any filter media fresh, It sounds like if you did a nitrate test I bet they would be pretty high, for sure your phos. levels are.

Actually, John, my trate and phosphate are fine. I use pura complete in my fluval and checked all my levels yesterday. All are fine....except that blasted magnesium. I will be doing a waterchange within the week.....gotta wait for payday to get enough RODI water. I cannot ditch my fluval as that is part of water movement system--don't have room for power head at the moment. Below is the link to what I was talking about. Yes, I do have a tendancy to overfeed just a tad and it also didn't help that I found out that my intake pipes were partially clogged up earlier this week which fouled up water movement. Didn't help the problem any. I also plan on doing heavy skimming before, during, and for a couple of days after treatment as well as a massive water change and changing all of my filtration media.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/marined...ime-remover-64-oz-additives--kent-marine.html

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Hey Dean did you mean John? Anne I would not use that stuff. It gets things out of whack. You need to get your water movement fixed and DON'T overfeed. What size is your tank and what do you have that needs feeding?

 

[My2heartboys]

Hey Dean did you mean John? Anne I would not use that stuff. It gets things out of whack. You need to get your water movement fixed and DON'T overfeed. What size is your tank and what do you have that needs feeding?

Currently I have 3 fish, 3 clams, 3 types of corals, hermit crabs, and peppermint shrimp to feed. Yes, I know I need to cut down on feedings. I am currently trying to fix that problem and clean up this stuff and get my mg levels all up at the same time. Why am I stressing? Because a little boy who stands to lose his eyesight that loves looking at corals wants to put a bubble coral frag in my tank for me. That will happen first friday in Nov (hopefully), I will extend that if I have to to get all of this straightened out (although I am under time constraints not only because of this little boy, but also one of the LFS is holding the coral for me (him).

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

Its sounds like you have a nutrient problem if you have cyno also. Are you running a protein skimmer? That would be the very first thing I would want and run one rated for twice the size your waqter volume is. What size tank do you have and are you running a sump? I would not put any of the cyno removers in your tank. They make your skimmer goe crazy and it stresses you inhabidents. You need to address the issue of the nutrients in the water that is feeding this stuff. Water changes, really good skimmer. sump if possible instead of cannister filters and no bio balls or such. Keep any filter media fresh, It sounds like if you did a nitrate test I bet they would be pretty high, for sure your phos. levels are.

Yes, I am running a CPR Bac Pac skimmer. Not sure what model it is, but if I remember correctly, it is one rated for 80-100 gallons. My tank is roughly 45 gallons and I do not (absolutely) do not have room for a sump. I will look at the possibility of ditching the cannister filter, but hate to as it is also serving to help with water movement and it was one that was given to me.

Anne

 

[Knowledgeseeker]

wow, i just want to thank everyone for taking the time they have to responde to this thread. I am going to work on uping mag. You guys all rock. thanks again.

 

[iwantone]

don't forget to cover your intakes or nudibranchs will meet their demise

 

[fishermann]

Anne I'm sorry I thought you were the originator of this thread when you came back with yeahhhh-uhuh, I didn't realize we had switched people here. I guess you don't have a Bryopsis problem either. You evidently have been keeping your levels up since you have clams. To raise your levels from being low epson salts work great, to maintain them use the other products as they well not make much of a dent ion low mag levels but work better to maintain. If all you have is a red cyno problem I would just work on getting your water flow working and make sure your doing frequent water changes and cut way down on your feeding until you get this under control. I hope your not feeding anything but the fish, you don't need to feed the coals or clams, unless the clams are realy small say under 2". I see you don't live in Spokane either LOL. Again sorry for the confusion. P.S. Canister filters are okay if you clean them weekly, but most people don't and they become a big nitrate factory, myself I would rather have a hang on filter since it is in your view and is alot easier to clean.

 

[My2heartboys]

Its sounds like you have a nutrient problem if you have cyno also. Are you running a protein skimmer? That would be the very first thing I would want and run one rated for twice the size your waqter volume is. What size tank do you have and are you running a sump? I would not put any of the cyno removers in your tank. They make your skimmer goe crazy and it stresses you inhabidents. You need to address the issue of the nutrients in the water that is feeding this stuff. Water changes, really good skimmer. sump if possible instead of cannister filters and no bio balls or such. Keep any filter media fresh, It sounds like if you did a nitrate test I bet they would be pretty high, for sure your phos. levels are.

BTW-I started a drip of kalkwasser this evening and suddenly my skimmer is going crazy!

This is the reason why I think my problem is more chemical. I would get my mag levels up and skimmer would produce skimmate, mag levels fall--not much skimmate. The puzzler is this one. I will have to be sure to very carefully check all of my levels tomorrow morning.

I agree that it is a nutrient problem.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Never heard that one about the skimmer, maybe your right I just have never heard that. What is your Mag levels. Evendently you don't have the bryopsis problem, so if your mag levels are around 1290 why do you want to raise them? Maybe hooked can post an answer to your question.

 

[My2heartboys]

Never heard that one about the skimmer, maybe your right I just have never heard that. What is your Mag levels. Evendently you don't have the bryopsis problem, so if your mag levels are around 1290 why do you want to raise them? Maybe hooked can post an answer to your question.

Because currently I am trying to get my mag levels up where they need to be, but it is taking a whole boatload of Tech M to do it. Dealing with low mag levels and when I do get them up, it was above recommended high for one day and then the bottom dropped out....again......yet......still. Reason #2 I am leaning more toward getting as many of my supplements in powdered form as I can.

BTW-as of this morning the level was not even in the 1200 zone.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne go to Reef Central and click on forums, click on reef chemistry forum in the expert forum section- moderator Randy-Holmes-Farley,click on chemistry articles and scroll down and click on mag. in reef aquaria, towards the bottom of that article he talks about using epson salts and to raise levels up and how fast to do it, he also mentions sulfates but you won't be using that much to worry about it. I had to raise mine from 1080's up to 1290 and until mike told me about epson salts I never would have made it. Mike also had the same issue in his 650 and was literlaly adding gallon upon gallon of Jon Warners Mag additive and was not making much head way until he did the epson salt thing. Randy also in the article talks about how it would take a very large amount of of the store stuff to effect levels much because it has very low levels of mag in the bottle.

 

[fishermann]

Anne you mentioned last nite you are bdripping Kalk, I would keep doing that instead of using the powder additives,JMO. With Kalk your alk and calc. well stay in balance naturally, to where with the powders you well have to dose each as needed and watch the levels. If you are switching to powder add. to get the other elements I have found doing water changes pretty much takes care of those. I was using Sea chems Reef advantage and Reef Builder and that was supposed to supply mag and that is when I found out my mag was at 1080. I have used Kalk for over a year now and love the steadiness it gives me on my alk and calc. which after talking to Kevinpo I keep at natual sw levels and my corals have been doing great. I use Jon Warners Kalk PLUS product which does not blow around in the air so easily and seems to be keeping my mag levels right on. It is calc. oxide instead of calc. hydroxide and I swear by the stuff. I use 2 level teaspns per gallon of ro/di water. He is the only one that makes it and is of the highest grade chem made. Go to his site and read about it warnermarine.com, it is hard to find, you can call Jon or you can get from either Premium aquatic or Custom Aquaic, can't remember which since I order alot at once and it last along time.