bryopsis help!!!!!

[NaH2O]

Anne - can you list out all your parameters? salinity, Ca, Alk, Mg, etc etc etc

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne - can you list out all your parameters? salinity, Ca, Alk, Mg, etc etc etc

Yes I can. Some of the tests I did Monday with my usual weekly testing and some I did this morning. If you can give me a bit I will do so. In trying to siphon off all of this stuff (polite word) I am bouncing between the kitchen sink, computer, and tank. I want to try to get most of it off of my sand before putting down a small dose of Poly Ox--that way hopefully I won't have to use it much.

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne - can you list out all your parameters? salinity, Ca, Alk, Mg, etc etc etc

Monday

Amm 0
Nitrite .05 (just enough to trip test but not enough to really count)
Nitrate 0
phos 0

Today

SG Between 1.024 and 1.025
pH 8.2
Alk 13 degrees
Ca 440
Mg 1225

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne If the alk reading is 13 DKH that is on the very high side and should be lowered. Some people run theirs around 9 or 10 dkh and that is about as high as you want to get, allowing for test kit errors. I run mine at 8.0 to 8.5 area. Your calc. is plenty high also, but not as bad as your alk. Your mag is low compared to the other levels but not all that bad, there is some room for error from the test kits. Maybe Nikki has some thoughts.

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne If the alk reading is 13 DKH that is on the very high side and should be lowered. Some people run theirs around 9 or 10 dkh and that is about as high as you want to get, allowing for test kit errors. I run mine at 8.0 to 8.5 area. Your calc. is plenty high also, but not as bad as your alk. Your mag is low compared to the other levels but not all that bad, there is some room for error from the test kits. Maybe Nikki has some thoughts.

OK, short of changing out a whole bunch of water, how do I lower it. Please stick to products made for use in marine aquariums. Will putting in some buffer lower it?

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne you said you were dripping Kalk, well I would quit dripping that and quit adding anything until you levels drop down. You can do water changes and that should help but you want to test you sw after you mix it to see what it levels are, different brands have different levels, such as oceanic has really high calc. and low alk.. It well take awhile to drop them most likely several weeks without doing big water changes, but your levels are not life threatening to any thing. I would shoot for 380 to 410 calc., 8 to 8.5 alk. and of course 1290 mag or there abouts. Did you go to reef central and read the suggested article? It would really be worth your time. Not adding anything for awhile might drop your PH but as long as it doesn't drop below 7.8 things won't mind. You don't want to add any Ph buffer during this time because it well raise you Alk also even though they don't tell you this, and right now your Alk is alittle high in relationship to your calc., so you don't want to raise it anymore. Try to read that article if you can.

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne you said you were dripping Kalk, well I would quit dripping that and quit adding anything until you levels drop down. You can do water changes and that should help but you want to test you sw after you mix it to see what it levels are, different brands have different levels, such as oceanic has really high calc. and low alk.. It well take awhile to drop them most likely several weeks without doing big water changes, but your levels are not life threatening to any thing. I would shoot for 380 to 410 calc., 8 to 8.5 alk. and of course 1290 mag or there abouts. Did you go to reef central and read the suggested article? It would really be worth your time. Not adding anything for awhile might drop your PH but as long as it doesn't drop below 7.8 things won't mind. You don't want to add any Ph buffer during this time because it well raise you Alk also even though they don't tell you this, and right now your Alk is alittle high in relationship to your calc., so you don't want to raise it anymore. Try to read that article if you can.

I am trying to read the alkalinity article and have tried to read some others of his in the past, but have had one problem. A lot of it goes way over my head. I have not kept it a secret that math and chemistry are my weak areas, although I will try again to read his articles.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne believe me when I say your no worse then I am. Alot of his articles are pretty thick LOL!. I have had tanks since the late 70's except for when we lived on a sailboat for 10 yrs. When I got back into it this time we had all these corals that were being kept with pretty decent success. I have had a really big learning curve since getting back in in 2000. I have had alot of help from people in our club here in the NW. I read all I have time for and I am happy if I understand about 20% of it LOL!. Anyway I can't talk all the chem talk alot can, but I have found the most important tnings to be are good husbandry, a really good skimmer, and keeping your water parims around nat. sw. levels. and the rest well come to you as time goes on. His articles can overload your brain, that is why I just suggested the one on Mag. in the aquaria., since your main concern was raising your mag. levels, the rest you can read when you feel ready. I read your adding some of the product to rid the red cyno. Remember that for every additive you put in your tank there is going to be a reaction to it.

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne believe me when I say your no worse then I am. Alot of his articles are pretty thick LOL!. I have had tanks since the late 70's except for when we lived on a sailboat for 10 yrs. When I got back into it this time we had all these corals that were being kept with pretty decent success. I have had a really big learning curve since getting back in in 2000. I have had alot of help from people in our club here in the NW. I read all I have time for and I am happy if I understand about 20% of it LOL!. Anyway I can't talk all the chem talk alot can, but I have found the most important tnings to be are good husbandry, a really good skimmer, and keeping your water parims around nat. sw. levels. and the rest well come to you as time goes on. His articles can overload your brain, that is why I just suggested the one on Mag. in the aquaria., since your main concern was raising your mag. levels, the rest you can read when you feel ready. I read your adding some of the product to rid the red cyno. Remember that for every additive you put in your tank there is going to be a reaction to it.

I haven't done water tests this morning, yet, but I am watching the tank closely for any adverse reactions. So far all I see is my skimmer going crazy-but given the problem, I don't see how that will hurt any.

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne you said you were dripping Kalk, well I would quit dripping that and quit adding anything until you levels drop down. You can do water changes and that should help but you want to test you sw after you mix it to see what it levels are, different brands have different levels, such as oceanic has really high calc. and low alk.. It well take awhile to drop them most likely several weeks without doing big water changes, but your levels are not life threatening to any thing. I would shoot for 380 to 410 calc., 8 to 8.5 alk. and of course 1290 mag or there abouts. Did you go to reef central and read the suggested article? It would really be worth your time. Not adding anything for awhile might drop your PH but as long as it doesn't drop below 7.8 things won't mind. You don't want to add any Ph buffer during this time because it well raise you Alk also even though they don't tell you this, and right now your Alk is alittle high in relationship to your calc., so you don't want to raise it anymore. Try to read that article if you can.

dKH is down a point this morning. In addition to applying the Poly Ox (so I hopefully won't have to apply it more than half a dozen times), I am siphoning all that I can out with a turkey baster and I think I will reduce to photo period. Instead of the lights going on at noon and staying on until 10pm, I am going to turn the lights on about 3-4pm and off at 9-10pm for a couple of days. Then right after re-starting full photo period, I will do a massive water change that would include changing filter media, vacuuming the sandbed, cleaning hoses and intake pipes, doing a good RO rinse on all biomedia (no soap no vineager). Does that sound like overkill?

I am trying to remain true to what I think about supplements by not totally depending on just the addition of Poly Ox only, but also trying to help the supplement out by siphoning and keeping the photo period down. My hope is that by Monday--I will be done with all of this and can do the water change and all of that.

Anne

 

[fishermann]

Anne sounds like a plan, just remember good water flow is very important and really-really watch the feeding. Don,t feed anything but the fish, the rest well take care of itself, and your life well be a whole lot less stressful. Don't fall into these adds for this food and that food you need to feed for your corals to grow. They well do just fine off of the fish waste and nutrients that are in your water column. Keep that cannister filter cleaned atleast once a week. Unless you have very exotic fish, you only need to feed once a day, I have left my fish for 4 or 5 days while on a short trip and they all survived, so just because you walk by the tank and they all come to the glass don't reach for the food, they are no different then a dog, always acts hungry. As long as theie belly area looks full and not pinched they are being well fed.
Get your parims down, not to fast, you don't want to drop your Alk all at once,say take a week, since you have clams. If you like dripping Kalk, once your parims are where they ought to be use it, it well keep things in balance and well help keep your PH up and some claim it binds Phosphates up.
The only other thing to remember is the test kits themselves can be off. I just had a friend call me in a panic cause his alk was almost 16 dkh and he didn't know how it had gotten there. He had went out and purchased a sea chem test kit and I told him to try a different one, another friend had a LaMotte which are expensive but very good and his Alk was fine. Get more then one brand of kit and test against each other. Slaifert is really good brand, Fast test is pretty good kit, personally I don't care for Sea Chem kits, I haven't had good luck with their results being accurate.
Well hope some of this has helped and you can always refer back to it and read all you can and don't get to caught up in the chem. stuff except to understand where the readings ought to be. I like Randy's articles towards the end, cause he always tells you how you can correct things and that is a help, also a lot of his articles are for the do it yourself crowd, so they can make up solutions themselves. I don't know an ion from a bon-bon, but I do know where my levels should be and that is 400 cal.,8.0 dkh alk.,8.0-8.2 ph, 1.025 sal. 1290 roughly mag.. Some people get into all of these being spot on, I have found that well drive you nuts, just try to stay in the ball park.
Hope this has helped you some and go slow and don't get discouraged.

 

[Boomer]

Anne

Leave the tank alone The water parameters are fine para the slightly elevated Alk. It will come down on its own, leave it alone. Your Mg is just a tad low at 1225, normal NSW islike almost 1300 ppm. If you want to boost up the Mg add some magnesium chloride or magnesium sulfate to get it to 1300 ppm but I would wait till the Alk comes down into the 10's The Ca is also a tad to high but many run it at those levels. Stop supplementing the tank until the paramteres are in line i.e. Ca 400-420, Alk 9-10 dKH

Yes, Jon makes very good stuff

Things for you to read;

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters (a summary general article)
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

Magnesium in Reef Aquaria
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne

Leave the tank alone The water parameters are fine para the slightly elevated Alk. It will come down on its own, leave it alone. Your Mg is just a tad low at 1225, normal NSW islike almost 1300 ppm. If you want to boost up the Mg add some magnesium chloride or magnesium sulfate to get it to 1300 ppm but I would wait till the Alk comes down into the 10's The Ca is also a tad to high but many run it at those levels. Stop supplementing the tank until the paramteres are in line i.e. Ca 400-420, Alk 9-10 dKH

Yes, Jon makes very good stuff

Things for you to read;

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters (a summary general article)
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

How to Select a Calcium and Alkalinity Supplementation Scheme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

Magnesium in Reef Aquaria
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

They better be right after this!!!! I just changed out 11-12 gallons of a roughly 45 gallon tank. ooooohhhhhh me back!!!!!!!

Anne

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne sounds like a plan, just remember good water flow is very important and really-really watch the feeding. Don,t feed anything but the fish, the rest well take care of itself, and your life well be a whole lot less stressful. Don't fall into these adds for this food and that food you need to feed for your corals to grow. They well do just fine off of the fish waste and nutrients that are in your water column. Keep that cannister filter cleaned atleast once a week. Unless you have very exotic fish, you only need to feed once a day, I have left my fish for 4 or 5 days while on a short trip and they all survived, so just because you walk by the tank and they all come to the glass don't reach for the food, they are no different then a dog, always acts hungry. As long as theie belly area looks full and not pinched they are being well fed.
Get your parims down, not to fast, you don't want to drop your Alk all at once,say take a week, since you have clams. If you like dripping Kalk, once your parims are where they ought to be use it, it well keep things in balance and well help keep your PH up and some claim it binds Phosphates up.
The only other thing to remember is the test kits themselves can be off. I just had a friend call me in a panic cause his alk was almost 16 dkh and he didn't know how it had gotten there. He had went out and purchased a sea chem test kit and I told him to try a different one, another friend had a LaMotte which are expensive but very good and his Alk was fine. Get more then one brand of kit and test against each other. Slaifert is really good brand, Fast test is pretty good kit, personally I don't care for Sea Chem kits, I haven't had good luck with their results being accurate.
Well hope some of this has helped and you can always refer back to it and read all you can and don't get to caught up in the chem. stuff except to understand where the readings ought to be. I like Randy's articles towards the end, cause he always tells you how you can correct things and that is a help, also a lot of his articles are for the do it yourself crowd, so they can make up solutions themselves. I don't know an ion from a bon-bon, but I do know where my levels should be and that is 400 cal.,8.0 dkh alk.,8.0-8.2 ph, 1.025 sal. 1290 roughly mag.. Some people get into all of these being spot on, I have found that well drive you nuts, just try to stay in the ball park.
Hope this has helped you some and go slow and don't get discouraged.

Well, in an attempt to gain what I thought would be victory over that bleeping stuff, I siphoned the sandbed and took 11 gallons water with it. I get all of the water added back----then it dawns on me. I can't truly get rid of this bleeping stuff until I take all of my filters off line and cleaned them. wwwwaaaaaaaaa

My weekend is planned for me. Here are post w/c values

SG 1.025 (low side of it)
dKH 10 degrees
Ca 440
Mg 1063

Stuck without a thermometer until tomorrow.

Anne

 

[Boomer]

What kind of salt are you using ? You just lost 150 ppm Mg

 

[My2heartboys]

What kind of salt are you using ? You just lost 150 ppm Mg

IO-----yes, know I should probably use another brand, but too chicken to switch.

Anne

 

[Boomer]

No, you have the right salt IO

 

[My2heartboys]

No, you have the right salt IO

I figure it is good enough----even if I do go bonkers between calcium and magnesium levels. Right now I will just be happy to get rid of this bleeping red slime.

Finally figured out that I had to take my charcoal and the pura complete out of my filters. Now maybe the stuff that I bought will work. So far it has stressed the fish out less than me having my hands in and out of the aquarium all evening, course they were not too happy with me today. I decided to take everything off line one by one and take it apart to clean it, even cleaned the biomatter in the skimmer (no I did not clean my bio wheel or the plastic biomatter in my fluval).

I am praying that nothing really disasterous happens over the next few days as I have basically no chemical filtration (will replace that when I get rid of the slime). I got all excited last night cause I thought I would finally beat it with the massive water change and siphoning a bunch of the stuff off of the sand bed----then it dawned on me that I had to clean the equipment too.

Anne