My 300 Gallon sps tank

[DevonM]

Looking good Charlie! I was wondering about "tilting" the lights a little...

 

[CarlaW]

I have no idea why I didn't move them right off the bat Devon, just bein stubborn. All I have to do is keep the center brace clean, and that just became part of my regular maintenance .

 

[sedrostyle]

Well................... instead of moving coral, I moved the lites. Moved the inside 2 fixtures 8" in, and moved the outer 2 fixtures 3" in. What a freaking brainstorm huh?]

Righteous dude! It looks awesome. How is everything liking the new lights?

 

[CarlaW]

So far so good, I haven't fried anything yet.

 

[sedrostyle]

Tank looks awesome. What part of Montana are you in if you don't mind me asking.
I will have to setup something with you this summer when I go see my buddy in Troy.

 

[CarlaW]

Columbia Falls, not real far. And thank you .

 

[sedrostyle]

Any updated closer pictures?

 

[CarlaW]

I think if you look back you can see some closeup pics of the stuff in there, I am having an alk problem right now, and things are lookin kinda different, hope I can settle out the alk and get back to normal.

 

[sedrostyle]

What does your alkalinity usuly run at? You have to dose I'm guessing. How much do you go through with a tank like that.
I'm thinking of converting my tank over to mostly sps. But scared of it eating everything up.

 

[CarlaW]

I try to keep it above 8dkh. When it is steady, I dose about 3 times a week, maybe a cup of baking/water mix. I am not really all that scientific. Last water test it was 10.5dkh, I haven't dosed at all this week .

 

[sedrostyle]

I need to research some home remedies for keeping alk and calcium and magnesium stable.
I didn't know baking soda would do this.

 

[CarlaW]

The mixture I make is 4 cups baking soda to 4 gallons of water. Just do a little searching around on here, there is plenty of info on home mixes. Bulk Reef Supply is a good place to look to.

 

[sedrostyle]

Does the baking soda raise the alk or just hold it steady?

 

[sedrostyle]

How much calcium do you use up?

 

[CarlaW]

In my experience it helps raise it. There was something on BRS that says if your Ph is 8.3 or above, you should switch to sodium carbonate to maintain it. It's possible I did not do this soon enuf. I could cut back on my kalkwasser drip and let the Ph come down, or start using the sodium carb that I have. I wish like hell I was a chem major

 

[CarlaW]

My calcium stays at 400 to 420. Don't ask me how much of that I dose , it is pretty random.

 

[sedrostyle]

Ok good so it's not a real science experiment and you don't need a chem major to maintain it
And you just use home baking soda correct. Not the BRS stuff
Definitely going to look into the home stuff compared to dumping bottles of spendy additives.

 

[CarlaW]

This really isn't rocket science, your critters will let you know how they feel. All the error here is human error and not paying attention. If I was testing every week instead of every two weeks, I would have nailed this before I really f****** things up . My bad

 

[LostCreekReefer]

Re: lights positioned over tank...Yeah...that's what I was thinking about. Looks better to me, now we see if your corals agree?.. Re: Alk: I use the BRS stuff buy it in bulk and it seems to work fine, not all that spendy vs. buying some of the liquid additives.

 

[CarlaW]

Well, I have some work to do Kevin. My alkalinity has gone thru the roof and I am losing sps tips as we speak. SOLUTION BY DILUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am gonna be busy this week with 30 gallon water changes til it hurts, and then I will just bend over and do more until I can mellow this out. Operator error is what we will chalk this one up to .