peladow- long term use good or bad?

[sarmo]

i know calcium chloride is a great way to increase our systems calcium but i've had some trouble lately and i'm wondering if peladow could be responsible? is there anyone out there that has used peladow for over a couple years? and have you had any problems? do you think there is any impurities in peladow that over time could cause problems?

just looking for a reason for the fish and coral i've lost lately

 

[CarlaW]

Let me bump this for ya, Boomer has to get here sometime!!!

 

[gman0526]

I gather that you've lost some livestock, but could you be more specific as to what problems are you having? How are your chem. parameters, other than fine ? What makes you wonder if it's the Peladow causing whatever problem you seem to have?

 

[NaH2O]

Is Peladow the same as Dow Flake? Post up your water parameters, and we can have a peek.

 

[steve-s]

I would think the Peladow would be the better of the two although cost may the the deciding factor...?

<<Peladow>> .... <<Dowflake>>

You would need to be mindful to mix outside the tank and might not want to add immediately. The Peladow could generate a decent amount of heat.

Cheers
Steve

 

[sarmo]

sorry for the late response, i've been perty sick. calcium 405, alk 8.6dKh, Mg 1300, temp 76-78degrees, phosphate not detectable, nitrate <10 mg/l, pH 8.1. salinity 1.023, i don't have a test kit for iodine.
i have lost one or two anthia, a fox face, a couple other fish. my coral loss started with a regression of star polyps and pulsing xenia. my sps is regressing or RTN'ing slowly, i had a complete die out of one type of pocillapora and now the rest is starting to die from the base up. most recently i have had a outbreak of hair algae.

my system has a mix of softies and stones and is probably a little over populated with fish. my main tank is 500gal with a very small 50gal sump. it started as freshwater tank and i converted it about 3 yrs ago. the reason the sump is so small is the space i have for it and the fack that i only have two 1 3/8" holes at opposing top corners for overflow into the sump. i have a EV240 skimmer in my sump (i know it is undersized but it fits in the space and considering the flow i get into my sump i thought it was the best choice).
been considering adding another one, protien skimmer, any thoughts on that?
thanks,
rob

 

[sarmo]

PS- this hasn't happened all at once, it has been an ongoing thing for about 7-8 months. also i can't keep any type of montipora alive. lighting- 3-400watt 10K and 4- 96watt actinic PC's. tank is 3feet tall x 3 feet wide x 8 feet long. i try to keep all the stonies from mid depth up.
some things are doing great, my hammer is growing and has been fragged a few times, my galaxia is growing and encrusting, my frogspawn has recently added a new head, i have a Platygyra maze coral that is encrusting and spreading, i have a hugh saddle leather, large figi leather, and a sinularia type softie that is growing like crazy.
some of my zooanthids are doing okay others are looking sick. i even lost a yongeii ( my favorite ) i thought those were supposed to be easy to keep???

if you know the answer please help

 

[gman0526]

Sorry you have been sick on top of everything else. You mentioned you had an algae outbreak, what did you do to take care of that? Your chem seems fine, other than Ca being somewhat low.

 

[sarmo]

all i've done so far is scrub it off with a bathroom tile brush. i does a decent job of removing the hair algae but i grows right back..... in about a week or two.

 

[steve-s]

Calcium is not going to be your issue. From what I can see, it's too many varying species. SPS will do very poorly in a tank with softies, especially with Sinularia, GSP and corallimorphs.

Do you run carbon and how often do you do water changes/how much water is changed?

Cheers
Steve