darwin604 Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I was just helping my brother with his 26 gal reef tank and since his alk tested low, I followed the directions on the Kent alk buffer powder. Added about a teaspoon dissolved in water. Shortly after almost all the corals in the tank shrank up. Overnght the GSP seemed to come back out and the pocilopora polyps seemed to be coming back out. However the other corals all seem very stressed (montipora digitata polyps have shrunk into little specs), brain coral has shrunk up, even anthelias have contracted. Is this normal? BTW, kH level is not significantly higher than before the buffer was dosed. All other params (temp, SG, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, etc - tested them ALL) are in check. Any idea whats going on? I have a feeling that the alk buffer caused this but I dont know why, and what to do about it. d. Link to comment
Acoustic Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 You acclimated your corals when you put it in your tank right? You still need to treat them the same way. You are not supposed to make a huge kh jump. It needs to be added slowly slowly over time. Link to comment
Physh1 Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Exactly....if it was really low you can't just bump it to ideal levels w/o acclimation. It is stressful to corals. The corals will likely be fine but next time slowly correct it over a few days....not all at once. Cameron Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted March 7, 2004 Share Posted March 7, 2004 corals shrink up over lots of things anyway. You might drip the stuff in slowly and they will still shrink up. If people dropped a pH probe in their tanks before adding lots of this stuff I think they wouldn't be so surprised... Link to comment
darwin604 Posted March 7, 2004 Author Share Posted March 7, 2004 I actually added a tespoon of the stuff - which is what it said on the bottle. It basically said add a teaspoon, wait a day, test, add another teaspoon . . etc until the right kH level is attained. Next time I'll add it in smaller increments. The corals all seem to be coming back to their normal selves - I was just really worried since the polyps on my monti digi were shrunk up into little specs . . looked like it was about to croak. anyways, lesson learned, next dosage I add I'll add slower. Thanks for the advice. d. Link to comment
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