D Z Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 HAHA my wrasse does the same thing but not that early. Mine goes to sleep as soon as the lights start to dim on my LED's. Yeah, I am hoping that with time it will get used to my tank and stay up a little longer into the night. Well see..... Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Have you looked into AquaVitro Salinity. The only place I know that carries it is WWC. I may see if they can mail me some or I'll have to switch to something I can get regularly. Salinity (the bucket I have) only mixes 20 gallons,which works for me. But for you that'd only be just a few water changes. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I completely agree, which is why I have been so confused lately. My Alk was fine for a while, but it spiked when I was purposely overdosing Kent Tech M to try to kill bryopsis back in January. I have tested my water change water in the past to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong and at that time, it tested at 7.8, which is right where it should be. Ever since the incident where my alk spiked from the tech m, I have not been able to get it back down into the 8's. It has held steady around 10, even when I do a larger water change at around 40-50% of my water volume. It has been like this for about 5 months now and I really am at a loss as to what to do. I am bringing all of my SPS frags to Alex B's house tonight so he can hold them for me for a couple months so this can get sorted out. About 2 or 3 weeks ago I had a chance to test my refractometer against a digital pinpoint one and realized that it was calibrated to high, therefore my tank was at about 1.022 - 1.023. I have since corrected this and I will actually check my refractometer and tank water against the digital one again tonight. Hmm that is weird. The only think I can think of that will keep your Alk high would be either low Cal or Mag. Checking for correct salinity is a good idea though. Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 oh man sorry to hear about this. i had the same thing happen to all my sps finally said the hell with them for now. i'll keep my chalices, zoas, and now acans which i'm still getting a bug from. lol i'm sure alex will be able to keep them and probably grow and color up for ya. Link to comment
D Z Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Have you looked into AquaVitro Salinity. The only place I know that carries it is WWC. I may see if they can mail me some or I'll have to switch to something I can get regularly. Salinity (the bucket I have) only mixes 20 gallons,which works for me. But for you that'd only be just a few water changes. Hmm that is weird. The only think I can think of that will keep your Alk high would be either low Cal or Mag. Checking for correct salinity is a good idea though. oh man sorry to hear about this. i had the same thing happen to all my sps finally said the hell with them for now. i'll keep my chalices, zoas, and now acans which i'm still getting a bug from. lol i'm sure alex will be able to keep them and probably grow and color up for ya. Well, I brought all my SPS to Alex last night. When I got home last night, I had even more TN on some of the pieces, so it wasn't a moment too soon. Hopefully it wasn't too late, but Alex's tank is running great so fingers crossed that it works out. While I was there, we figured out what is definitely at least part of my problem. My salinity was way off. I thought I had corrected this a couple weeks ago, but I guess my refractometer was still calibrated too high. Therefore, my salinity in the display as of right now is 1.020!!! I honestly do not understand how it could have gone down more from when we tried to fix this last time(it was at 1.022 when Alex came over a couple weeks ago with the digital refractometer) Also, this really makes me wonder how my alk can be so high when my tank is at such a low salinity. Regardless, I will be topping off with saltwater, as well as doing multiple mini water changes over the next 3 - 4 days to bring it up to 1.026. Then, once my salinity is 100% where I want it, I will start re checking my alk and see where it goes. As for what is causing my refractometer to be consistently un-calibrated, I have no idea. But, I do have some calibration fluid that I can trust now, so hopefully we can put this behind us now. Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Man that's pretty strange for your refractometer. Hopefully this will solve the rtn problem. Hope after this it's smooth sailing for ya. You need to catch a break. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Why so much salinity trouble?!??!??! I dont understand. To me that is the only parameter that does not require work- just calibrate the refractometer every month to triple check (Even if not necessary) and top off with RO/DI. How could Salinity Fluctuate? Are you not topping off daily? Sorry- confused Link to comment
D Z Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Man that's pretty strange for your refractometer. Hopefully this will solve the rtn problem. Hope after this it's smooth sailing for ya. You need to catch a break. Yeah man, tell me about it. I still just don't understand what happened to it....just doesn't make sense. Why so much salinity trouble?!??!??! I dont understand. To me that is the only parameter that does not require work- just calibrate the refractometer every month to triple check (Even if not necessary) and top off with RO/DI. How could Salinity Fluctuate? Are you not topping off daily? Sorry- confused I totally agree, but for some reason I am either having trouble keeping my refractometer calibrated or it is randomly throwing out false readings somehow. I have an ATO, so it is not that. I have some good quality calibration fluid now, so I should be good. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Yeah man, tell me about it. I still just don't understand what happened to it....just doesn't make sense. I totally agree, but for some reason I am either having trouble keeping my refractometer calibrated or it is randomly throwing out false readings somehow. I have an ATO, so it is not that. I have some good quality calibration fluid now, so I should be good. Yeah thats defiantly weird. I calibrated mine (Red Sea) when I bought it, and a year later it was spot on. Question- you know that you HAVE to wipe it off between readings, right? Or else the evaporated salt water will leave extra salt, causing a false high reading. Could that be your issue? Wipe it off with your shirt Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 What are/were you calibrating it with? Rodi or the 35ppt calibrate. Link to comment
D Z Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Yeah thats defiantly weird. I calibrated mine (Red Sea) when I bought it, and a year later it was spot on. Question- you know that you HAVE to wipe it off between readings, right? Or else the evaporated salt water will leave extra salt, causing a false high reading. Could that be your issue? Wipe it off with your shirt Yeah, I actually typically clean it off with RODI and completely dry it in between readings as the Red Sea one can be very sensitive.Honestly, dude, I am as confused as you right now. I esp. don't understand how I could have gone even further lower, but at this point I just want to move forward. What are/were you calibrating it with? Rodi or the 35ppt calibrate. The last time I calibrated it I just used my tank water(which was 1.022 at the time). I knew it was 1.022 because it was checked with both another refractometer and the milwakee digital refractometer. I just corrected mine to show 1.022, instead of 1.026. Obviously, this either didn't work right, or it somehow got messed up since then. Prior to that, it had been a little while since I had calibrated it. I have an old bottle of cal. fluid, but I don't trust it. I also didn't really trust using rodi, but after getting it calibrated last night, it looks like it is actually pretty spot on 0 for rodi now. Alex gave me a bottle of cal. fluid to use for now, also, as a second source of accuracy. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Always calibrate the refracteometer with the solution provided or a vendor reccomended solution. At least you picked up on part of your problem. My guess now would be that as you were doing your water changes with low salinity water your parameters are just out of whack. Once your salinity gets back into allignment your parameters should level out with some frequent water changes. From there you can test to see weekly or daily consumption and go from there with dosing if required. With low Cal and Mag the corals can't process Alk efficiently, this will cause a build up even with water changes. I assume this is what you are experiencing now. Link to comment
Mirya Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Thanks dude. Me too, I just hate that it goes to sleep so early. It is usually in the sand sleeping by like 6pm, which I am almost never home from work by then, let alone hanging out in my bedroom at that time of the night. HAHA my wrasse does the same thing but not that early. Mine goes to sleep as soon as the lights start to dim on my LED's. Well I'd glad to hear I'm not the only one. I have a Melarnus wrasse in my frag tank. He wakes up around 7-8AM. There is daylight in the room then, but the tank lights don't start ramping up until after 10AM. He goes to bed by 8PM, while the lights are still on. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Silly sleepy fish!! Don't they know they are supposed to stay up late for you? Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Sorry to hear about your salinity issues. Once you get it calibrated, always check the salinity in the tank and then match the new water to that. That's a fool proof way to ensure you don't introduce salinity swing even if your refractometer is off. It's very unlikely for the tank water salinity to change prior to water change. And if your refractometer on the tank water is reading slightly off, that's a clue you may need to recalibrate Link to comment
D Z Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Always calibrate the refracteometer with the solution provided or a vendor reccomended solution. At least you picked up on part of your problem. My guess now would be that as you were doing your water changes with low salinity water your parameters are just out of whack. Once your salinity gets back into allignment your parameters should level out with some frequent water changes. From there you can test to see weekly or daily consumption and go from there with dosing if required. With low Cal and Mag the corals can't process Alk efficiently, this will cause a build up even with water changes. I assume this is what you are experiencing now. Sorry to hear about your salinity issues. Once you get it calibrated, always check the salinity in the tank and then match the new water to that. That's a fool proof way to ensure you don't introduce salinity swing even if your refractometer is off. It's very unlikely for the tank water salinity to change prior to water change. And if your refractometer on the tank water is reading slightly off, that's a clue you may need to recalibrate Thanks guys. There was definitely something wrong with that refractometer. I went to test my new water that I planned to top off with to bring up salinity and it was off again. I re-calibrated it, used it for a little while, and set it down. Came back like 20 minutes later and it was off by 5ppt. Not really sure what it is doing, but it is very inconsistent. I ordered a new refractometer and got it on Sunday, so we should be all good now. Back to the good old $25 ATC, Amazon Prime FTW! As of last night, salinity is up to about 1.023 and climbing. So far, everything in the tank looks like it is enjoying the climb back to normal levels. As for the rest of my parameters, you are probably right. Once my salinity is in check for a couple days, I will start looking at my alk to see where it is, and if it starts to finally drop. Another thing I realized may be affected by my low salinity was the new skimmer. It had been throwing microbubbles recently and I noticed the foam head just didn't look anywhere near as thick as usual. With the salinity all the way down at 1.020, I don't think the skimmer was fractionating properly. So I should expect to have to re-tune my skimmer in the next day or 2. Well I'd glad to hear I'm not the only one. I have a Melarnus wrasse in my frag tank. He wakes up around 7-8AM. There is daylight in the room then, but the tank lights don't start ramping up until after 10AM. He goes to bed by 8PM, while the lights are still on. Silly sleepy fish!! Don't they know they are supposed to stay up late for you? LOL. Ironically enough, over the weekend the tamarin decided to start staying up till around 8PM now. Much better than 6 like before. Link to comment
D Z Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 So I finally bit the bullet and were getting a new air conditioner on Friday. No more heat issues for me! Of course, now that I say that, my A/C will die between now and Friday.... Edit: Now that I am starting to think about this, I am starting to get kinda nervous for having the AC off all day. Just ordered once of these guys.....hope it is good enough to keep things cool for the day: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M9UV9LI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 Link to comment
Mirya Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I think you should be fine with that. Evaporative cooling can knock the temp down quite a bit. Hypostatic just posted on his thread yesterday as a matter of fact that he dropped his tank from 85 to 75 with fans only. Link to comment
D Z Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Now that all of my SPS has been temporarily been relocated, I am considering trying the Tech M method of eradicating my bryopsis issue. This time, I will know to watch for the salinity increase and can counteract it. The Alk spike isn't much of a worry for me as it is all LPS for now, and my Alk is already a little high anyways. Thoughts? Link to comment
D Z Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Salinity was up to 1.023-1.024 as of last night. Decided to test my parameters and see where I am at... cal 450alk 10.5mag 1240 ....so still elevated. I decided to go ahead with the Tech M and dosed 50ml last night. I figured my mag is slightly low anyways. Time to bring it back up to 1800 and hope it doesn't send my alk through the roof. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Wait, Mag at 1800ppm? Why would you want it that high? I aim between 1350-1400ppm and NSW is about 1280ppm which is spot on with your current reading. Also, noob question, are you testing your Alk at the same time every time you test? It fluctuates throughout the day. I always make sure I test at 8pm when I do my Alk tests. Link to comment
D Z Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Wait, Mag at 1800ppm? Why would you want it that high? I aim between 1350-1400ppm and NSW is about 1280ppm which is spot on with your current reading. Also, noob question, are you testing your Alk at the same time every time you test? It fluctuates throughout the day. I always make sure I test at 8pm when I do my Alk tests. Yea, to kill the bryopsis. Are you familiar with that method of eradicating bryopsis. There is a trace element in Kent Tech M that will kill bryopsis, but you need to bring the concentration up for it to be effective. Most people that have had this work for them notice the bryopsis starting to die after mag has been brought up to about 1800 or so. For a long time, it was unknown what trace element it was that was responcible, but recently with Triton doing such detailed water testing, it is believed to be Lithium. As for Alk, I do usually test at night, but not at a specific time. My results show that the alk is still quite higher than what I want in the end, so I don't think it would make much of a difference right now. Once I get it down into the 8-9 range where I want it, I will keep this in mind, though. Link to comment
Alex B Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Figured you wouldn't mind a update on a couple of the pieces I'm holding The Red Planet has encrusted some more and also gotten some nice color. Before DSC_0338 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0038 by alex barreto, on Flickr The Pink Lemonade has started to loose the bubbly tissue! Dont know what was causing it, but its getting better and i even see some new polyps. If i can fix this piece, i will be super stoked! Before DSC_0350 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0042 by alex barreto, on Flickr This Acro has also gained alot of color. Might be missing a tip when you get it back Before DSC_0340 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0037 by alex barreto, on Flickr Link to comment
D Z Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Figured you wouldn't mind a update on a couple of the pieces I'm holding The Red Planet has encrusted some more and also gotten some nice color. Before DSC_0338 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0038 by alex barreto, on Flickr The Pink Lemonade has started to loose the bubbly tissue! Dont know what was causing it, but its getting better and i even see some new polyps. If i can fix this piece, i will be super stoked! Before DSC_0350 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0042 by alex barreto, on Flickr This Acro has also gained alot of color. Might be missing a tip when you get it back Before DSC_0340 by alex barreto, on Flickr After DSC_0037 by alex barreto, on Flickr Hell yea man. Everything is looking great! I told you that red wine is an interesting piece. Def not a red planet, something different. Go ahead and take the tip off now if you want. At the rate things are going, I probably won't even notice when I get it back. Thanks again for doing this man, I really hope the salinity issue was the majority of my problem and they continue to thrive after I get them back in my tank. And Damn that RP encrusted the plug fast in your system!! Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Damn,that's crazy man !!! The Red Wine is definitely a weird but awesome piece. Everything looks off the chain though,that's awesome. Glad to see things jumping back and looking stellar. Alex has his system on point lol. Link to comment
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