fishfreak0114 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 The Mg stuff is here! My mom is going to pick it up after work, so I should be able to test around 5. Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 My red lobo is gone. All that was left were a few bits of discolored flesh so I removed it. My blastos are beginning to recede, and more plates are going downhill I'm still considering asking someone to baby sit my coral. Would that cause more stress or is it there best chance? I'll be in Kamloops tomorrow and I might be able to find someone by then if it's a good idea. Parameters today are as follows: Ca: 370 Alk: 6.8 (didn't change) Mg: 1290 sg: 1.025 temp: 81 I did an 8l water change. I'll do another larger water change tomorrow with reef crystals (16l), and maybe 8l of RSCP. I thought of one thing I have yet to check. My water source. I'm going to ask my dad right away if the city has changed anything with the water supply recently (he should know, if not, he can find out for me). I removed Ernie from the back chambers, but no sign of Bert. 2 Quote Link to comment
JoeMan02 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 47 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: My red lobo is gone. All that was left were a few bits of discolored flesh so I removed it. My blastos are beginning to recede, and more plates are going downhill I'm still considering asking someone to baby sit my coral. Would that cause more stress or is it there best chance? I'll be in Kamloops tomorrow and I might be able to find someone by then if it's a good idea. Parameters today are as follows: Ca: 370 Alk: 6.8 (didn't change) Mg: 1290 sg: 1.025 temp: 81 I did an 8l water change. I'll do another larger water change tomorrow with reef crystals (16l), and maybe 8l of RSCP. I thought of one thing I have yet to check. My water source. I'm going to ask my dad right away if the city has changed anything with the water supply recently (he should know, if not, he can find out for me). I removed Ernie from the back chambers, but no sign of Bert. Sorry to hear about the loss, only thing I would say with the info given is maybe the temp is too high? I keep my nano at 77 degrees F. I would ask a friend or family to watch my tank if i was away for more than two days. Hope it turns around for ya! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 Just now, JoeMan02 said: Sorry to hear about the loss, only thing I would say with the info given is maybe the temp is too high? I keep my nano at 77 degrees F. I would ask a friend or family to watch my tank if i was away for more than two days. Hope it turns around for ya! My tank has run 81-82 since I started it 2.5 years ago, so I doubt it's that, but thanks for the suggestion. I'm so confused. I wonder if maybe I'm just witnessing the after effects of my kind of crazy dosing? We leave Saturday to visit family and won't be back until Tuesday, but I have a friend stopping by every day we're gone. I'll probably have them send me a photo. I'm like 80% sure I should try to temporarily re-home the affected corals. But what if they don't do any better in someone else's tank? And how would I know when it's safe to return them if I can't see how they're reacting to the tank's conditions? Ugh! Quote Link to comment
JoeMan02 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 3 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: My tank has run 81-82 since I started it 2.5 years ago, so I doubt it's that, but thanks for the suggestion. I'm so confused. I wonder if maybe I'm just witnessing the after effects of my kind of crazy dosing? We leave Saturday to visit family and won't be back until Tuesday, but I have a friend stopping by every day we're gone. I'll probably have them send me a photo. I'm like 80% sure I should try to temporarily re-home the affected corals. But what if they don't do any better in someone else's tank? And how would I know when it's safe to return them if I can't see how they're reacting to the tank's conditions? Ugh! Yeah its probably not the temp then xD I always say, when all else fails, do a water change, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more to do about it other then re homing the corals temporarily. That seems like a solid plan to me, As far as when to put them back in the tank, i would just do a bunch of water changes and tests, and when it seems fine move the corals back. (basically treating it like a new tank setup.) one other thought... as far as the corals go it could be pests. Have you checked the tank out with a flashlight at night? 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said: My red lobo is gone. All that was left were a few bits of discolored flesh so I removed it. My blastos are beginning to recede, and more plates are going downhill I'm still considering asking someone to baby sit my coral. Would that cause more stress or is it there best chance? I'll be in Kamloops tomorrow and I might be able to find someone by then if it's a good idea. Parameters today are as follows: Ca: 370 Alk: 6.8 (didn't change) Mg: 1290 sg: 1.025 temp: 81 I did an 8l water change. I'll do another larger water change tomorrow with reef crystals (16l), and maybe 8l of RSCP. I thought of one thing I have yet to check. My water source. I'm going to ask my dad right away if the city has changed anything with the water supply recently (he should know, if not, he can find out for me). I removed Ernie from the back chambers, but no sign of Bert. Are you using an rodi filter? Honestly, I think the up and down alk levels are causing the problem. Alk Seems low enough to tick off LPS - I know @spectra had a problem in his 40 breeder when alk got below 8 and I know I had a problem in my biocube when alk dropped as well. Is it just the lps that are having problems? It sounds like it which leads me to think alk. But who knows! This hobby can be so frustrating and you're doing all you can do so just keep doing it. 2 Quote Link to comment
spectra Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 1 minute ago, stellablue said: Are you using an rodi filter? Honestly, I think the up and down alk levels are causing the problem. Alk and calcium seem low enough to tick off LPS - I know @spectra had a problem in his 40 breeder when alk got below 8 and I know I had a problem in my biocube when alk dropped as well. Is it just the lps that are having problems? It sounds like it which leads me to think alk. But who knows! This hobby can be so frustrating and you're doing all you can do so just keep doing it. Yep I had an alk swing and it took out a bunch of LPS. I have had plate corals just disintegrate also and not sure why. I had one that looked like something tore it and within three days it was gone. Like Stella said this hobby tosses curveballs a lot.......good luck and hopefully you can find the issue. 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 41 minutes ago, JoeMan02 said: Yeah its probably not the temp then xD I always say, when all else fails, do a water change, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more to do about it other then re homing the corals temporarily. That seems like a solid plan to me, As far as when to put them back in the tank, i would just do a bunch of water changes and tests, and when it seems fine move the corals back. (basically treating it like a new tank setup.) one other thought... as far as the corals go it could be pests. Have you checked the tank out with a flashlight at night? I'm concerned that I wouldn't be able to find anyone to take them by tomorrow, my local aquatic fb group doesn't have a lot of salt keepers, and the whole group isn't terribly active. Perhaps the corals can hold out until next week when I get home. Who knows, by then with some larger water changes and just letting things go however it will, perhaps they'll be fine. I mean, things were looking better yesterday, maybe it's just an off day 25 minutes ago, stellablue said: Are you using an rodi filter? Honestly, I think the up and down alk levels are causing the problem. Alk Seems low enough to tick off LPS - I know @spectra had a problem in his 40 breeder when alk got below 8 and I know I had a problem in my biocube when alk dropped as well. Is it just the lps that are having problems? It sounds like it which leads me to think alk. But who knows! This hobby can be so frustrating and you're doing all you can do so just keep doing it. Nope, I've used tap since I started the tank. I haven't had any issues up until now, but I asked and nothing has been changed in the water so I don't think it's that. Everything but my pink Duncan and the dendro (sometimes) was happy as a clam at 5.1. Things went bad when I tried to raise it. Most of my LPS are affected (a few exceptions such as my favias), and a decent number of my zoas have been pissed as well (but that may be a vermetid, it's only the zoas in one area). 25 minutes ago, spectra said: Yep I had an alk swing and it took out a bunch of LPS. I have had plate corals just disintegrate also and not sure why. I had one that looked like something tore it and within three days it was gone. Like Stella said this hobby tosses curveballs a lot.......good luck and hopefully you can find the issue. Thanks, I'm pretty sure it's alk. Still trying to rule out other possible causes. Yeesh, hope most of my plates can pull through. I've finally accepted that things can only go right for so long. 2nd big curveball of the year, but I know I'll get through it. The only question is whether or not it'll be an all softy tank at that point 2 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I expect it's likely the alk swings causing your current issues. Sorry things are wonky right now, hope things pull through! 2 Quote Link to comment
JoeMan02 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 4 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: I'm concerned that I wouldn't be able to find anyone to take them by tomorrow, my local aquatic fb group doesn't have a lot of salt keepers, and the whole group isn't terribly active. Perhaps the corals can hold out until next week when I get home. Who knows, by then with some larger water changes and just letting things go however it will, perhaps they'll be fine. I mean, things were looking better yesterday, maybe it's just an off day Nope, I've used tap since I started the tank. I haven't had any issues up until now, but I asked and nothing has been changed in the water so I don't think it's that. Everything but my pink Duncan and the dendro (sometimes) was happy as a clam at 5.1. Things went bad when I tried to raise it. Most of my LPS are affected (a few exceptions such as my favias), and a decent number of my zoas have been pissed as well (but that may be a vermetid, it's only the zoas in one area). Thanks, I'm pretty sure it's alk. Still trying to rule out other possible causes. Yeesh, hope most of my plates can pull through. I've finally accepted that things can only go right for so long. 2nd big curveball of the year, but I know I'll get through it. The only question is whether or not it'll be an all softy tank at that point good luck gal, wish i could help personally 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 1 minute ago, JoeMan02 said: good luck gal, wish i could help personally Thanks 2 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said: I expect it's likely the alk swings causing your current issues. Sorry things are wonky right now, hope things pull through! Thanks Lula Yep I can't find any other possible cause aside form alk. I guess the tank just needs to ride it out, fingers crossed nothing else goes downhill Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 9 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: Thanks Thanks Lula Yep I can't find any other possible cause aside form alk. I guess the tank just needs to ride it out, fingers crossed nothing else goes downhill Yes, fingers crossed! And if you've got the Lugol's, I'd try dipping everything showing recession. Hoping everything pulls through, but especially those gorgeous blastos! 1 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I agree with everyone else. When alk drops to below normal levels lps and sps will be effected. If alk has significant swings constantly, they also react negatively. Dosing to raise the alk is a good option the problem is, what is your salt mixing at? If it mixes lower than what you have increased the dt to all week, as soon as you do a waterchange, it will drop again. A vicious cycle of up and down. Have you tested - newly mixed water - right after a waterchange -everyday after the water change for a week This will give you an idea of what's going on in the tank. Try not to raise the alk too quickly. That can be as difficult on corals as drops. Alk is frustrating. Many of us have gone through the bs of alk issues. I hope things work out for you. It Just takes time to get it all figured out. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 5 minutes ago, Clown79 said: I agree with everyone else. When alk drops to below normal levels lps and sps will be effected. If alk has significant swings constantly, they also react negatively. Dosing to raise the alk is a good option the problem is, what is your salt mixing at? If it mixes lower than what you have increased the dt to all week, as soon as you do a waterchange, it will drop again. A vicious cycle of up and down. Have you tested - newly mixed water - right after a waterchange -everyday after the water change for a week This will give you an idea of what's going on in the tank. Try not to raise the alk too quickly. That can be as difficult on corals as drops. Alk is frustrating. Many of us have gone through the bs of alk issues. I hope things work out for you. It Just takes time to get it all figured out. Thanks for posting Clown! The really weird thing is that virtually nothing was bothered by the low alk. It's the swings from dosing that really got them. I use RSCP, which mixes quite high. I haven't actually tested newly mixed water, I plan to tomorrow. When my alk was sitting in its "normal" range, a water change would raise it 1dkh. Nothing seemed bothered by the big swing. I tested everyday after my water change and came back with 0.2-0.3 drop per day. So I dosed for that. But alk wouldn't stay up, and it started swinging like crazy and that's when everything went downhill. I've discontinued dosing, and I'm going to let it stabilize. I've noticed improvement in some corals since Monday (when I stopped dosing) but many are still pissed, I assume just an after affect of all the swings. If the corals are happy, I don't really care where alk is at. If it ends up sitting at 5.1 like before, but things are happy, I'll let it. This is what I get for chasing numbers, everything was doing so well before! 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I would do one more 20% water change before you leave. It's very unlikely to hurt, and it may help. That will not only help with your Alk, but it will also help all the other parameters and trace elements get back towards normal balanced levels. Then just let it ride while you're gone. Good luck! 2 Quote Link to comment
TinyOcean Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I agree with Teeny about another water change and I also agree with you on stopping the dosing. When I tried dosing things just started to die so now with my old 6g edge and my new evo I am not going to be dosing. For me just by doing the weekly water changes things have thrived. Some times not dosing just works for some tanks. 1 Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I commented on your other thread about this. Hang in there!! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 11 hours ago, teenyreef said: I would do one more 20% water change before you leave. It's very unlikely to hurt, and it may help. That will not only help with your Alk, but it will also help all the other parameters and trace elements get back towards normal balanced levels. Then just let it ride while you're gone. Good luck! Alright, do you think it would be ok if I split into 2 10% changes? I know that won't have as much of an impact, but a 16l water change causes a 1dkh raise in alk. I'm going to see how much the 8l I did yesterday changed alk and Ca. 5 hours ago, TinyOcean said: I agree with Teeny about another water change and I also agree with you on stopping the dosing. When I tried dosing things just started to die so now with my old 6g edge and my new evo I am not going to be dosing. For me just by doing the weekly water changes things have thrived. Some times not dosing just works for some tanks. I'm going to try and avoid dosing when things settle, and I'm also going to buy a new alk test kit! Raywhisperer said softies should be dead at 5, but they most certainly were not! So maybe my alk was fine all along. I guess I'll find out! 5 hours ago, Weetabix7 said: I commented on your other thread about this. Hang in there!! Thanks I'm glad I started that other thread, it got lots of traffic so I got many people's input. Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 Well I'm happy to say that it looks like things are getting through the worst of it. Most of my blastos are puffy, my super touchy pink Duncan (that would close often even before the alk stuff) is peeking out, and almost all my Zoas are open Time to feed like crazy! 3 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 Yay!!! Will be interesting to see if the issue all along was the test kit. If so I would contact either who you got it from, or (especially) the manufacturer to let them know lol. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 Well my test kit definitely doesn't test low. I just made some fresh sw and tested and alk was off the charts! It took 1.6ml of the solution for it turn pink! I'm going to stir up the bucket of salt really good (all the way to the bottom) and make more water to test. That might not happen until I get back after the weekend. So, no water changes for the time being. Yesterday's water change raised alk to 8.2. Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 6, 2017 Author Share Posted August 6, 2017 I thought I'd post p some pics. Not all salty, not even fishy, but some pics. With all the wildfires in BC, my little town has been totally bogged down with smoke. I haven't been spending any time outdoors, because no one wants to sit, read their book, and breathe in a bunch of ash. Thankfully, we're two hours away until Tuesday visiting with family at my Great Aunt's cabin. The sky is clear and blue and I love it! This picture was taken on the drive home yesterday image1.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr It makes the moon look pretty neat though image2.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr I thought it was time I share some pictures of my fat, furry BFF. He's the snuggliest cat I've ever met. He's very tolerant, easily startled, afraid of the outdoors, and still healthy (though a little fat) at 12 years old image6.jpegg by orb1915, on Flickr image7.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr P8040138 by orb1915, on Flickr P8040143 by orb1915, on Flickr My yellow lab had babies! I managed to save two from becoming dinner. I left the tank sitter last minute feeding instructions, and I'm hoping they do alright while I'm gone. They're not quite 1cm. P8050174 by orb1915, on Flickr image6.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr P8050182 by orb1915, on Flickr Alright, I guess reef update time now. I gave everything a heavy feeding last night and this morning of mussel and PE mysis. Things are looking alright. I didn't bothered editing any of the pics since tank is super dirty right now, I'll post some better pics next week for the tanks 2.5 year birthday! P8050173 by orb1915, on Flickr image1.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr The pink Duncan has started to open image2.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr image3.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr image3.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr image4.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr Oops it's blurry. But the zoas are opening again image4.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr P8050164 by orb1915, on Flickr P8050169 by orb1915, on Flickr P8050171 by orb1915, on Flickr I might build a bit of a rock support for the toadstool. The bigger it gets, the more it droops. Just something to help it stay upright P8050172 by orb1915, on Flickr 6 1 Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 11 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: I thought I'd post p some pics. Not all salty, not even fishy, but some pics. With all the wildfires in BC, my little town has been totally bogged down with smoke. I haven't been spending any time outdoors, because no one wants to sit, read their book, and breathe in a bunch of ash. Thankfully, we're two hours away until Tuesday visiting with family at my Great Aunt's cabin. The sky is clear and blue and I love it! This picture was taken on the drive home yesterday image1.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr It makes the moon look pretty neat though image2.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr I thought it was time I share some pictures of my fat, furry BFF. He's the snuggliest cat I've ever met. He's very tolerant, easily startled, afraid of the outdoors, and still healthy (though a little fat) at 12 years old image6.jpegg by orb1915, on Flickr image7.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr P8040138 by orb1915, on Flickr P8040143 by orb1915, on Flickr My yellow lab had babies! I managed to save two from becoming dinner. I left the tank sitter last minute feeding instructions, and I'm hoping they do alright while I'm gone. They're not quite 1cm. P8050174 by orb1915, on Flickr image6.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr P8050182 by orb1915, on Flickr Alright, I guess reef update time now. I gave everything a heavy feeding last night and this morning of mussel and PE mysis. Things are looking alright. I didn't bothered editing any of the pics since tank is super dirty right now, I'll post some better pics next week for the tanks 2.5 year birthday! P8050173 by orb1915, on Flickr image1.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr The pink Duncan has started to open image2.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr image3.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr image3.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr image4.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr Oops it's blurry. But the zoas are opening again image4.jpegf by orb1915, on Flickr P8050164 by orb1915, on Flickr P8050169 by orb1915, on Flickr P8050171 by orb1915, on Flickr I might build a bit of a rock support for the toadstool. The bigger it gets, the more it droops. Just something to help it stay upright P8050172 by orb1915, on Flickr Wow. Congrats on baby labs and your cat is adorable!! We had lotsa wildfires and crazy smoke where I live a few months back, so I feel your pain. Enjoy yourself and relax on your days away. Glad to see improvements in the tank, and hope you come back to more of that. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted August 6, 2017 Author Share Posted August 6, 2017 3 hours ago, Weetabix7 said: Wow. Congrats on baby labs and your cat is adorable!! We had lotsa wildfires and crazy smoke where I live a few months back, so I feel your pain. Enjoy yourself and relax on your days away. Glad to see improvements in the tank, and hope you come back to more of that. Thanks, I'm pretty excited that I noticed the babies. We we're just getting ready to leave when I yelled "I need a net! It's gonna be a while, I'm setting up a tank!" Neo is the best He curls up with me on the couch just about every night, and doesn't seem to mind when I use him as a table for my dinner plate Or perhaps he's just too lazy to move I'm already having a great time, I'm using my phone flashlight to read in the dark because I can't get enough of this fresh air! And I'm not worrying about the tank because things seem to be improving 3 Quote Link to comment
schgr.cube Posted August 6, 2017 Share Posted August 6, 2017 Cute cat, and great reef shots! 1 Quote Link to comment
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