teenyreef Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 I just caught up - things look great to me! I tend to focus on what's wrong instead of what's right in my tanks too, though, so I get it Your dosing situation sounds a little odd to me. As far as I remember, you don't have lots of sps corals, do you? Softies and LPS usually don't consume Alk at the rate you're seeing although I guess it's possible. I wonder if you have some related parameters that are forcing alkalinity to stay low? Have you tested calcium and magnesium, and are you dosing both Alk and calcium, or just Alk? Alkalinity and calcium are closely related. If you haven't read up on it already, you might find this article helpful: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 10 hours ago, teenyreef said: I just caught up - things look great to me! I tend to focus on what's wrong instead of what's right in my tanks too, though, so I get it Your dosing situation sounds a little odd to me. As far as I remember, you don't have lots of sps corals, do you? Softies and LPS usually don't consume Alk at the rate you're seeing although I guess it's possible. I wonder if you have some related parameters that are forcing alkalinity to stay low? Have you tested calcium and magnesium, and are you dosing both Alk and calcium, or just Alk? Alkalinity and calcium are closely related. If you haven't read up on it already, you might find this article helpful: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry Thanks teeny I don't have any SPS. I don't understand the alk thing either, because it's dropping a lot everyday. The only thing I could thing of was the baby plates using a lot? They seem to grow at a decent rate. I was testing calcium before, but it never really dropped much. It stayed between 435 and 425. I don't have a magnesium test kit, but I plan on ordering one because that seems like the most likely problem to me. I'm only dosing alk, because calcium doesn't really drop. Which also makes no sense. I thought that it took pretty much equal parts alk and calcium for coral skeleton, which is why most people dose two part? I'll definitely take a look at that article, not sure if I have read that one or not. Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 13 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said: Well here's the pics, nothing too great, they're more so I can point things out. First off a quick and dirty FTS. Amazingly, my glass is often dirtier than this edited by orb1915, on Flickr For whatever reason, Frank has a kajillion tiny heads growing. The don't really grow past this point, they have no room to grow! P7242306 by orb1915, on Flickr Happy dendro P7242311 by orb1915, on Flickr I epoxied all around the Duncan, which as you can see made it super pissed P7242314 by orb1915, on Flickr The watermelon favia frags have had feeders out a lot. It's nice to know that being chopped apart with scissors doesn't bother it P7242315 by orb1915, on Flickr Unhappy lobo P7242316 by orb1915, on Flickr I said I would be more positive. Happy St.Thomas!!! P7242317 by orb1915, on Flickr Jim may also be a source of recent irritation. I've caught him perching on Frank several times now P7242318 by orb1915, on Flickr The tissue loss on the neon trumpet. It hasn't progressed, so I'm hopeful P7242319 by orb1915, on Flickr And a happy cabbage leather P7242320 by orb1915, on Flickr The Dendro looks great, and there are lots of other things in here that look good as well!!! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 1 minute ago, Weetabix7 said: The Dendro looks great, and there are lots of other things in here that look good as well!!! Thanks Weetie I'm really happy about the dendro. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 The dendro looks so much better! Hope you can figure out the weirdness with dosing soon. Tank really looks good! 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 29 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said: The dendro looks so much better! Hope you can figure out the weirdness with dosing soon. Tank really looks good! Thanks Lula! Today alk had gone down to 8. I find it hard to believe that a system with about 50% LPS is using almost 1dkh of alk a day. I'll try to remember to order a Mg test kit tonight. The fish/pistol are drip acclimating right now! Thinking up a list of possible names. Of course, I'll wait a couple days to make sure they survive the transfer. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 The fish are in! And I know I said I would wait a couple days before I named them, but the pink bar has already been christened Wayne, and the pistol shrimp Garth. Party on! I have the flow off while everyone settles in. Oh, and I finally named the porcelain crab Jacob. It just popped into my head and I'm going with it because that little guy has been nameless for a year. 3 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 Wayne and Garth were separated when I put them in the tank. Wayne hid in a hole in a not too bad location viewing wise, but Garth went and hid under a favia frag. A few minutes ago I ushered Garth over to Wayne, and they've now taken up residence together. I looked with a flashlight, and although I couldn't see much, I could see grains of sand being kicked up. A shell has already been moved in front of part of the cave wayne and garth hole circled by orb1915, on Flickr 4 Quote Link to comment
Legendary Corals Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Not sure if anyone commented on this yet, but you might want to be careful about those cups, pots, and lids. They may be lined with some sort of metal and chemicals that might leach into the tank. Some ceramic pots would make your malawis much happier. 3 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 9 hours ago, Legendary Corals said: Not sure if anyone commented on this yet, but you might want to be careful about those cups, pots, and lids. They may be lined with some sort of metal and chemicals that might leach into the tank. Some ceramic pots would make your malawis much happier. Oh! I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know, I'm going to do some more reading about that. So far it seems fine, but I see how in the long run that could pose a serious problem. I just threw them in there as an experiment, so if I can't use them it's not a huge loss. Quote Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 11 hours ago, teenyreef said: Wayne and Garth I love it!!! My husband and I watched that movie back before we were even dating. Party on!! 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 Before dosing alk was just under 8. I'm splitting the dose into two parts today since I'm home all day just so the shift is more gradual. I'll test it tonight. Unfortunately Wayne and Garth are not visible. I'm pretty sure they're still in the same spot (lots of sand built up), but their burrow entrance must face the back. Is there a way to encourage them to open the front instead? 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 After dosing, alk was only 8. I'm leaving for Vancouver tomorrow morning, and I won't be back until Monday. My mom will be taking care of it in the meantime, and dosing. I really don't want to leave the tank in its current state, but I must. Joe molted today, and gave me quite a scare. I thought he died. P7272354 by orb1915, on Flickr I took this pic of Wayne before he went in. Earlier I could hear Garth clicking away. P7262328 by orb1915, on Flickr I saw the big stomatella yesterday P7262329 by orb1915, on Flickr The feather caulerpa is growing P7272332 by orb1915, on Flickr I'm not sure what happened to this plate, the others look fine P7272333 by orb1915, on Flickr Here you can see the whitish tips that I think are growth P7272336 by orb1915, on Flickr P7272343 by orb1915, on Flickr You might remember that I thought the alpha and omega zoas were goners, but since then a few have opened up P7272337 by orb1915, on Flickr I really like this leather, it stands out P7272339 by orb1915, on Flickr Meet Bert! P7272345 by orb1915, on Flickr And Ernie! P7272347 by orb1915, on Flickr 6 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 Salifert magnesium test kit and Kent Tech M have been ordered. I was going to wait to buy a supplement until I knew if I actually needed it, but I want to be able to correct the problem as soon as possible. If it turns out I don't need to raise Mg, it's only a $12 loss, and it gives me some peace of mind for the time being knowing that I've done everything I can. 2 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 10 hours ago, Weetabix7 said: I love it!!! My husband and I watched that movie back before we were even dating. Party on!! Ha ha, we were married two years when it came out. It was one of our favorite movies and still is 2 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 It's a pretty epic movie! It makes me sad whenever one of my friends says they haven't seen it (most of them haven't). I haven't seen the second one yet though. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 13 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said: Salifert magnesium test kit and Kent Tech M have been ordered. I was going to wait to buy a supplement until I knew if I actually needed it, but I want to be able to correct the problem as soon as possible. If it turns out I don't need to raise Mg, it's only a $12 loss, and it gives me some peace of mind for the time being knowing that I've done everything I can. It's a good idea to to be able measure and dose for all of the big three, so it will give you peace of mind, at least. Also, I noticed that same thing you did about calcium not responding much to dosing, but it turns out that it just takes a lot more dosing over a longer period of time because calcium tends to change much more slowly than alkalinity. So unless calcium is too high, you still want to dose equal amounts of two part so that things stay balanced, even if it seems that the calcium isn't needed. Also, make sure you measure alkalinity at the same time every day (or night). It swings up and down on a 24 hour cycle in response to the Ph change due to CO2 changing when the lights go on and off. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 Just now, teenyreef said: It's a good idea to to be able measure and dose for all of the big three, so it will give you peace of mind, at least. Also, I noticed that same thing you did about calcium not responding much to dosing, but it turns out that it just takes a lot more dosing over a longer period of time because calcium tends to change much more slowly than alkalinity. So unless calcium is too high, you still want to dose equal amounts of two part so that things stay balanced, even if it seems that the calcium isn't needed. Also, make sure you measure alkalinity at the same time every day (or night). It swings up and down on a 24 hour cycle in response to the Ph change due to CO2 changing when the lights go on and off. Now I'm wishing I'd ordered a calcium supplement. I haven't dosed it because it doesn't move, like, at all really. No more than a 15ppm difference between water changes. I guess I'll have to order that soon. Once I figured out how much I needed to dose (which I've now realized is impossible because alk won't stay up, so the higher I keep it the faster it seems to drop) I stopped testing at the same time of day. Instead I have been testing before I dose and after I dose to see how much of a difference it is making (not a lot, today it was only like 0.4 up). I really hope Mg is off, because if it's alright then I have no idea what could be wrong and causing alk to drop largely and inconsistently. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 It sounds like something is causing the alkalinity to precipitate out. Do you ever notice snowy conditions? I'd recommend posting a general question so smarter people than me can help out 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 Just now, teenyreef said: It sounds like something is causing the alkalinity to precipitate out. Do you ever notice snowy conditions? I'd recommend posting a general question so smarter people than me can help out No, I haven't noticed any snowiness. I do dose it in the back though, so I would be less likely to notice I guess. For whatever reason, I hate starting posts to ask for help, but I think it's time And you've been very helpful 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 I thought I should say that I'm not trying to keep alk at 8-9 for the moment. I'm just letting it slowly fall, because if I get it up to 9 it will drop really quickly and I'm trying to minimize that. On an unhappy note, two of my baby plates are losing tissue. I put up an ad to try and sell some because I don't want them all to die. This recent development makes me even more worried to be leaving. Not that I could do anything to fix it even if I was at home. Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Bert and Ernie! Sorry about the baby plates. 1 Quote Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said: Bert and Ernie! Sorry about the baby plates. I thought it would take me longer to settle on names, but it fit them! It is pretty upsetting about the plates They have been doing so well. Thankfully I'm distracted for now. I'm at an Ed Sheeran concert, and he's coming on soon! I saw him two years ago and it was incredible. 3 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said: I thought it would take me longer to settle on names, but it fit them! It is pretty upsetting about the plates They have been doing so well. Thankfully I'm distracted for now. I'm at an Ed Sheeran concert, and he's coming on soon! I saw him two years ago and it was incredible. Enjoy! I got to see Lindsey Stirling last year and it was amazing! 1 Quote Link to comment
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