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Kent Tech M


stokeds

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Raise it up about 300-400 above ur mag now. Normally 1600-1900 works. Raise it like 100-150 ppm a day. Keep it there for four to six weeks. U won't get accurate salinity readings during treatment as the magnesium chloride affects the refractive index of a refractometer. Normally it will read higher than normal. some people adjust by adding fresh water etc. I left mine alone.

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u need a test kit. no questions. it takes a lot of tech m to raise the levels. the instructions are on the bottle and I believe 1 ml will move 1 gallon something like 18ppm. to bring four gallons of newly mixed red sea coral pro to 1800 ppm I was using abouts 100ml. I have a 16 gallon tank, (12 gallons total water volume) I went through like 2 16oz bottles of tech m over the course of three weeks of treatment. if 1ml will bring 1 gallon up 18ppm, you need 6 ml to raise it by 108ppm, times ten gallons, is about 60ml to bring the level up by 100ppm. but you need to keep doing this to get it up to target range (1600-1900). u need a test kit.

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JavaJacketOC

Do not raise it 100-150 per day, it'll negatively affect some of your coral. I know, I did this a few months ago and things are just now starting to recover.

 

I would restrict to raising 50-75ppn per day. A few things to note:

 

As said before, you need a test kit (or at least access to one, i paid 2.00 for a couple tests from the LFS)

  1. Measure current level
  2. Determine desired level (there are a few threads about this but probably the 1800 mark should be good)
  3. Calculate the amount needed to raise to desired level
  4. Dose over a couple weeks (just depends how much you need to raise it)
  5. Re-Measure current level (validate you're at the desired level)
  6. Re-Measure 1 week later (verify your mag loss over 7 days)
  7. Dose either daily or weekly to maintain the desired level for several weeks (I think I read 4 weeks is about right), you just want to keep it as steady as possible

 

Some notes:

  • Get the Kent Tech M in the 1 gallon size. 1) You're gonna use most if not all, it takes a lot. 2) I read that the 1 gallon containers seem to work, the smaller batches do not, unsure why there would be a difference in bottling but I used the 1 gal size.
  • Don't raise the mag levels as quickly as other threads mention. I raised by about 100-150 per day and experienced a lot of bleaching in zoas, blastos and some monti's. It's coming back now but I almost lost a couple things.
  • Don't do any water changes during this time

Good luck

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Do not raise it 100-150 per day, it'll negatively affect some of your coral. I know, I did this a few months ago and things are just now starting to recover.

 

I would restrict to raising 50-75ppn per day. A few things to note:

 

As said before, you need a test kit (or at least access to one, i paid 2.00 for a couple tests from the LFS)

  1. Measure current level
  2. Determine desired level (there are a few threads about this but probably the 1800 mark should be good)
  3. Calculate the amount needed to raise to desired level
  4. Dose over a couple weeks (just depends how much you need to raise it)
  5. Re-Measure current level (validate you're at the desired level)
  6. Re-Measure 1 week later (verify your mag loss over 7 days)
  7. Dose either daily or weekly to maintain the desired level for several weeks (I think I read 4 weeks is about right), you just want to keep it as steady as possible

 

Some notes:

  • Get the Kent Tech M in the 1 gallon size. 1) You're gonna use most if not all, it takes a lot. 2) I read that the 1 gallon containers seem to work, the smaller batches do not, unsure why there would be a difference in bottling but I used the 1 gal size.
  • Don't raise the mag levels as quickly as other threads mention. I raise by about 100-150 per day and experienced a lot of bleaching in zoas, blastos and some monti's. It's coming back now but I almost lost a couple things.
  • Don't do any water changes during this time

Good luck

this is the first of thousands of pages I read where someone associated a 100-150 raise in mg per day with coral bleaching and loss. sorry but I don't think this was the cause of your issue. raising the mg may have f'd your salinity and that's what caused you issues, but I don't think the tech m itself did.

 

to OP, make you stop running carbon, or it may remove the impurity in techm that kills bryopsis. the current thought is that this is lithium.

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JavaJacketOC

this is the first of thousands of pages I read where someone associated a 100-150 raise in mg per day with coral bleaching and loss. sorry but I don't think this was the cause of your issue. raising the mg may have f'd your salinity and that's what caused you issues, but I don't think the tech m itself did.

 

to OP, make you stop running carbon, or it may remove the impurity in techm that kills bryopsis. the current thought is that this is lithium.

 

I stopped running carbon as well, good point.

 

As far as the salinity being affected, I'm not sure. I followed the other guides exactly and experienced this issue with a negative impact on some of my corals. It wasn't everything, mostly zoa's, my blastos and 1 of my montis so sharing my experience. There shouldn't be much drawback to raising the mag levels more slowly other than possible added consumption of mag. In such a small tank I doubt that there are significant amounts of mag being used unless it's extremely stocked.

 

When I made a post about what I experienced, the response I got was that the mag was raised too quickly, so not sure what the actual root cause was.

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I stopped running carbon as well, good point.

 

As far as the salinity being affected, I'm not sure. I followed the other guides exactly and experienced this issue with a negative impact on some of my corals. It wasn't everything, mostly zoa's, my blastos and 1 of my montis so sharing my experience. There shouldn't be much drawback to raising the mag levels more slowly other than possible added consumption of mag. In such a small tank I doubt that there are significant amounts of mag being used unless it's extremely stocked.

 

When I made a post about what I experienced, the response I got was that the mag was raised too quickly, so not sure what the actual root cause was.

Hmm interssting. the only issue I had was lots of slow snails.... and some snail deaths. did kill my algae either in the end, but a blue tuxedo urchin did.

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I have gone through the Tech M route 2 times now. In the end, it did not help me at all, but I think that is because I am dealing with something other than bryopsis(some kind of similar branching turf type algae) With that said, I figured I would at least share my experiences in the respect of how it effected my tank overall.

 

1) I also experienced a rise in salinity, which needs to be watched carefully. Do not let it get too high. Adjust by removing water and refilling with RODI.

2) I also experienced a rise in Alk. This ended up causing me more problems than anything else. Just something to keep an eye on. I ended up loosing some acros due to this.

3) I also experienced lethargic snails. Also, if you have any cleaner shrimps, try to rehome them before you start dosing Mag as they are even more sensitive to mag spikes. The cleaner shrimp I had at the time died, unfortunately.

4) You should notice the bryopsis starting to turn white/pale as the mag gets up to around 1800 - 2000. If you have it over 2000 for a week or so and the algae looks uneffected, you may be dealing with something other than bryopsis.

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I had bryopsis on my 100g tank and used two 16oz bottles at once. By morning all the bryopsis was completely gone. I followed with a 40% water change that night with no coral loss.

 

On my current tank a 30g, I tried the same approach and dumped a full 16oz bottle into my tank. The next day there was no change, bryopsis did not go away like previous tank. I did a 50% water change that month and gave the tank about a month.

 

After a month I doesed the tank with a few ml of hydrogen peroxide and the bryopsis died overnight. After two days I did a 50% water change. This method was very successful and I have not seen a negative result from the dose.

 

My methods were very unscientific, but if you don't have a test kit peroxide and water changes might be your best bet.

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I had bryopsis on my 100g tank and used two 16oz bottles at once. By morning all the bryopsis was completely gone. I followed with a 40% water change that night with no coral loss.

 

On my current tank a 30g, I tried the same approach and dumped a full 16oz bottle into my tank. The next day there was no change, bryopsis did not go away like previous tank. I did a 50% water change that month and gave the tank about a month.

 

After a month I doesed the tank with a few ml of hydrogen peroxide and the bryopsis died overnight. After two days I did a 50% water change. This method was very successful and I have not seen a negative result from the dose.

 

My methods were very unscientific, but if you don't have a test kit peroxide and water changes might be your best bet.

you doesed the peroxide directly in the tank and the bryopsis died? that's a lucky one, I hadn't heard of that having the best results before.

 

I have gone through the Tech M route 2 times now. In the end, it did not help me at all, but I think that is because I am dealing with something other than bryopsis(some kind of similar branching turf type algae) With that said, I figured I would at least share my experiences in the respect of how it effected my tank overall.

 

1) I also experienced a rise in salinity, which needs to be watched carefully. Do not let it get too high. Adjust by removing water and refilling with RODI.

2) I also experienced a rise in Alk. This ended up causing me more problems than anything else. Just something to keep an eye on. I ended up loosing some acros due to this.

3) I also experienced lethargic snails. Also, if you have any cleaner shrimps, try to rehome them before you start dosing Mag as they are even more sensitive to mag spikes. The cleaner shrimp I had at the time died, unfortunately.

4) You should notice the bryopsis starting to turn white/pale as the mag gets up to around 1800 - 2000. If you have it over 2000 for a week or so and the algae looks uneffected, you may be dealing with something other than bryopsis.

if you still have this issue, I would suggest a blue tuxedo urchin. they will use their teeth and get at the root of the algae. they eat everything and pretty quickly too. than you can either rckeep or rehome him. they aren't expensive either.

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JavaJacketOC

Smiz has a good point. Have you tried hydrogen peroxide at all? I've read that a lot of people experience re-growth of bryopsis but some people are able to eliminate it with a treatment like this.

 

I've used hydrogen peroxide on other forms of algae and seen great results, less costly and probably less risky. I use a different method that Smiz but you might want to try this before you go spend $30-$50 on products.

 

If you can remove the rock with the algae you want to remove, you can dab 100% strength peroxide on the area with algae and saturate the affect rock with a cotton ball or q-tip. Let it sit for a few min then rinse the area you treated with clean tank water and put it back in. Usually dies off within a few days.

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you doesed the peroxide directly in the tank and the bryopsis died? that's a lucky one, I hadn't heard of that having the best results before.

 

if you still have this issue, I would suggest a blue tuxedo urchin. they will use their teeth and get at the root of the algae. they eat everything and pretty quickly too. than you can either rckeep or rehome him. they aren't expensive either.

I do unfortunately still have this issue plague. I am planning on a new build though, as I have tried so many different things to eradicate this stuff. I will be moving all my frags into a frag tank to try to clean them up before moving them to the new tank, so maybe a blue tux in the frag tank wouldn't be to bad of an idea.

 

As for dosing H2O2 directly into the tank, I have also done that approach, both in small and large amounts. I have had some luck dosing about 1 - 2 ml daily. You will notice all zoas close up as soon as you dose, but they open back up within an hour or so. I also got to a point where I was so fed up, I just pulled the rocks that had been infected the worst and dump H2O2 all over the algae. Then dumped about 1/4 of a bottle of H2O2 directly into the tank. All coral was PISSED for a week or 2, then slowly healed up. I lost a couple zoa frags and some of my LPS bailed polyps so I would not suggest doing this. If did seem to kill the algae for a couple weeks, but it then grew back again unfortunately, which is why I am at the point now where I am rebuilding.

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