Reefer 350

[mitten_reef]

let's see the frag rack - need to know if i need to stop spending my reefing funds at LFS for the next month.

[ninjamyst]

On 12/24/2018 at 7:50 PM, HarryPotter said:

My skimmer didn’t restart after a water change, oddly. So I’m running it in vinigat overnight to see if the pump is just jammed up with worms/coralline. Still really happy with the skimmer overall; it’s been like 3 years with no issues, AND i got it used. 

 

my skimmer does the same from time to time

[HarryPotter]

5 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

let's see the frag rack - need to know if i need to stop spending my reefing funds at LFS for the next month.

 

Lol, whatcha want? Major growth spurt.... Dosing like 45ml of each part (B-ionic) every day.  Right now the rack has Millipore, teal stags, green stag, purple bonsai, and a TON of rainbow montipora (19 frags lol). 

[Andreww]

25 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Lol, whatcha want? Major growth spurt.... Dosing like 45ml of each part (B-ionic) every day.  Right now the rack has Millipore, teal stags, green stag, purple bonsai, and a TON of rainbow montipora (19 frags lol). 

Soooo, what’s up with this rainbow montipora thing..?

I asked you a while back about them....I got 3 frags, one is doing well, 2 are not.

Part of the frags were self-shaded for a few days (the way they were mounted)and now they’re white in that area. Do they really lose color that fast?

The other one is still baby blue skin with green polyps and red on new growth but man I hate them, they’re more temperamental than my acros.

Seems like they’re doing wonderful in your tank.

[Reefkid88]

Oh oh whatcha got Harold ? 

[HarryPotter]

1 minute ago, Andreww said:

Soooo, what’s up with this rainbow montipora thing..?

I asked you a while back about them....I got 3 frags, one is doing well, 2 are not.

 Part of the frags were self-shaded for a few days (the way they were mounted)and now they’re white in that area. Do they really lose color that fast?

 The other one is still baby blue skin with green polyps and red on new growth but man I hate them, they’re more temperamental than my acros.

 Seems like they’re doing wonderful in your tank.

 

They're definitely tricky. In my tank with T5s, I get crazy growth but no red polyps. But when I put them into the 300 gallon, with radions, they get a ton of red polyps within a few weeks. 

[mitten_reef]

36 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Lol, whatcha want? Major growth spurt.... Dosing like 45ml of each part (B-ionic) every day.  Right now the rack has Millipore, teal stags, green stag, purple bonsai, and a TON of rainbow montipora (19 frags lol). 

Wouldn't mind a little bit of everything, especially acros - I don't have any that you just mentioned.  and I'm a sucker for monti.  i would love to add some stuff as a bday treat to myself first wk of Feb.   

 

I'm still sorting things out a bit with my tank.  some acros are showing great growth spurts and colors - but a few are slowly withering away, or had withered away - very puzzling.   I'll PM you in a week or two, once I know what lives/dies in my tank. 

[HarryPotter]

7 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

Wouldn't mind a little bit of everything, especially acros - I don't have any that you just mentioned.  and I'm a sucker for monti.  i would love to add some stuff as a bday treat to myself first wk of Feb.   

 

I'm still sorting things out a bit with my tank.  some acros are showing great growth spurts and colors - but a few are slowly withering away, or had withered away - very puzzling.   I'll PM you in a week or two, once I know what lives/dies in my tank. 

 

Sounds good! 

 

A quick update here:

 

    I am fighting my alkalinity again, but this time it is going low.... and dosing doesn’t seem to correct it. It was 6.0 this morning (should be 7) and I’ve dosed 90ml of each part of b-ionic today.  My normal dose is 45; doubling the dose should raise it by 1 dKH, yet my alkalinity still tonight still reads 6.0.  It feels like feeding a bomb, adding more and more while looking for the reading to change. 

 

I dont THINK the tank could use that much.... so I am looking for other possible factors. Magnesium is 1300, fine, and salinity 1.026. Didn’t test calcium but I assume that’s fine given that the dosing is 1:1. Tis odd. 

[Andreww]

Test kit ?

[patback]

4 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Sounds good! 

 

A quick update here:

 

    I am fighting my alkalinity again, but this time it is going low.... and dosing doesn’t seem to correct it. It was 6.0 this morning (should be 7) and I’ve dosed 90ml of each part of b-ionic today.  My normal dose is 45; doubling the dose should raise it by 1 dKH, yet my alkalinity still tonight still reads 6.0.  It feels like feeding a bomb, adding more and more while looking for the reading to change. 

 

I dont THINK the tank could use that much.... so I am looking for other possible factors. Magnesium is 1300, fine, and salinity 1.026. Didn’t test calcium but I assume that’s fine given that the dosing is 1:1. Tis odd. 

Any chance your test has gone bad?

[patback]

Any chance you could do some math to figure out what you need to dilute your solution to to get an in-range number and test your diluted solution to check it didnt precipitate out somehow?

[mitten_reef]

7 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Sounds good! 

 

A quick update here:

 

    I am fighting my alkalinity again, but this time it is going low.... and dosing doesn’t seem to correct it. It was 6.0 this morning (should be 7) and I’ve dosed 90ml of each part of b-ionic today.  My normal dose is 45; doubling the dose should raise it by 1 dKH, yet my alkalinity still tonight still reads 6.0.  It feels like feeding a bomb, adding more and more while looking for the reading to change. 

 

I dont THINK the tank could use that much.... so I am looking for other possible factors. Magnesium is 1300, fine, and salinity 1.026. Didn’t test calcium but I assume that’s fine given that the dosing is 1:1. Tis odd. 

Any build-up of precipitation anywhere? That’s how I ended up the last time my alk dropped. Just kept adding more dosage, but it all precipitated out where I wasn’t looking. 

[HarryPotter]

10 minutes ago, Andreww said:

Test kit ?

 

Its a possibility, though both (relatively new)  bottles of Hanna reagent give me the same reading. I have no reason to suspect that the checker itself is defective, but I cannot exclude that possibility without more test kits. 

 

10 minutes ago, patback said:

Any chance your test has gone bad?

Its a possibility, though both (relatively new)  bottles of Hanna reagent give me the same reading. I have no reason to suspect that the checker itself is defective, but I cannot exclude that possibility without more test kits. 

6 minutes ago, patback said:

Any chance you could do some math to figure out what you need to dilute your solution to to get an in-range number and test your diluted solution to check it didnt precipitate out somehow?

 

 Not sure what you mean. The alkalinity solution still turns white when it’s added to the tank, so it’s still doing something. I’ve never had an issue with B-Ionic, it dissolves well

 

5 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Any build-up of precipitation anywhere? That’s how I ended up the last time my alk dropped. Just kept adding more dosage, but it all precipitated out where I wasn’t looking. 

 

I don’t see any, but why would it precipitate out, especially @ 6dkh? Shouldn’t it “be accepted” into solution unless it was like 10+,dkh?

[HarryPotter]

Oh @patback @micoastreefing I just switched from BRS dosers to the apex DOS..... perhaps the BRS dosers were doing more than advertised? I never checked their output, but if they were outputting 2.2ml/minute instead of 1.1, they would explain why I needed ~90ml to remain stable.... 

[Andreww]

That’s weird. I’d be scared to add double dosage any longer before testing with another kit.

I agree, B-ionic mixes well instantly, I’ve never had precipitate anywhere in the tank nor sump, except the occasional once in a blue moon slight white film on the glass when mixing the 2 part within 5 minutes of each other.

[patback]

6 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Oh @patback @micoastreefing I just switched from BRS dosers to the apex DOS..... perhaps the BRS dosers were doing more than advertised? I never checked their output, but if they were outputting 2.2ml/minute instead of 1.1, they would explain why I needed ~90ml to remain stable.... 

Would make sense.  What's the way you calibarate the new one vs the old one?  

[mitten_reef]

6 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

I don’t see any, but why would it precipitate out, especially @ 6dkh? Shouldn’t it “be accepted” into solution unless it was like 10+,dkh?

I had localized high concentration in chamber 2, mostly AIO problem, but you never know.

2 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Oh @patback @micoastreefing I just switched from BRS dosers to the apex DOS..... perhaps the BRS dosers were doing more than advertised? I never checked their output, but if they were outputting 2.2ml/minute instead of 1.1, they would explain why I needed ~90ml to remain stable.... 

mine was pushing a lil more than 1.5 ml/min when I tested it with the measuring cup that came with it - more than 15 ml, but under 20, after 10 minute timer. doubling the rate sounds unlikely though. 

[HarryPotter]

5 minutes ago, patback said:

Would make sense.  What's the way you calibarate the new one vs the old one?  

 

Erm. New ones I calibrated. They’re smart, apex DOS. Old ones I never calibrated, those were “dumb” pumps.  I just adjusted the timer to add more or less, not actually knowing for sure the ml it was outputting. Like I always assumed they did 1.1ml/minute without actually checking that. Dumb, lol. 

[HarryPotter]

8 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

I had localized high concentration in chamber 2, mostly AIO problem, but you never know.

mine was pushing a lil more than 1.5 ml/min when I tested it with the measuring cup that came with it - more than 15 ml, but under 20, after 10 minute timer. doubling the rate sounds unlikely though. 

 

I never tested those dosers, I just adjusted the timer to add more or less based on my testing. I agree that doubling sounds unlikely, however with my recent SPS success, my Alk usage has been going way up. It was falling to 7 from 8 even before I made the switch to apex dos. So I think it is a combination of the BRS dosers adding more than advertised, and my demand going up. 

 

Tomorrow I will check the BRS doser to see what it was dosing 👍👍. 

 

Thanks for the help peeps- I think now we have a general idea of what’s going on. Increased demand plus a change in dosing systems. 

 

I ordered a salifert alkalinity text so I can have something to confirm results with 👍

[patback]

12 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Erm. New ones I calibrated. They’re smart, apex DOS. Old ones I never calibrated, those were “dumb” pumps.  I just adjusted the timer to add more or less, not actually knowing for sure the ml it was outputting. Like I always assumed they did 1.1ml/minute without actually checking that. Dumb, lol. 

I hear ya.  

I have been manually dosing my tank.  I dont have a high enough demand yet, and my dosers aren't accurate below 15 ml.  Trying to get 4 ml to come out gives me a range of 6-10. Lol. 

I'm hoping to get more sps to actually make the tank easier...

[HarryPotter]

On 12/27/2018 at 11:33 PM, patback said:

I hear ya.  

I have been manually dosing my tank.  I dont have a high enough demand yet, and my dosers aren't accurate below 15 ml.  Trying to get 4 ml to come out gives me a range of 6-10. Lol. 

I'm hoping to get more sps to actually make the tank easier...

 

On 12/27/2018 at 11:17 PM, micoastreefing said:

I had localized high concentration in chamber 2, mostly AIO problem, but you never know.

mine was pushing a lil more than 1.5 ml/min when I tested it with the measuring cup that came with it - more than 15 ml, but under 20, after 10 minute timer. doubling the rate sounds unlikely though. 

 

75ml daily is ineffective..... alkalinity dropping to 6.1. No idea what the problem is. 

 

Ive resolved to do a 50g mix-style water change, well over 50%, with Fritz. That should raise it to 7 hopefully 

[patback]

21 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

 

75ml daily is ineffective..... alkalinity dropping to 6.1. No idea what the problem is. 

 

Ive resolved to do a 50g mix-style water change, well over 50%, with Fritz. That should raise it to 7 hopefully 

Did you get the salifert test in yet?  Where does the all get dosed into? Is it possible its precipitating in the return line?

Good luck, I hope the water change helps and your able to keep it stable after the fact. 

[mitten_reef]

32 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

 

75ml daily is ineffective..... alkalinity dropping to 6.1. No idea what the problem is. 

 

Ive resolved to do a 50g mix-style water change, well over 50%, with Fritz. That should raise it to 7 hopefully 

Did you change the alk dosing liquid brand? Did you buy concentrates or powder that you may have mixed them incorrectly/differently than before? Or is it pre-mixed? 

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, patback said:

Did you get the salifert test in yet?  Where does the all get dosed into? Is it possible its precipitating in the return line?

Good luck, I hope the water change helps and your able to keep it stable after the fact. 

 

 No salifert in yet. Dosed into return chamber, 1.5ml at a time, Alk and Ca offset. I’m headed to the beach, so will do the water change later this afternoon. 

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, micoastreefing said:

Did you change the alk dosing liquid brand? Did you buy concentrates or powder that you may have mixed them incorrectly/differently than before? Or is it pre-mixed? 

 

It is B-ionic, I buy 2x 1g containers at a time. They come with the super-concentrated liquid in it, and then you mix RODI water to the line. Pretty idiot-proof.