Reefer 350

[HarryPotter]

50 gallon waterchange? On a 70 display? It sounded great in theory.... let’s see what happens. Raised Alk from 6.1 to 6.8, which is perfect. 

 

[mitten_reef]

10 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

50 gallon waterchange? On a 70 display? It sounded great in theory.... let’s see what happens. Raised Alk from 6.1 to 6.8, which is perfect. 

 

With the sump volume, that’s probably about 50% wc? 

[HarryPotter]

27 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

With the sump volume, that’s probably about 50% wc? 

 

Yessir! Continuing the 60ml/day dose, and will see if that supports it. 

[seabass]

On 12/27/2018 at 9:52 PM, HarryPotter said:

.... so I am looking for other possible factors. Magnesium is 1300

That'd be my first hunch as well.  The nice thing about magnesium is that you shouldn't do a lot of damage by increasing the level a bit.  With alkalinity not wanting to increase, I'd up it to at least 1350.  But certainly  check it again after your 50% water change.

[HarryPotter]

14 hours ago, seabass said:

That'd be my first hunch as well.  The nice thing about magnesium is that you shouldn't do a lot of damage by increasing the level a bit.  With alkalinity not wanting to increase, I'd up it to at least 1350.  But certainly  check it again after your 50% water change.

 

Roger. I just replaced the peristaltic tubing with a new piece, since I was seeing huge bubbles in the lines. Perhaps that was part of it- right now I’m clearing the Mg line to resume dosing. 

 

The pumps have unknown  hours on em, I got them all used. 

 

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-and-brs-top-off-doser-replacement-tube.html

[HarryPotter]

Happy new year nano-reefers! Here’s to stable tanks and happy sticks in 2019! 😂

 

[HarryPotter]

Still fighting low alkalinity.... it was 6.1dkh so I manually dosed it up to 6.6, and upped daily dosing from 60ml to 80ml.

 

It doesn’t make sense 😞. I hope I’m not headed towards a problem. 

[mitten_reef]

On 1/1/2019 at 12:27 AM, HarryPotter said:

Happy new year nano-reefers! Here’s to stable tanks and happy sticks in 2019! 😂

 

 

same goal this year. 

[skyscraper2290]

So the big water change didn’t make a difference? Any idea of what you will do next to try to figure out what’s going on?

[HarryPotter]

31 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

So the big water change didn’t make a difference? Any idea of what you will do next to try to figure out what’s going on?

 

It brought it up temporarily but then it went back down; I’m lost. In the short term, I’m increasing Alk dose until either it rises or the tank turns white!

[seabass]

 

Just to clarify, what's the magnesium level now?

[Andreww]

46 minutes ago, seabass said:

 

Just to clarify, what's the magnesium level now?

+1.

dont remember if your calcium is fluctuating as well but def check magnesium as sea bass suggested to make sure it’s not messing with the Alk/Ca balance.

[DaveFason]

9 hours ago, seabass said:

 

Just to clarify, what's the magnesium level now?

The above. I have found if MAG is out of whack it will create a difficult time to raise the ALK. 

 

Side note I know your SPS everything, but your RBTA look stellar. 

[patback]

Hey harry,

Thought I might clue you in on a possibility you mentioned about your new doser dosing a different amount than the 1.1's you sent me.  

 

I ran some rodi through the lines for a while and then played around with the graduated cylinders.  Sure enough, after 3 tests at 1 minute run time, I am consistently getting 1.8 ml.  The cylinders say they are accurate to .1ml.

 

Now, I know you are adding more and more elements without seeing a change or precipitation, but you were right in that you were possibly dosing more with your old set up than the new.  Also keep in mind that this was with rodi, it may change if there is a difference in viscosity with the alkalinity.  I'll test that out for you later on tonight hopefully.

 

Thanks again for the dosers btw! 🙂

[HarryPotter]

1 hour ago, patback said:

Hey harry,

Thought I might clue you in on a possibility you mentioned about your new doser dosing a different amount than the 1.1's you sent me.  

 

I ran some rodi through the lines for a while and then played around with the graduated cylinders.  Sure enough, after 3 tests at 1 minute run time, I am consistently getting 1.8 ml.  The cylinders say they are accurate to .1ml.

 

Now, I know you are adding more and more elements without seeing a change or precipitation, but you were right in that you were possibly dosing more with your old set up than the new.  Also keep in mind that this was with rodi, it may change if there is a difference in viscosity with the alkalinity.  I'll test that out for you later on tonight hopefully.

 

Thanks again for the dosers btw! 🙂

 

Thats good to know! Thanks. Given that the alkalinity is stabilizing at 7.5 using 65ml a day, a timed program of “30 ml” of those dosers would actually add 54ml! So this makes sense!  

 

Yeah, I figure those tubes are pretty worn out. You can get replacements from BRS for $13 each if you want the original lower dosing rate I believe! (Or if you are getting any bubbles in the lines)

 

Thanks for checking that 🙂 

[HarryPotter]

Since yesterday.... 65ml was not enough to sustain 7.5. Back to 6.8, so I upped dosing to 80ml. 

 

WTF, aquarium?!

 

Things look incredible; better growth and color than ever, but this uptake is unrealistic! 

[patback]

41 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Since yesterday.... 65ml was not enough to sustain 7.5. Back to 6.8, so I upped dosing to 80ml. 

 

WTF, aquarium?!

 

Things look incredible; better growth and color than ever, but this uptake is unrealistic! 

That's a real good problem to have,though. My one monti is actually visibly larger by the day.  The white growth around the edge is about a half inch wide. So cool to watch coral actually grow.   

 

[teenyreef]

2 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

Since yesterday.... 65ml was not enough to sustain 7.5. Back to 6.8, so I upped dosing to 80ml. 

 

WTF, aquarium?!

 

Things look incredible; better growth and color than ever, but this uptake is unrealistic! 

This happens to me occasionally - alk uptake almost doubles for a week or two, then gradually tapers back down. The 10g isn't that stable so I think it may be more related to better conditions followed by less better conditions. But even the 40g can change by 100% over a month, then stay for a few weeks, and then start to go back down.

[HarryPotter]

10 hours ago, patback said:

That's a real good problem to have,though. My one monti is actually visibly larger by the day.  The white growth around the edge is about a half inch wide. So cool to watch coral actually grow.   

  

 

Thats awesome to hear! How do the sticks look- good PE? 

 

Im doing another 50g water change today. Half because I am suspicious of alkalinity/parameters, and half because I don't pay for salt anymore! 

 

I am doing a "mix" style water change- I mix in the new water while draining the old, so its kind of 50/120g is new, 40%, as opposed to 50/90, 55%.  (I think)

[patback]

3 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Thats awesome to hear! How do the sticks look- good PE? 

 

Im doing another 50g water change today. Half because I am suspicious of alkalinity/parameters, and half because I don't pay for salt anymore! 

 

I am doing a "mix" style water change- I mix in the new water while draining the old, so its kind of 50/120g is new, 40%, as opposed to 50/90, 55%.  (I think)

Sticks look great. Real good pe.  The one extra monti you sent is just barely hanging on though.  I have it in the sump in some low flow under the nanobox.  Anywhere I put it in the main display the flesh would peel off.  It is still alive, but not looking good for it.  

Everything else is doing great though. 

[patback]

When I did a big water change when I had my first torch I used to do that.  It was used to my clown hosting it, so no matter what I would do I couldn't piss it off enough to get it to close up and I was always worried since it was so big, the weight of it's own polyps could damage themselves.  Solution was at a certain point to just add water in at the same time I was taking some out. 

[patback]

Just got home. 

This is a pic of the reverse superman 6 or 7 days ago. (Zoomed in Screen shot of a pic I posted after my mishap with the power going crazy and pissing everything off)

 

And this is 2 minutes ago.  It's just a little bit of growth, but imo whenever you can see weekly differences, I am happy.  

 

The frag started off as a thin little sheet of coral and turned into a boulder shape in order to make touch down on the rock and expand out.

Its somewhere around 3/4 of an inch at the thickest point 

[patback]

And one of the montis you sent to me on December 23rd

 

And today

 

 

Not great growth, but the color came back amazing from shipping.  

[HarryPotter]

Well this is beautiful! Was a colony in the back of my tank, getting stung wicked. So I broke it off the rock and was like WOW thats nice! 

 

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Well this is beautiful! Was a colony in the back of my tank, getting stung wicked. So I broke it off the rock and was like WOW thats nice! 

 

ooohhhh, more please.