randy holmes-farley

New to Reef2Reef, I hope I’m doing this right! I am having salinity issues after being in the hobby for about a year now. My refractometer’s (new and old) are reading wonky. And I have calibrated with 35ppt solution from BRS and AccuraSea, different readings from Both and NOT 35 ppt. I am...

Hi everyone. Really want to try @Randy Holmes-Farley salt mix recipe. I have gathered and sourced everything except the sodium sulfate. It’s harder to get here or very expensive in Canada. Is there a substitute I can use or omit it? Thanks you

I have very high nitrate and phosphate in my 90 gallons tank, vodka dosing it for a while now, followed the instructions for vodka dosing. Nitrate is under control, but phosphate still high, can easily go to above 0.5 if not run a lot of rowaphos. I start using phosphate Rx, it help reduce...

Hi Randy, hope you are doing good, this is my first thread ever. My Background: I am a software engeer with 25+ years of experience. In hobby for past 4 years along with the above electronics is my passion and I do a lot of DIY stuff. no background of chemistry Goal I am working on an...

Today i will be starting the process to stop the situation from the Dino’s I have been having I have already gotten 10 micron filter socks, spongexel, phyto and tisbe pods and seachem silacate test kit Looking at previous forums it’s saying 1 drop per gallon but reading the bottle from bright...

So basically i have a new 60-liter nano tank with stable parameters except for a low phosphate level (0ppm) checked with hanna ulr phosphorous checker . The nitrate level is at the desired range (8 ppm). I am considering dosing phosphate additive to reach 0.03-0.05 ppm (nyos phosphate) , but i...

I’m in the process of gathering ingredients to make my own frozen feed but I’m at a stumbling block and have hit the brakes. I do not have access to fresh off the boat I seafood and can only get stuff from local grocers. A lot of the seafood is preserved in Sodium Tripolyphosphate and I’m...

Hey reefers , question about coralline algae Would it be beneficial to add coralline algae from a bottle. Would this speed up the process of maturing mu new set up and are there any benefits or draw backs to doing so manually instead letting it develop by its own(

Randy, This is my second ICP test over the last 3 weeks with this most recent test being approx 3 hours after a 17% water change. Please let me know what you think especially with my now new high manganese level. Is there anything I need to do? I did switch to Red Sea blue bucket about 3...

I have a question about calcium being high in my reef tank. So, I started reef moonshiners' method and upon doing the ICP test both were high. Ca test 1 was at 812, test 2 is at 902. After the first ICP I did water a couple 20% water changes and calcium was reading high still. After second icp I...

As title states, I'm wondering if this coupling I purchased, to connect 1/2" soft tubing to 3/4" tubing, to connect a pump to a UV sterilizer is reef safe.. any thoughts would most helpful thanks! https://www.lascofittings.com/products/3201004

Saw this video on YouTube. And curious if you think you could make a better cookie. Not sure if this can be posted here or not.

Hey Randy! I always complain for a higher ph but now I finally got it. Well maybe it's gonna get to high... I use a few things to keep my pH high 1. Kalkwasser in my ato 2. Dosing pH+ from reef zlments (probably contains sodium hydroxide) 3. CO2 scrubber My pH is now 8.45-8.6 but I need to...

I have a question for the community I’ve never encountered in all my years. I’ve been keeping reef tanks for a long time so I know all too well about our friendly chemicals we use to maintain parameters in our tanks. But what I’ve run into is the fact I am dosing so much product that I’m causing...

Seeking help from Randy Holmes Farley! I have just added a C02 Scrubber to my system. Within 24 hours my alk consumption went from 0.3 DKH per day to 0.8 per day. Every day since it has risen. It’s now up to 1.6 DKH per day. I’m just worried something is wrong. I can’t see the coral I have...

I faced an issue this morning with my thermostat which dropped in the water over night and broke. The chiller was unable to turn on so my aquarium temperature went from 25celcious to 29 Celsius in a couple of hours. When i woke up in the morning i immediately turned on the chiller manually and...

I recently switched from Red Sea dosing products to Seachem products. I emailed Seachem and they were nice enough to send me a calculator excel sheet on how much to mix with RO water to make a stock solution… this is where I’m struggling I am now almost double the daily dose of the Seachem...

So I just got gifted a bottle of this. I have an LPS and softies tank. The bottle clearly states its for filter feeding invertebrates but I could have sworn people use this for coral growth as well. My only reason for using this would be for my coral, not so much my invertebrates. Any thoughts...

I received my first trition oes icp test for my 30 gallon quarantine tank. I just made a huge mistake and put in 23ml of manganese instead of magnesium. The correct dose should have been 1.14 for 2 days. The oes icp test showed a value of 0 for manganese. But imho doesnt really help since oes...

Hello everyone, I have been having a weird issue that I tought wasn’t an issue until now, all my SPS including Acros, Cyphastrea, seriatopora, stylos etc. have super extended polyps and not in a great way in some of them I cannot even see the skeleton and on some it looks like they are...

Alright, I’ve got a bit of background to cover, so hang in there! I just want to provide everything I can! Current Tank Parameters: Salinity: 1.025 sg Ca: 410 ppm Alk: 7.85 Mg: 1350 ppm pH: 8.2-8.3 Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: near 0 ppm (have an API test kit) Phosphate: near 0 ppm...

I currently have an issue with my water changes. My current salt butch has a KH of 7dkh calcium of 480 and magnesium 1400. My tanks dkh is around 8.5 my calcium is a bit elevated at 490 and my mag around 1450. I do a water change of 50 liters in a 370 liters volume so its about 20%. My problem...

My 3XL900 with my angel fish turned cloudy. I determined it was small bubbles, looked in the sump and saw my skimmer overflowing (like when newly set up). All the fish seem to be breathing way fast, ORP dropped from 293-237 from 10PM-11PM. Only thing I did different tonight was the krill I fed...

I started carbon dosing with homemade No-Pox vinegar, vodka, RODI. Nitrates have come down but phosphates have stayed high. Yesterday I started dosing Phosphate E through an apex DOS. At about 1/4 dose. My question is, do you continue to dose this, or is it more of a one time when needed...

Hey guys and girls. Any experience on using/dosing food grade calcium carbonate capsules mixed in ro di to act as a flocculant, bind all the degraded stuff and then dose some bacteria product to remove them from the system. Any opinions? Do you believe it will have any adverse effects?