Another day, another *issue*

[Kara]

Medusa, before she got so upset with me!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tap water has many compounds. Add a bacteria supplement and treatment such as Amquel , aquasafe or other detoxfier for tap water.

 

[ilyad]

@ilyad: Do you think coral will survive?

Kenya leathers are some of the hardiest coral around. It def has a great chance of surviving.

You can also ask the LFS if they would be willing to hold it for you for a few weeks while you recover your tank. Some would be willing to. That’s of course if it’s possible to remove it.

Also, based on the pic, it very much looks like a Kenya tree leather

Also if it doesn’t really survive, it may be a little bit of a blessing in disguise if you plan to have a lot of non softie corals. Once Kenya trees settle in, they are pretty notoriously fast growers and drop off little babies that pop up all over the tank. I no longer put those in my tanks due to that reason. Although they are beautiful.

 

[Kara]

@ilyad: LOL! Fairly certain Medusa my one and only coral, at least for foreseeable future.

Salifert Calcium test kit arrived. Seriously confused!

Kenya leathers are some of the hardiest coral around. It def has a great chance of surviving.

You can also ask the LFS if they would be willing to hold it for you for a few weeks while you recover your tank. Some would be willing to. That’s of course if it’s possible to remove it.

Also, based on the pic, it very much looks like a Kenya tree leather

Also if it doesn’t really survive, it may be a little bit of a blessing in disguise if you plan to have a lot of non softie corals. Once Kenya trees settle in, they are pretty notoriously fast growers and drop off little babies that pop up all over the tank. I no longer put those in my tanks due to that reason. Although they are beautiful.

 

[Kara]

Soooo *over* tap water. Especially since LFS sells RODI premixed with Instant Ocean for $1 a gallon!

Tap water has many compounds. Add a bacteria supplement and treatment such as Amquel , aquasafe or other detoxfier for tap water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

@ilyad: LOL! Fairly certain Medusa my one and only coral, at least for foreseeable future.

Salifert Calcium test kit arrived. Seriously confused!

I felt same way about Salifert telling myself there has to be an easier way !

 

[vetteguy53081]

Soooo *over* tap water. Especially since LFS sells RODI premixed with Instant Ocean for $1 a gallon!

We have an LFS that sells an RO mixed with Brightwell salt @ $1.45 gallon. That would be $145 to fill a 100 gallon tank. Not cool

 

[Kara]

Awesome, I surf down there often!
My best bro lives in Vegas, I go there once a year for the races.

Races?

 

[Reeferdood]

NASCAR... My buddy is a die hard fan, they are a blast to watch in person and not on the television.

 

[ilyad]

Soooo *over* tap water. Especially since LFS sells RODI premixed with Instant Ocean for $1 a gallon!

I felt same way about Salifert telling myself there has to be an easier way !

Check out YouTube videos on how to do it. Once you do it one time, you'll realize how easy it is. But most of them are titration tests where you watch for color change, once that change is made, you read the long syringe to see how much is left and based on that you get a reading. Other ones are even easier where you just compare the color to a chart.

 

[Mikedawg]

Soooo *over* tap water. Especially since LFS sells RODI premixed with Instant Ocean for $1 a gallon!

And when you do the math, you'll want your own RO/DI system for convenience, etc. Good luck with tank, seems like you're figuring out the problems.

 

[Kara]

And when you do the math, you'll want your own RO/DI system for convenience, etc. Good luck with tank, seems like you're figuring out the problems.

Yeah. My engineer husband and his cohorts full of fabulous, high tech ideas. Expect our very own RODI system sooner rather than later!

 

[Kara]

Hey, y'all! Looking for info/ recommendations on battery powered air pumps for emergency use (i.e. 8 hour power outage a few weeks ago!)

@Kara ooooh, I bet you the problem is the tap water. Tap water often has very high phosphates, silicates, metals, and other impurities that cause nuisance algae (the red on the rocks) as well as can damage corals. You must always use clean RODI water to mix saltwater and to top of the evaporated water. As to what you can do to repair the damage now, is a few things:
1. consistent water changes using clean RODI to start (and maybe a good 30-50% change for the first one)
2. top off evaporated water with clean RODI water
3. get some high quality carbon and put it into a media bag and a sump (if you have one, otherwise into the filtration chambers of the tank)
4. get yourself a pad of "Poly Filter" cut to size and place into areas where water will flow through it (overflow area or in the sump) --> this will help absorb out all the impurities from the water that the carbon cannot.
5. upgrade the test kits to better ones; personally i recommend the following for each test Alk (Hanna checker [in dKH format] or Salifert), Ca (Salifert, Hanna is too complicated), Mag (Salifert), Nitrate (Salifert), Phosphate (Hanna Checker [Phosphorous ULR format] this one will actually allow you to test the low range that tanks require)

It is possible that the power outage caused die off as well, since water that is not agitated with pumps becomes oxygen deprived. Although if your fish survived, then likely other things did ok as well. To be on the safe side, I would get a battery powered air stone to keep at the house and a set of extra batteries. If power goes out, place the airstone in the tank and turn on the pump. This would do wonders for keeping everything alive. I keep mine right by tank (especially in the summer when we are more prone to rolling blackouts).

I also see that you are from Vegas, what temperate is your tank hitting? Hot tank can be a problem too.

Finally, if you cant have access to the things I listed above at your LFS, I would look for a better one near by, and last case scenario you can always order from BRS or Marine Depot. MD has a warehouse local to you, anything you order from them would be at your place within a day or two.