Are you currently struggling with anything...

hyprc · Nov 30, 2019

bryanfuel said:
My Alk is all over the place and I have no idea why. It's fluctuating between 5.5 and 7.7 nearly daily and I have 4 tiny LPS frags.

What's your mag at? How much alk supplement are you dosing vs calcium every day and how large is your tank? Is it on a doser or hand dosed?

bryanfuel · Nov 30, 2019

hyprc said:
What's your mag at? How much alk supplement are you dosing vs calcium every day and how large is your tank? Is it on a doser or hand dosed?

1150 last I checked which was 11/26. I'll test everything again tomorrow morning. I'm dosing 14ml alk, 10ml calc and 4ml mag of Red Sea ABC per day for a 24G biocube. Just by hand dumped in the sump. I also did a 4g water change 2 days ago and a 1g water change today using red sea black bucket

Daddy-o · Nov 30, 2019

Using black bucket with only 4 frags, one would think that you should not have to dose at all. The alk. on black bucket is 12? Bad test kit?
Cheers! Mark

hyprc · Nov 30, 2019

bryanfuel said:
1150 last I checked which was 11/26. I'll test everything again tomorrow morning. I'm dosing 14ml alk, 10ml calc and 4ml mag of Red Sea ABC per day for a 24G biocube. Just by hand dumped in the sump. I also did a 4g water change 2 days ago and a 1g water change today using red sea black bucket

That's dangerously low. Could easily explain your weird alk by itself. You NEED 1250+ (I keep 1350+) mag to have stable alk/cal...

Zos4me · Nov 30, 2019

my struggle is patience . with everything else is life i have plenty but i want my tank and my coral to grow NOW lol.

bryanfuel · Nov 30, 2019

Daddy-o said:
Using black bucket with only 4 frags, one would think that you should not have to dose at all. The alk. on black bucket is 12? Bad test kit?
Cheers! Mark

I've used a red sea, salifert and API test kit now and they're all measuring in the same range. I also measured the black bucket salt and got 11dKH. I feel like I'm going crazy lol

hyprc said:
That's dangerously low. Could easily explain your weird alk by itself. You NEED 1250+ (I keep 1350+) mag to have stable alk/cal...

I've been dosing mag with alk and calc. I just retested and got the following numbers:
Alk: 6.8
Calc: 360
Mag: 1300

hyprc · Nov 30, 2019

bryanfuel said:
I've used a red sea, salifert and API test kit now and they're all measuring in the same range. I also measured the black bucket salt and got 11dKH. I feel like I'm going crazy lol

I've been dosing mag with alk and calc. I just retested and got the following numbers:
Alk: 6.8
Calc: 360
Mag: 1300

Keep dosing mag and increase your calcium dose. You should always dose alk/cal in equal amounts (assuming you have a balance of alk/cal/mag) BUT Red Sea's liquid alk supplement is more concentrated than the rest which makes it a huge pain in my opinion. Right now you're dosing a fairly large imbalance towards alk either way it seems.

Also, careful doing water changes with that high alk salt. It's going to be a shock when you're running so low on alk. You've tested salinity recently I trust?

Erick375 · Dec 1, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Don't know if you've seen this or not, but it may help. I've used it for years....

Reef Chemistry Calculator

Thank you thank you thank you

bryanfuel · Dec 1, 2019

hyprc said:
Keep dosing mag and increase your calcium dose. You should always dose alk/cal in equal amounts (assuming you have a balance of alk/cal/mag) BUT Red Sea's liquid alk supplement is more concentrated than the rest which makes it a huge pain in my opinion. Right now you're dosing a fairly large imbalance towards alk either way it seems.

Also, careful doing water changes with that high alk salt. It's going to be a shock when you're running so low on alk. You've tested salinity recently I trust?

Yeah, I was a bit worried about that hence the low volumes. I've also been dumping it in the back sump of the biocube but I don't know if that really helps much.

Yup. 1.025

hyprc · Dec 1, 2019

bryanfuel said:
Yeah, I was a bit worried about that hence the low volumes. I've also been dumping it in the back sump of the biocube but I don't know if that really helps much.

Yup. 1.025

Dosing to the sump shouldn't be an issue. Just as long as you're not dosing alk/cal at the same time (which results in it precipitating immediately out of solution before it has a chance to dissolve. Guess you have some water changes in your future (although it would make me less nervous if you were using the blue bucket lol)

bryanfuel · Dec 1, 2019

hyprc said:
Dosing to the sump shouldn't be an issue. Just as long as you're not dosing alk/cal at the same time (which results in it precipitating immediately out of solution before it has a chance to dissolve. Guess you have some water changes in your future (although it would make me less nervous if you were using the blue bucket lol)

Wish you told me that like a week ago. I literally just bought another black bucket haha

hyprc · Dec 1, 2019

bryanfuel said:
Wish you told me that like a week ago. I literally just bought another black bucket haha

Or you could just switch to ESV or Tropic Marin Pro (if you watch BRS's salt videos, these two stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of purity and quick, clear mixing, with ESV having a clear advantage while being a bit harder to work with, you have to mix 4 components properly).

I'd just keep the water changes small and regular for now.

captainsmitty · Dec 3, 2019

Well, a broken leg is keeping me from doing anything at the moment...

Zach W · Dec 3, 2019

Vermited Snails! I crush as many as I can find but they still pop up!!

hyprc · Dec 3, 2019

captainsmitty said:
Well, a broken leg is keeping me from doing anything at the moment...

Dude if u were local I'd totally help out. I'm sure someone close by can handle some basics for ya.

Zach W said:
Vermited Snails! I crush as many as I can find but they still pop up!!

One of my biggest challenges to eliminate but thankfully, corals outcompete them. I've read on here that reef snow will kill them off over time but haven't tried it yet.

Daddy-o · Dec 3, 2019

captainsmitty said:
Well, a broken leg is keeping me from doing anything at the moment...

What can I help you with neighbor?
Cheers! Mark in Redwood City!!!!

Daddy-o · Dec 4, 2019

Today I am struggling with my 2000 Chevy Tahoe. It has been running good. I backed it into the driveway a week ago. Today the starter turned but no run...dang. Gas gauge was on empty so I poured 5 gallons in and it still wont run. Starter turns and it coughs a bit but nothing.

Samina · Dec 4, 2019

Not struggling per se but discovered a new problem. I have a few automatic testers on my system and apparently, they are causing my salinity to decrease from the amount of water being used for testing since I wasn’t compensating saltwater and ATO was kicking in to make up difference. My salinity probe on apex fluctuates 34.7-34.9. But according to my refractometer, I’m actually at 1.022-1.023. Oh and display is fallow from velvet and ich, so I guess you can call that struggling!

Backreefing · Dec 4, 2019

I am currently struggling with a small pink acropora. About 8 weeks ago I purchased a few frags and I turned down my BB LEDs to50% . Then I forgot about it. Since this pink acropora has turned brown and is reseeding at the base . I turned up the lights back to 100% and waiting.
IDK about it . By the way all the others are ok but growth has greatly slowed tankwide , except for the montipora they are happy as ever.

BiGGiePauls33 · Dec 9, 2019

Low NO3 and moderate NO4 depending upon if I feed Reef Roids or not.
Temp. 78.8
Salinity 1.026
dKH 8.5
Cal 420
Mag 1300
Nitrate 2 PPM
Phosphate currently .09 after slowly dropping from .24 with Phosphate RX
0 TDS water
29 gallon Biocube
2 large clowns and a 6 line wrasse.
Tank is 5 years old, plenty of coralline growth