HELP alk way low
- Thread starter Evan West
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yup.
I just spent the last 36hrs in half panick about my clam. A lot of corals just act weird, slough stuff off and bounce back.
Yours is a bit weirder though just keep an eye on it.
soooo weird.
You PHis still good? A nf you didnt add GFO. everything else is good.
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Evan West
Well-Known Member
The only thing that is closed up is the Acan, my zoas, hammer, frogspawn, blasto, favia and plate are all open. Like i said the frogspawn is still damaged but has not gotten worse. The only thing i changed was the 25% WC and putting my hermit in a breeder box (where he still is)
thats good.
Soo Odd.
Algae just is. Low numbers dont kill it, high numbers dont cause it. You have to scrub and remove.
But yea sounds like its all on the up and up. The only other thing I would look at is the ph swing, check it again a few hours after the lights go out if you can. Winter C02 etc....
or its just a grump.
cos scrubber or outside air. With the PH at 8 im not 100% is a problem, but worth checking.
GHA, scrub and snails.:mad:
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Evan West
Well-Known Member
I had a team of snails but from getting stuck on there back while i was in class or at work and unknown causes they have all died and i haven't gotten around to getting more. What i dont want is to get more, have them die and just feed more nutrients to the HA
Myka
Valuable Member
So, if 8 dKH is "really low", what is alkalinity normally at? How long did it take to fall to 8 dKH?
I agree that 8 dKH isn't "low" in an of itself, but if the tank is normally at 11 or 12 dKH, and fell to 8 dKH in a week or two, then yes that would cause stress to the tank. Changes in alkalinity are more of a problem than the actual number in many cases. I do think 8 dKH is on the low side for an LPS tank as lower alkalinity seems to be linked to Brown Jelly Disease in my experience.
The red patches in the photos look like red coralline, not cyanobacteria.
I do think that the bare patch on the Frogspawn was either caused by alkalinity fluctuation (depending how far/quickly it dropped), or a critter eating it. The critter eating it may be something you didn't purposely add, I'd check at night while the lights are off. If you cover your flashlight with a red filter the critters don't react to it so much because they can't really see it.
I agree that 8 dKH isn't "low" in an of itself, but if the tank is normally at 11 or 12 dKH, and fell to 8 dKH in a week or two, then yes that would cause stress to the tank. Changes in alkalinity are more of a problem than the actual number in many cases. I do think 8 dKH is on the low side for an LPS tank as lower alkalinity seems to be linked to Brown Jelly Disease in my experience.
The red patches in the photos look like red coralline, not cyanobacteria.
I do think that the bare patch on the Frogspawn was either caused by alkalinity fluctuation (depending how far/quickly it dropped), or a critter eating it. The critter eating it may be something you didn't purposely add, I'd check at night while the lights are off. If you cover your flashlight with a red filter the critters don't react to it so much because they can't really see it.
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Evan West
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Admittedly I had not checked Alk in a week or so as everything seemed just fine and it was 11ish last i checked so when things started acting goofy i checked and it was 8 so over the corse of 2 or 3 weeks in droped from 11-8
Myka
Valuable Member
Didn't you say you test everyday? Though not for a week? Was it already dropping the last time you checked (a week ago)? That's a big change over a short period. More than 1 dKH per week. Why did it drop so fast? Were you not dosing? Was there a problem with the dosing?
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Evan West
Well-Known Member
I used to test every day but haven't as of late cuz ive been busy and everything was running fine. 3 weeks ago when last i checked levels were normal up around 11. Also i dont dose i just do 25% weekly WC and up till this point i have had no problem maintaining levels.
Myka
Valuable Member
Seems awfully weird for the tank to suddenly go through so much more alkalinity. What salt are you using to keep it this high? sorry if you mentioned already, I'm bouncing around threads...
