IS MY CORAL OK ??

[Duncan62]

Ya i mean it is possible to have calc over 500 and alk of 5.4 i just saying extremely unlikely barring a dosing mishap. And ya alk 5.4 and ph 8.3 also os a big red flag.

My alk has never been that low but I slowly jacked my calc up with a dosing error. Hard to belive all these things just happened. I agree. Test carefully once more. Then correct slowly.

 

[Duncan62]

I did both tests twice as it was my first time using the Salifert tests and got
1st time:
Alk: 6.1(I think i did it wrong this time)
Cal: ? (Solution didn’t turn blue with just one syringe)
2nd time:
Alk: 5.4
Cal: just over 500 (used 1 syringe and a couple more drops after that)
Going to my lfs tmr I will pick up some Alk plus solution or something similar

Lots of people like salifert. Test once more. Thanks ( :

 

[Spare time]

It’s definitely receding/dying. Can you take pictures under white light. What is your alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate? Are you using RODI water? How old is your tank?

Also, you shouldn’t drip acclimate corals. Just float them (only if the temp is more than a few degrees off), dip them, and put them in the tank. Corals take in and expel water through diffusion, they are self-acclimating. The sooner you get them into flowing water so they can respirate, the better. Still want to drip acclimate fish and inverts.

I wouldn't say "shouldn't" is the right term. Maybe not necessary, but ph (and alk) swings can be massive between tanks and a little bag. If it didn't matter, then we wouldn't see people saying don't raise x by more than y amount at a time, or be concerned with any swings in the display tank.

 

[Emma_fish]

Ok thank you everyone for your advice I will retest today and post the results on here

 

[Emma_fish]

Update : I think I’ve found the problem my hydrometer arrived and I tested salinity and it was over 1.028
I’m now in the process of adding RO and taking out salt to get the correct salinity
I’ve added pics of my coral today

 

[3429810]

What do you mean by taking out the salt? You should just be adding ro water at intervals to slowly bring it down.

hydrometers aren’t always the most accurate either it would ideal to get a refractometer and a bottle of calibration solution.

 

[Emma_fish]

What do you mean by taking out the salt? You should just be adding ro water at intervals to slowly bring it down.

hydrometers aren’t always the most accurate either it would ideal to get a refractometer and a bottle of calibration solution.

I’ve taken around 2% of my tank water out and out put plain RO in then I will retest in a little while once it has mixed in and tomorrow if needed change a little more water so that it is done gradually

 

[3429810]

I’ve taken around 2% of my tank water out and out put plain RO in then I will retest in a little while once it has mixed in and tomorrow if needed change a little more water so that it is done gradually

That sounds good. Sorry I think I was confusing this thread with another where the tank wasn’t quite full. I think that you should be fine lowering it all the way back to normal today it’s not crazy high. Going down by 0.002 in one day won’t hurt as long as it’s not at once. Hopefully what you did get you pretty close though and then just one more adjustment if your not where you need to be.

going forward I would test your salinity daily and probably run your other tests every few days and record everything for you to reference. Hopefully as you bring your parameters more in line with a typical reef tank you will see positive changes.

 

[Emma_fish]

That sounds good. Sorry I think I was confusing this thread with another where the tank wasn’t quite full. I think that you should be fine lowering it all the way back to normal today it’s not crazy high. Going down by 0.002 in one day won’t hurt as long as it’s not at once. Hopefully what you did get you pretty close though and then just one more adjustment if your not where you need to be.

going forward I would test your salinity daily and probably run your other tests every few days and record everything for you to reference. Hopefully as you bring your parameters more in line with a typical reef tank you will see positive changes.

Ah ok no worries , thanks so much

 

[Rmckoy]

Was this post and the other where salinity was found to be high ?

Did you correct the high salinity by adding Ro water ?

how fast was this done to correct salinity ?
Starting at 1.028
What is your preferred target salinity ?

 

[Emma_fish]

Was this post and the other where salinity was found to be high ?

Did you correct the high salinity by adding Ro water ?

how fast was this done to correct salinity ?
Starting at 1.028
What is your preferred target salinity ?

Hi, yes I’ve added some RO water -about 2% of my tank
and I want it to be around 1.025

 

[SlugSnorter]

ok … now I’m panicking I think something is wrong as my favia looks like this now

likely to param issues then, please test all params ASAP. Could be that now that theres another coral sucking up nitrates, etc there is not enough to go around.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Hi, yes I’ve added some RO water -about 2% of my tank
and I want it to be around 1.025

ah, thats likely it, keep checking and be slow and steady

 

[MaxTremors]

I wouldn't say "shouldn't" is the right term. Maybe not necessary, but ph (and alk) swings can be massive between tanks and a little bag. If it didn't matter, then we wouldn't see people saying don't raise x by more than y amount at a time, or be concerned with any swings in the display tank.

Unless you’re doing a drip acclimation that lasts days, it’s pointless. An hour or two hour long drip acclimation is no different than just putting it in the tank. Corals slowly take in and expel water through diffusion, they are not a fish that depends on hemoglobin for respiration and is more immediately affected by differences in PH, salinity, and temperature. Drip acclimating corals can actually be detrimental as they are not able to properly respirate in a bag or small container. Doing short (as in less than a few days) drip acclimations on corals just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how corals function. What’s really perplexing is people who do drip acclimations and then dip their corals in harsh chemicals, it’s logically baffling, why would a coral need to be slowly acclimated to tank water but not to harsh chemicals? It’s recommended to slowly raise or lower parameters in your tank over days and weeks because corals do not respond well to change, a coral is going to go through the exact same stress of being put in a new tank regardless of whether you drip acclimate or not, again, the difference being that the coral can’t properly respirate in a bag or small container, so you’re just adding to the stress by drip acclimating.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Unless you’re doing a drip acclimation that lasts days, it’s pointless. An hour or two hour long drip acclimation is no different than just putting it in the tank. Corals slowly take in and expel water through diffusion, they are not a fish that depends on hemoglobin for respiration and is more immediately affected by differences in PH, salinity, and temperature. Drip acclimating corals can actually be detrimental as they are not able to properly respirate in a bag or small container. Doing short (as in less than a few days) drip acclimations on corals just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how corals function. What’s really perplexing is people who do drip acclimations and then dip their corals in harsh chemicals, it’s logically baffling, why would a coral need to be slowly acclimated to tank water but not to harsh chemicals? It’s recommended to slowly raise or lower parameters in your tank over days and weeks because corals do not respond well to change, a coral is going to go through the exact same stress of being put in a new tank regardless of whether you drip acclimate or not, again, the difference being that the coral can’t properly respirate in a bag or small container, so you’re just adding to the stress by drip acclimating.

ehh... drip acclimation can be used to simply adjust the temp in the water to match the tank while allowing the oxygen rich tank water to the bag.

and yes I understand some corals aren't relatively too sensitive to temp swings and that dripping isn't some crazy master technique that will save anything, but its not that hard, and for the most part isnt really gonna cause issues with most corals, and can help with the things I mentioned above

also, depending on where the corals are from, and the particularities of the tank its going in a dip can be useful

 

[MaxTremors]

ehh... drip acclimation can be used to simply adjust the temp in the water to match the tank while allowing the oxygen rich tank water to the bag.

Corals need flowing water to properly respirate, putting O2 rich water in a bag isn’t going to do much. Most corals are pretty retracted after shipping or bringing them home from an LFS, they’re not going to open up and respirate until they are in flowing water. A quick drip to equalize temperature is fine (though unnecessary if it’s within a few degrees, and floating the bag will achieve the same thing). The point is that drip acclimation is at best unnecessary, at worst detrimental. Is it going to kill a coral, in the vast majority of situations, no, but it’s just adding more stress and is a waste of time.

 

[Hermie]

Im guessing that your salinity is off but it's just a guess

 

[Duncan62]

I would suggest having fish store test alk with their kit before dosing anything just because those numbers seem so unlikely and if alk is actually not that low the last thing you want to do is make things worse and make it too high.

Unless you’re doing a drip acclimation that lasts days, it’s pointless. An hour or two hour long drip acclimation is no different than just putting it in the tank. Corals slowly take in and expel water through diffusion, they are not a fish that depends on hemoglobin for respiration and is more immediately affected by differences in PH, salinity, and temperature. Drip acclimating corals can actually be detrimental as they are not able to properly respirate in a bag or small container. Doing short (as in less than a few days) drip acclimations on corals just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how corals function. What’s really perplexing is people who do drip acclimations and then dip their corals in harsh chemicals, it’s logically baffling, why would a coral need to be slowly acclimated to tank water but not to harsh chemicals? It’s recommended to slowly raise or lower parameters in your tank over days and weeks because corals do not respond well to change, a coral is going to go through the exact same stress of being put in a new tank regardless of whether you drip acclimate or not, again, the difference being that the coral can’t properly respirate in a bag or small container, so you’re just adding to the stress by drip acclimating.

My acclimation takes about 30 min of changing small amounts of water. I know my parameters are really close to the supplier. This makes it easier. I'm 30 minutes from a grow out farm.

 

[Spare time]

Unless you’re doing a drip acclimation that lasts days, it’s pointless. An hour or two hour long drip acclimation is no different than just putting it in the tank. Corals slowly take in and expel water through diffusion, they are not a fish that depends on hemoglobin for respiration and is more immediately affected by differences in PH, salinity, and temperature. Drip acclimating corals can actually be detrimental as they are not able to properly respirate in a bag or small container. Doing short (as in less than a few days) drip acclimations on corals just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how corals function. What’s really perplexing is people who do drip acclimations and then dip their corals in harsh chemicals, it’s logically baffling, why would a coral need to be slowly acclimated to tank water but not to harsh chemicals? It’s recommended to slowly raise or lower parameters in your tank over days and weeks because corals do not respond well to change, a coral is going to go through the exact same stress of being put in a new tank regardless of whether you drip acclimate or not, again, the difference being that the coral can’t properly respirate in a bag or small container, so you’re just adding to the stress by drip acclimating.

Rapid changes outside would likely cause the coral to need to rapidly adjust its internal state vs slow dripping which is a gentle transition. Again, following the logic that the rapid changes are better, that would thus be saying that pretty much all dosing companies, all coral companies, and 99% of people on here are wrong that corals require slow changes to water chemistry

 

[Duncan62]

Rapid changes outside would likely cause the coral to need to rapidly adjust its internal state vs slow dripping which is a gentle transition. Again, following the logic that the rapid changes are better, that would thus be saying that pretty much all dosing companies, all coral companies, and 99% of people on here are wrong that corals require slow changes to water chemistry

I've found a 30 miniute drip after floating a few minutes has a good track record. Granted if ones parameters are wildly out of wack no acclimation will suffice. I 100% agree with making water chemistry changes gradually and trying to maintain a constant stability.