Monti bleaching

[AiKkz]

That's crazy if ur RSCP is mixing to 8.5 Dkh should be around 12 at that specific gravity I believe.

 

[Bleigh]

That's crazy if ur RSCP is mixing to 8.5 Dkh should be around 12 at that specific gravity I believe.

Well hopefully it will come up some more while I’m adding more salt. Since it’s actually 1.021 not 1.024. It’s about the same fraction that I need to increase the salt by. Note to self, don’t me lax on standardizing the equipment. Dang. I’m kicking myself now. Totally my fault if any of these things die.

 

[rolyguy7]

That alk is dangerously low. Be careful

I have to agree with others. Your alk is dangerously low. Seawater has alkalinity of 7dkh. You’re below natural seawater levels. I would slowly raise it to 7dkh. Leave it there for a few days before raising it further. I keep mine between 8.3-9dkh

 

[Bleigh]

Okay... 1.024 (after calibration) and the kh is at 11. That should put me pretty perfect once I get salinity to 1.025-1.026. Thank you all for helping me. And hopefully that’s all that’s wrong with my monti and I can start nursing it back to health.

 

[rolyguy7]

Salinity 1.025-1.026
Alkalinity 6
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1300
Nitrates 25
Temperature 78.6

It’s cf and led. There’s a picture of them directly before your post.

I have to agree with others. Your alk is dangerously low. Seawater has alkalinity of 7dkh. You’re below natural seawater levels. I would slowly raise it to 7dkh. Leave it there for a few days before raising it further. I keep mine between 8.3-9dkh

Be sure to raise your salinity slowly as well.

 

[Bleigh]

I have to agree with others. Your alk is dangerously low. Seawater has alkalinity of 7dkh. You’re below natural seawater levels. I would slowly raise it to 7dkh. Leave it there for a few days before raising it further. I keep mine between 8.3-9dkh

Right. But I couldn’t figure out why it was so low. Someone suggested me testing what the kh of the salt water mix was before I added it. It was reading really low there too. Which didn’t make sense, because it suppose to mix much higher. I was going to say I must have a bad batch of salt, bu I decided to test my refractometer to make sure it was giving me an accurate salinity measure. It wasn’t. So now I’m adding more salt to my water change water. Hopefully that resolves the incredibly low kh.

 

[AiKkz]

Best investment ever!!

 

[Bleigh]

So m tank is actually at about 1.023 salinity. So with my frequent, small water changes I’ve been doing to try and get down the nitrates, hopefully that will allow a slow enough increase in both salinity and kh.

 

[rolyguy7]

Right. But I couldn’t figure out why it was so low. Someone suggested me testing what the kh of the salt water mix was before I added it. It was reading really low there too. Which didn’t make sense, because it suppose to mix much higher. I was going to say I must have a bad batch of salt, bu I decided to test my refractometer to make sure it was giving me an accurate salinity measure. It wasn’t. So now I’m adding more salt to my water change water. Hopefully that resolves the incredibly low kh.

Understood. Do you dose 2 part or kalk? Or do you maintain your alkalinity and calcium levels strictly though performing water changes?

 

[Bleigh]

Best investment ever!!

Yeah. That’s what my lfs uses. Every time I’ve brought water in to them, they've gotten the same measurement I have. I just haven’t brought water in recently, not have I calibrated my refractometer in that time. But yeah. One of those would be way smarter with me making my own water now.

 

[AiKkz]

Yeah. That’s what my lfs uses. Every time I’ve brought water in to them, they've gotten the same measurement I have. I just haven’t brought water in recently, not have I calibrated my refractometer in that time. But yeah. One of those would be way smarter with me making my own water now.

its soooo fast and easy, and it comes with enough calibration solution to last a year at least!

 

[Bleigh]

Understood. Do you dose 2 part or kalk? Or do you maintain your alkalinity and calcium levels strictly though performing water changes?

I had been dosing with something my lfs suggested, but apparently isn’t a great option. But my nitrates sky rocketed about a month and a half ago and I’ve been doing small water changes every other day trying to get them under control, and assumed that doing on top of water changes might make there be crazy spikes. Of course, water changes with the the ratio of salt off, isn’t going to be healthy. At least I made this mistake with a smaller tank. I’ll make sure not to do it again. I’m annoyed with myself now, I can imagine how much more annoyed I’d be with myself if I had killed a ton of coral in a tank 10x the size

I also ALWAYS check the salinity of the fresh water before adding water to the tank. Doesn’t make a difference if the refractometer is off. Ugggh

 

[Hemmdog]

As you raise salinity keep an eye on calcium and mag levels to. You were in good ranges before but that was at low salinity, they could be pretty high. Like Roly said, raise the salinity slowly, don’t jump to 1.026 right away.

 

[Bleigh]

As you raise salinity keep an eye on calcium and mag levels to. You were in good ranges before but that was at low salinity, they could be pretty high. Like Roly said, raise the salinity slowly, don’t jump to 1.026 right away.

Yeah. I’ll do a 10% change when the water is ready. And then I’ll check all the other things tonight. I think I’m on the low end of good for all the other things. And like you said, I have a ton of coral that is just sucking out the little bit of alkalinity I was adding. Which must have been close to 8.5 or 9.

 

[Bleigh]

I’m almost at the total mass I had calculated I needed to add when my refractometer told me my salinity was closer to 1.030. I should have realized that my calculations shouldn’t have been that far off and I should have standardized the refractometer back the.

 

[rolyguy7]

I’m almost at the total mass I had calculated I needed to add when my refractometer told me my salinity was closer to 1.030. I should have realized that my calculations shouldn’t have been that far off and I should have standardized the refractometer back the.

Totally agree. If you test and the results seem way off always retest and check calibration when it comes to refractometers. Same thing goes for any parameter testing. It’s always good to test often. I test at least 1-2 times a week. It allows to catch issues early on. Always better to catch issues early in this hobby. lesson learned. Just don’t be too hard on yourself. Learn, correct and get back to enjoying your reef! its a great hobby.

 

[Hemmdog]

I’m almost at the total mass I had calculated I needed to add when my refractometer told me my salinity was closer to 1.030. I should have realized that my calculations shouldn’t have been that far off and I should have standardized the refractometer back the.

It happens. Your still a great reefer, don’t beat yourself up to bad. Some people go years with an uncalibrated refractometer and are puzzled why every coral they put in their tank dies. Your lightyears ahead of those peeps

 

[Bleigh]

Totally agree. If you test and the results seem way off always retest and check calibration when it comes to refractometers. Same thing goes for any parameter testing. It’s always good to test often. I test at least 1-2 times a week. It allows to catch issues early on. Always better to catch issues early in this hobby. lesson learned. Just don’t be too hard on yourself. Learn, correct and get back to enjoying your reef! its a great hobby.

Yeah. I taught physics for a time. And I’d always tell my students the same thing. If you get an answer that doesn’t make sense, you probably did the math wrong. But I assumed I made a mistake in my math. Not that my tester was off. Lesson learned.

I just did a 15% water change. Kh came up to 6.5 so hopefully I can slowly keep moving it up.

 

[Bleigh]

It happens. Your still a great reefer, don’t beat yourself up to bad. Some people go years with an uncalibrated refractometer and are puzzled why every coral they put in their tank dies. Your lightyears ahead of those peeps

That literally made me laugh! I cannot even imagine. Mine was only off by a little bit, and it still took a few weeks for things to start looking odd. I can’t imagine if it was off by a ton.

 

[rolyguy7]

Yeah. I taught physics for a time. And I’d always tell my students the same thing. If you get an answer that doesn’t make sense, you probably did the math wrong. But I assumed I made a mistake in my math. Not that my tester was off. Lesson learned.

I just did a 15% water change. Kh came up to 6.5 so hopefully I can slowly keep moving it up.

If you have two part, I’d recommend small dosing of the alkalinity only component to assist raising alk. Be careful making too many water changes in a small period of time as you could cause a small cycle to start and/or a bacteria bloom from removing too much bacteria from the system. Although you could dose the calcium part as well to raise your calcium a little higher. I personally keep my tanks at 8.3-9dkh and 450ppm calcium.