Need Help. My RBTA wont come out..

[bpbonds]

Ever BTA I’ve ever added hides for 2-3 days.

don’t mess with him just let him be.

Don’t do anything to you water as what he’s trying to do is adjust.

If you make changes you’re going to bother him.

As long as before you added him you’re pretty sure your parameters where in check he should be okay.

give him 2-3 days.

I agree 100%, best left alone give it time to adjust mine is doing very well after a full year it has split 2 times now and parameters are not perfect looking very healthy though..

 

[Saltyreef]

Mag level i do not. i do mix my own salt fritz reef pro mix. i just finished my water changed and its now sitting at 1.036.
esv bionic ill look into it. i have red sea trace elements on order but its delayed till saturday and my 2 LFS was out of stock.

ill order a mag kit to track the levels.

Fritz blue box or red box?

Trace elements are besides the main point.

You need to get your main parameters in line.

If your tank is at 11dkh and say the nem was in more NSW parameters, the alk change could be the cause and youll want to either remove the nem or lower the alk slowly.

 

[Saltyreef]

Nothing wrong with hand dosing. It could just be contributing to his high alk and should be halted until parameters are more balanced then he can resume (if dosing properly)

390 cal with 11dkh alk is quite an imbalance.
Esp if there is low mag....the chemistry isnt working in the tanks favor.

I would really look into trying to lower that phosphate a little bit. Atleast by half.
Maybe a small bag of gfo is all you need for a short period.

 

[terraincognita]

Fritz blue box or red box?

Trace elements are besides the main point.

You need to get your main parameters in line.

If your tank is at 11dkh and say the nem was in more NSW parameters, the alk change could be the cause and youll want to either remove the nem or lower the alk slowly.

That’s something he should’ve done before adding the nem.

tested store water and then his.

maybe taken a sample a few days before the nem.

nows that it’s in stability more important.

also plenty of reefers keep elevated Alk.
As long as it’s intentional anything between 7.5-11.5 is totally okay for alkalinity.

stability is king, if he’s keep cal at 400 mag at 1380 and Alk at 11 stable for his entire reefing life. He’ll have just as much (the high alk brigade will argue better) success as anyone else in the hobby.

auto dosers are great. As well, but one CAN hand dose. It’s more preference.

I do agree more gradient and accurate stability can be achieved by micro dosing through an auto doser. You could also micro dose daily by hand but that’s a lot of time.

again his params COULD be more on the money. But there’s nothing about 11DKH or 380Cal that will kill a BTA.

as long as the BTA can adjust from whatever his stores alk was to his own.

IMPO the wrong thing to do is now make changes to his water in the middle of his BtA attempting an adjustment.

 

[Saltyreef]

That’s something he should’ve done before adding the nem.

tested store water and then his.

maybe taken a sample a few days before the nem.

nows that it’s in stability more important.

also plenty of reefers keep elevated Alk.
As long as it’s intentional anything between 7.5-11.5 is totally okay for alkalinity.

stability is king, if he’s keep cal at 400 mag at 1380 and Alk at 11 stable for his entire reefing life. He’ll have just as much (the high alk brigade will argue better) success as anyone else in the hobby.

auto dosers are great. As well, but one CAN hand dose. It’s more preference.

I do agree more gradient and accurate stability can be achieved by micro dosing through an auto doser. You could also micro dose daily by hand but that’s a lot of time.

again his params COULD be more on the money. But there’s nothing about 11DKH or 380Cal that will kill a BTA.

as long as the BTA can adjust from whatever his stores alk was to his own.

IMPO the wrong thing to do is now make changes to his water in the middle of his BtA attempting an adjustment.

Youre right. And i said nothing contrary....
I didnt suggest auto dosing either. Just to simply hold off on dosing all together until his parameters get fixed.
Mixing at 1.023 with 8-9dkh salt when your tank is at 11dkh then having 1.026 after a water change doesnt seem like proper parameters to me....


And yes he should have done these things before the nem got there but his parameter values dont look like hes intentionally trying to achieve them. Also very doubtful they are stable.....

It looks like hes a little uneducated and needs some assistance in helping not kill his new addition.

I cant even count how many pieces of coral and nems i killed during my first year.
Totally unaware of any kind of proper chemistry.....

 

[terraincognita]

Youre right. And i said nothing contrary....
I didnt suggest auto dosing either. Just to simply hold off on dosing all together until his parameters get fixed.
Mixing at 1.023 with 8-9dkh salt when your tank is at 11dkh then having 1.026 after a water change doesnt seem like proper parameters to me....


And yes he should have done these things before the nem got there but his parameter values dont look like hes intentionally trying to achieve them. Also very doubtful they are stable.....

It looks like hes a little uneducated and needs some assistance in helping not kill his new addition.

I cant even count how many pieces of coral and nems i killed during my first year.
Totally unaware of any kind of proper chemistry.....

Oh yeah,


I’ve killed a few nems too over many years for sure.

And I get what you’re saying also about params and probably right as well.

OP you should get a better hang on your params in general for sure.

I can post my params without having to go test at any given time Because I know what I’m dosing, vs when I test them weekly, and I know where they should be.

also the ability to spot in my coral when maybe somethings off, and to test to check.

Google ideal reef params

but more or less

ammonia < 0
Nitrite < 0
Nitrates 5-15 PPM
Pho. .01 - .06 PPM
Cal 390-420
Mag 1360-1440
Alk 7.5-11.5

those are acceptable params. Everyone’s reef will be different.

you’ll find a stability point with your own reef.

you can individually dose

cal mag and Alk to get them to an appropriate level.

you should do some study on them and make a decision for yourself where you want your numbers pegged. And then get them there.

but again. “Don’t chase numbers” but the meaning of that maxim will make sense once you feel like you’ve got a good grip on keeping proper params.

tbh most of my param checks are “eyeballing” and I probably only really test every 7-14 days to confirm. That’s a good place to be in understanding params.