Barky
Active Member
Get a refractometer to test your salinity
Wait first before you dose anymore and report your numbers on above tests.
Please help. About to give up!
- Thread starter Trickdout69
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Wait first before you dose anymore and report your numbers on above tests.
. PH is not a major concern. Salinity - mag - cal - alkalinity. Is the most important thing to get right !! Salinity 1.024-1.026. Mag 1250-1400. Cal. 380-450. Alk. 8-11 dkh. Don't dose anything more at ALL till test are done and work out your numbers
Trickdout69
Active Member
Well I used the api test kit and my #s were. Alk-10dkh my ph was 7.8 and if correct my cal is very high. The api test shows 25 drops is like 550. I put 45 drops to make it turn blue.
magnesium is very important too. If mag is out it will destabilize cal & alk. I would bet your mag is out. It's very important to have all readings stable and within this ranges. I def wouldn't dose anything else while cal is off the scale. If u have corals they will consume cal over time. Get your salinity. & mag test done and go from there.
Calcium, Alkalinity & Magnesium are the most important. PH will mildly swing from day to night so chasing it can cause you more issues. Like panicking and using a PH buffer! Don't! Oh and stop worrying so much, that's when bad stuff can happen. Your stressing yourself out! Stop dosing everything for now. Best way I've found to getting your numbers back in check in through water changes.
Keep regular water changes, test the big 3 making sure they are within acceptable ranges and let it go en grow!
Keep regular water changes, test the big 3 making sure they are within acceptable ranges and let it go en grow!
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Barky
Active Member
I agree with this, slow down nothing ever comes good out of this hobby with rushing things. One comment test your new water you are using for water changes to be sure it is in the exceptable parameters.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Yes. There is nothing wrong with API test kits. Just make sure to follow the directions exactly.
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The Flying Turkey
Active Member
Well there's your problem right there! I try to keep all of my fudge out of my sump!
All kidding aside, just do water changes and stop dosing. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt and my parameters are always perfect. I don't have a large number of SPS, just a hand full of LPS and Zoa's, so I don't have a high calcium demand. I planned it this way. I don't want to have to dose. My theory is to keep it simple. I do small water changes every week and everything is going well. Once my tank matures more I will add one or two SPS.
bartmalave
New Member
I don't understand why people r saying not to worry about ph. i know that ph drop can make some coral not react well. ALSO UR READINDS ON API R WRONG u should hit your mark at about 23 to 25 drop if ur hitting at 45 dropsur calcium is not on point. being testing with api for about 4 years now.
ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
pH is very important. Just not much you can do about it without spiking alkalinity in a reef tank. If your calcium, alk and mag are in line the pH will follow.
sirreal
Community Member
more water changes. That will get your numbers wher you need them. The API kit is ok for now accept there is no Mag test in that kit. I use the red sea mag kit and it works very well. If you had to put 45 drops in the cal test that would mean you cal is 900. this is crazy high and its no wonder nothing is going to live with those numbers. Retest you cal just to make sure. If it is this high do 10% water changes every day till the number gets down to 500 or so.
beachsider
Active Member
Check to be sure that you didn't use the API calcium solutions backwards (i.e., solution 2 first followed by solution 1). Sounds silly, but if you did them in reverse, the color will change to blue in the 40s. I just played around with an API cal kit to check this. My Cal is at 400 currently (Red Sea test kit). When I used the API Cal testing solutions in the opposite order, my reading was 44 drops to turn blue.
prsnlty
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+1 on all the above. You need to do water changes daily if your ca is that high, but 1st be absolutely sute it is. You can get Red Sea Pro Foundation Kit for around $55 shipped off Ebay. It has all you need in it. I made the mistake long ago about dosing and Mg was way too high causing an imbalance. Test your own water always. If you have a smart phone there is an app called aquarium logger. It will help you keep track of your parameters too (or just keep a pad and pen near) but I like the graphs and such. That last thing you should do is start changing anything too quickly. Find out what's wrong and fix it slowly. That's starts with testing Ca, Kh and Mg and salinity.
Eienna
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I'm no expert, but I agree - hit 'restart' on this system's management. Weekly 10% water changes and no dosing until your system shows you (such as by testing too low in calcium for a while) that it actually needs it. Don't bother testing pH because when everything else is in line - alk, mag, cal, salinity - your pH will hold right where it wants to be. When you do start dosing, start SLOWLY and watch the results over a period of months. Don't just dump in the "recommended amount." From what I'm looking at, your tank is not stocked enough with corals to need calcium, magnesium or trace supplements right now. I personally would use amino acids, but the recommended dosage (I believe) is really based on a full tank, so I'd reduce it dramatically from the recommended amount-per-gallon for now.
Always get the exact numbers when testing, especially when having someone else do it. "Fine" is not good enough. You need to know the exact values. Even within "good" values, quick swings can cause issues, and just being within the range is not optimal, really. You have to find your tank's "sweet spot." GO SLOW. Corals will take a while to acclimate to any changes you make.
You say you used the same light on both tanks? You may have too little light; LEDs are very directionally linear light, so a fixture sized for a 56 would not be able to light an upgrade of that size adequately. Also, if you changed the height of the corals when you moved them, they may not have been able to acclimate to the new intensity. It also occurs to me that the new corals you got may not have been acclimated to LEDs. This is an important step; start new corals on the sand bed and sloooowly move them up as they adjust to the new light type. This is true when replacing fixtures and bulbs, as well; you will need to provide some shade (which is slowly removed over time) whenever you add intensity or change lighting type.
Always get the exact numbers when testing, especially when having someone else do it. "Fine" is not good enough. You need to know the exact values. Even within "good" values, quick swings can cause issues, and just being within the range is not optimal, really. You have to find your tank's "sweet spot." GO SLOW. Corals will take a while to acclimate to any changes you make.
You say you used the same light on both tanks? You may have too little light; LEDs are very directionally linear light, so a fixture sized for a 56 would not be able to light an upgrade of that size adequately. Also, if you changed the height of the corals when you moved them, they may not have been able to acclimate to the new intensity. It also occurs to me that the new corals you got may not have been acclimated to LEDs. This is an important step; start new corals on the sand bed and sloooowly move them up as they adjust to the new light type. This is true when replacing fixtures and bulbs, as well; you will need to provide some shade (which is slowly removed over time) whenever you add intensity or change lighting type.
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