Turtle's Fairy Tale

Fudsey · Nov 19, 2018

That's why I went with the TLF pouches and the Magnetic screw holder from Printed3d.parts works like a charm and can't rust. works with either a clip or the pouches.

https://printed3d.parts/product/magnetic-screw-holder/ you can see my pic there as well. I messaged him about making it and he agreed it would be a good idea.

Scurvy · Nov 19, 2018

Fudsey said:
That's why I went with the TLF pouches and the Magnetic screw holder from Printed3d.parts works like a charm and can't rust. works with either a clip or the pouches.

https://printed3d.parts/product/magnetic-screw-holder/ you can see my pic there as well. I messaged him about making it and he agreed it would be a good idea.

1st time Ive seem that site. Some cool stuff there!

Fudsey · Nov 19, 2018

Ya there is. I got a bunch of his stuff. I love the mag clips for eggcrate frag racks and the syringe lazy susan.

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Alright, I wanted to test water really quick before work... since I'm trying to get dosing dialed in and my calcium seems really high compared to alk consumption.

So lets do a bit of math. When we started our calcium was 400ppm, I have my pump set up to dose 13ml of calcium chloride 6 times a day. It dosed all six times yesterday and has dosed three times so far today for 9 total doses.
16ml x 9 = 117ml of calcium chloride suppliment which should have raised my calcium by 11ppm IF there is no consumption. My test results today, 400ppm.

For alkalinity, we have dosed 1ml 6 times a day for a total of 9 doses. Test before dosing was 8.5 and 8.6dKH, test today was 8.6 and8.7dKH. Up 0.1dKH but within error range of the test.

I'm still perplexed at how I have 13 times the calcium dose as my alk dose.... but we are a day and a half in. I'll check again in a few days.

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

I'm new at this, but you have been seeing some growth. Is it possible your sps are just consuming it at a faster rate?

Brew12 · Nov 20, 2018

Robin Haselden said:
Alright, I wanted to test water really quick before work... since I'm trying to get dosing dialed in and my calcium seems really high compared to alk consumption.

So lets do a bit of math. When we started our calcium was 400ppm, I have my pump set up to dose 13ml of calcium chloride 6 times a day. It dosed all six times yesterday and has dosed three times so far today for 9 total doses.
16ml x 9 = 117ml of calcium chloride suppliment which should have raised my calcium by 11ppm IF there is no consumption. My test results today, 400ppm.

For alkalinity, we have dosed 1ml 6 times a day for a total of 9 doses. Test before dosing was 8.5 and 8.6dKH, test today was 8.6 and8.7dKH. Up 0.1dKH but within error range of the test.

I'm still perplexed at how I have 13 times the calcium dose as my alk dose.... but we are a day and a half in. I'll check again in a few days.

I'm stumped by this, too. It might make sense if your magnesium was very low but that isn't the case. What calcium supplement are you using? Did you mix it yourself or have you tested it?

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Brew12 said:
I'm stumped by this, too. It might make sense if your magnesium was very low but that isn't the case. What calcium supplement are you using? Did you mix it yourself or have you tested it?

BRS new pharma grade starter kit. All pre measured for me, just dump in a gallon of RODI and shake. It says it's designed to dose 1:1.

I have an idea. Looking on another calculator, my Ca is low for my current alkalinity level. As in they aren't balanced in my tank.

I found this chart for balanced calcium and alkalinity. For 8.6 alk, I should have 422ppm calcium. I dosed manually, 250ml of calcium chloride and unplugged the dosing pump. I'll check again in 24 hours.

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

Explain it. Simple terms. I'm trying to learn. I'm adding some things in the near future that will increase my demand.

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Katrina71 said:
Explain it. Simple terms. I'm trying to learn. I'm adding some things in the near future that will increase my demand.

Uhh, let's see...

Imagine your tank as a jar of jelly beans. Each day your corals pull one white(calcium) and one blue(alkalinity) jelly bean from the the jar. Eventually the jar starts to empty and you have to refill it. If you add only white jelly beans, the jar will become imbalanced. Something else happens too. Those white jelly beans you added kick a few blue jelly beans out of the jar, so you become even further imbalanced.

Magnesium is your mom. The more magnesium available the harder it is for jelly beans to fly out of the jar themselves and elope, but that also means it is harder for corals to pull jelly beans out of the jar. High magnesium means your mom is paying closer attention to the jar, low magnesium means she's on the phone with her sister and you can sneak your hand in the jar and get a few jelly beans.

From what I've read, it to get them in balance you have to dose more of each in equal parts. My issue is I don't have much alkalinity consumption right now and I don't want to go over 9.0dKH. I've done a pretty good job of stripping phosphates from my water with GFO in my reactor, and high alkalinity with low phosphates tends to burn corals, especially SPS.

I'm going to see what dosing the extra calcium carbonate did tomorrow, then wait until my alk is down to 8.0dKH and start dosing equal parts to keep alk at that level. Calcium should balance itself out in time.

I eventually want to switch to the ATI Essentials 3 part, which is a complete foundation and trace elements 3 part suppliment that is designed to be dosed in a 1:1:1 ratio at an alkalinity of 8.0dKH.

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

Robin Haselden said:
Uhh, let's see...

Imagine your tank as a jar of jelly beans. Each day your corals pull one white(calcium) and one blue(alkalinity) jelly bean from the the jar. Eventually the jar starts to empty and you have to refill it. If you add only white jelly beans, the jar will become imbalanced. Something else happens too. Those white jelly beans you added kick a few blue jelly beans out of the jar, so you become even further imbalanced.

Magnesium is your mom. The more magnesium available the harder it is for jelly beans to fly out of the jar themselves and elope, but that also means it is harder for corals to pull jelly beans out of the jar. High magnesium means your mom is paying closer attention to the jar, low magnesium means she's on the phone with her sister and you can sneak your hand in the jar and get a few jelly beans.

From what I've read, it to get them in balance you have to dose more of each in equal parts. My issue is I don't have much alkalinity consumption right now and I don't want to go over 9.0dKH. I've done a pretty good job of stripping phosphates from my water with GFO in my reactor, and high alkalinity with low phosphates tends to burn corals, especially SPS.

I'm going to see what dosing the extra calcium carbonate did tomorrow, then wait until my alk is down to 8.0dKH and start dosing equal parts to keep alk at that level. Calcium should balance itself out in time.

I eventually want to switch to the ATI Essentials 3 part, which is a complete foundation and trace elements 3 part suppliment that is designed to be dosed in a 1:1:1 ratio at an alkalinity of 8.0dKH.

I actually understood that. Ok so if your coral demands more of one thing, you still need to dose equal parts?

Scurvy · Nov 20, 2018

Robin Haselden said:
Uhh, let's see...

Imagine your tank as a jar of jelly beans. Each day your corals pull one white(calcium) and one blue(alkalinity) jelly bean from the the jar. Eventually the jar starts to empty and you have to refill it. If you add only white jelly beans, the jar will become imbalanced. Something else happens too. Those white jelly beans you added kick a few blue jelly beans out of the jar, so you become even further imbalanced.

Magnesium is your mom. The more magnesium available the harder it is for jelly beans to fly out of the jar themselves and elope, but that also means it is harder for corals to pull jelly beans out of the jar. High magnesium means your mom is paying closer attention to the jar, low magnesium means she's on the phone with her sister and you can sneak your hand in the jar and get a few jelly beans.

From what I've read, it to get them in balance you have to dose more of each in equal parts. My issue is I don't have much alkalinity consumption right now and I don't want to go over 9.0dKH. I've done a pretty good job of stripping phosphates from my water with GFO in my reactor, and high alkalinity with low phosphates tends to burn corals, especially SPS.

I'm going to see what dosing the extra calcium carbonate did tomorrow, then wait until my alk is down to 8.0dKH and start dosing equal parts to keep alk at that level. Calcium should balance itself out in time.

I eventually want to switch to the ATI Essentials 3 part, which is a complete foundation and trace elements 3 part suppliment that is designed to be dosed in a 1:1:1 ratio at an alkalinity of 8.0dKH.

Awesome! Give Tropic Marin - All For Reef a look. All 3 plus trace in 1 solution. Havent tried it but have heard some good talk of it in the past week or two.

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Katrina71 said:
I actually understood that. Ok so if your coral demands more of one thing, you still need to dose equal parts?

Corals always pull equal parts. If one is getting depleted faster than the other, your tank is imbalanced and you need to get it back in balance. It's like a seesaw, if it leans too far one way then all the white jelly beans fall off (like what is happening in my tank).

From what I've read, to get back in balance you can do a large water change.

My red sea salt always tests around 410-420ppm Ca and 8.0-8.2dKH alk, which is balanced. I think 417 or something is perfect balance with 8.0... doing a large water change will get the tank back in balance, but when does anyone have time to do a large water change while working night shift leading up to Thanksgiving? I don't even get a chance to sleep Thursday morning, I have to make a pecan pie.

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

Do you use karo in yours?

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Scurvy said:
Awesome! Give Tropic Marin - All For Reef a look. All 3 plus trace in 1 solution. Havent tried it but have heard some good talk of it in the past week or two.

I'll look into that. I was going to go with the ATI because it's the same company as the ICP test I use, and it's cheap. Dirt cheap. $35 for all 3 1000ml bottles of consentrated solution that make up 10 liters(2.642 gallons) each.

Plus I found a Facebook group for ATI.

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Katrina71 said:
Do you use karo in yours?

Of course!

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

Robin Haselden said:
Of course!

Me too. FYI...Pilidelphia 3 step caramel pecan cheesecake is the bomb. Drizzle a little Smucker's caramel syrup on top.

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Katrina71 said:
Me too. FYI...Pillidelphia 3 step pecan pie cheesecake is the bomb.

I made a pecan pie turtle cheesecake last year... it was awesome.

Katrina71 · Nov 20, 2018

Robin Haselden said:
I made a pecan pie turtle cheesecake last year... it was awesome.

Say that slower please

lol

SashimiTurtle · Nov 20, 2018

Katrina71 said:
Say that slower please lol

I had to search thru countless memes on my Facebook... but I found it, in all its glory. The only thing I wish I did different was use a spring form pan... which I now have 3 of. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to make one of these soon.