What am I doing wrong??

[BAUCE]

My salt mixes at 11-12 DKH (Red Sea Coral Pro) so I dont really want to add acid to drop only to have it go up with water changes.

ONLY use the acid with fresh made salt water and never in your main systems. I was saying to mix up your new water and add the acid so that you have a lower alkalinity water to do the change with.

 

[Adam Schindler]

You add it to your mixed water

 

[Daddy-o]

ONLY use the acid with fresh made salt water and never in your main systems. I was saying to mix up your new water and add the acid so that you have a lower alkalinity water to do the change with.

You add it to your mixed water

Okay, never used it so I didnt know. How much acid for five gallons of water?

 

[Reefer40b]

Well when I measured phosphate last week it was at .2

What size tank is this system I just saw you have 40+ fish, so either overstocked, overfeeding, or not enough export(skimmer/algae scrub/fuge). If your doing all you can with that amount of stock in a properly sized system and not overfeeding then I guess GFO may be your only option until it levels out and then you can remove and maintain with WC

 

[Daddy-o]

I guess I should stop dosing Kalk?

 

[Daddy-o]

What size tank is this system I just saw you have 40+ fish, so either overstocked, overfeeding, or not enough export(skimmer/algae scrub/fuge). If your doing all you can with that amount of stock in a properly sized system and not overfeeding then I guess GFO may be your only option until it levels out and then you can remove and maintain with WC

230 gallons with about 300+ pounds of live rock and 2 skimmers. A combo of rock leaching phosphate and my LFS selling me water that was at .5 phosphate for our first year of reefing has made it hard to maintain low levels without GFO. I also carbon dose vinegar

 

[BAUCE]

Okay, never used it so I didnt know. How much acid for five gallons of water?

I used all caps to show its importance that is not be done in your or anyone elses reef. Not trying to insult you. I personally use Seachem Acid Buffer when mixing my IO salt. Takes about 2.5 tablespoons per 30 gallons of water to bring KH down to 7 from 11.

 

[jda]

Gallons * desired dKh drop * .123 is the number of mls of typical Home Depot or Lowes Muriatic Acid to use. Wait a day or two with the mixing pump on the fresh saltwater to raise the pH again - air into the pump quickens this up a bit.

 

[jda]

Change the lighting if you want, but this is not likely to do much.

So you went from bottomed out N and P in March(ish) to 15 and .2 now? That is quite the swing. Go slow when you do this... lowering them is totally fine, but going fast is not a good idea.

 

[Daddy-o]

I try to go slow.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Havent sold any WD in a long time - no pests! I really think the problem started when I went below 10,000K on the T5s. The whole tank took on a real ugly look. My game plan going forward:

1- Change last 2 T5s from 6500k to Coral Plus 15,000k
2- Use the last of my Red Sea Coral Pro salt and swap to blue bucket to get DKH down a bit.
---Nutrients may have bottomed at the beginning of the pandemic so
3- Feed fish twice a day instead of once (over 40 fish)
4- I have a whole bottle of aminos so will dose every day.
5- Continue feeding Oyster Feast that I started last week.
6- Keep up on GFO ( I let the reactor run for a month or more without changing)
Once I get the Dkh down, then I will work more on nitrate reduction.

Sound like a good plan??
Cheers! Mark

Get your alk down to 7-8 and throw away your gfo.

 

[SeaDweller]

Well when I measured phosphate last week it was at .2

It’s probably that right there.
Mark, I’m a firm believer in lots of fish and throughput. We’ve discussed it before. However I’ve watched some negative reactions in my tank when export was NOT matching import, in other words N and P were accumulating and climbing. With NO3 in the 15-20+ ppm range and the PO4 in the 0.1-0.25+ range, colors looked bad and things began to STN.
I’ve lost a considerable amount of anthias over the past few months and I’ve cut back the amount I’ve fed at each feeding (still feed 4-5 times) and got my PO4 back under 0.10. Guess what? Over months and running a good amount of white, daylight spectrum, coupled with the reduction in residual N and P levels, my colors have made a 180 change.

I’d suggest getting your n and p levels back under control.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

It’s probably that right there.
Mark, I’m a firm believer in lots of fish and throughput. We’ve discussed it before. However I’ve watched some negative reactions in my tank when export was NOT matching import, in other words N and P were accumulating and climbing. With NO3 in the 15-20+ ppm range and the PO4 in the 0.1-0.25+ range, colors looked bad and things began to STN.
I’ve lost a considerable amount of anthias over the past few months and I’ve cut back the amount I’ve fed at each feeding (still feed 4-5 times) and got my PO4 back under 0.10. Guess what? Over months and running a good amount of white, daylight spectrum, coupled with the reduction in residual N and P levels, my colors have made a 180 change.

I’d suggest getting your n and p levels back under control.

*rascal, cough*
And what do you keep your alk at #2stirrer?? I mean @SeaDweller

 

[Dave Cureton]

Hey Mark has your dkh always been that high? Same on all your tanks? I know you were growing stuff like weeds not that long ago. I do think there is a chance that going from a bluer spectrum to a yellow spectrum could cause some frustration in your corals. My 2c.

 

[SeaDweller]

*rascal, cough*
And what do you keep your alk at #2stirrer?? I mean @SeaDweller

I maintain between 7.3-7.6 dKh daily; good sir!

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I maintain between 7.3-7.6 dKh daily; good sir!

Sooo, not 11?
I believe higher alk and massive nutrient swings will stress acros, especially Tenuis, to the point they shut down. Polyps retract and then the flesh starts to look thin and “dried out looking”. Then the stn or rtn follows

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

It had pretty good colors a year or so ago under a MarsAqua 300w. Then I changed out to a 6 bulb T5 fixture. I ran the following tubes:
2x actinic
2x 10,000k
2x 6,500k
I wasnt happy with that so at xmas I swapped to running:
4x 6,500k
2x actinic
Tank still didnt grow well so a couple weeks ago I added a ReefBright blue Led and last week swapped 2 of the 6,500 tubes for 2 ATI Coral Plus (15,000k)

Why don’t you go back to the marsaqua?

 

[Daddy-o]

Hey Mark has your dkh always been that high? Same on all your tanks? I know you were growing stuff like weeds not that long ago. I do think there is a chance that going from a bluer spectrum to a yellow spectrum could cause some frustration in your corals. My 2c.

I started raising my Alk slowly 1 year ago. I run all 9 tanks with the same salt.

 

[Daddy-o]

Why don’t you go back to the marsaqua?

The LED didnt have a lot of light spread. Some spots in the tank grew better than others and some corals didnt seem to get light spreading around the branches and had dead areas.

 

[SeaDweller]

Sooo, not 11?
I believe higher alk and massive nutrient swings will stress acros, especially Tenuis, to the point they shut down. Polyps retract and then the flesh starts to look thin and “dried out looking”. Then the stn or rtn follows

Whaddaya know, ha!? Go play with your pretty little pink and purple tenuis... this is a big boy conversation. We only play with purple and pink tenuisesesesssseseses.