What else do you use with Pickling Lime???

BRB · Aug 28, 2016

Hi Everyone, Happy Sunday.
What do all of you who use or are aware of Mrs Wages Pickling Lime, use for all other water parameters for corals...???
Suggest just adding mag or what else and start do you use or suggest with Pickling Lime?

sawdonkey · Aug 28, 2016

I use the BRS version, but really only add Magnesium now and then. My fairly infrequent water changes take care of the rest.

redfishbluefish · Aug 28, 2016

The pickling lime, or calcium hydroxide, or kalk, or kalkwasser.....will add the alk and calc part, up to a point. Once you reach a certain amount of hard corals, the pickling lime won't be able to keep up with the demand. At that point, you supplement with two part. Magnesium, you need to add that on it's own.

Joey waid · Aug 28, 2016

You can make pickles with too....

tom reilly · Aug 28, 2016

or hominy.

BRB · Aug 29, 2016

redfishbluefish said:
The pickling lime, or calcium hydroxide, or kalk, or kalkwasser.....will add the alk and calc part, up to a point. Once you reach a certain amount of hard corals, the pickling lime won't be able to keep up with the demand. At that point, you supplement with two part. Magnesium, you need to add that on it's own.

Do you have a suggestion on the best combo for all water parameters?

cromag27 · Aug 29, 2016

It depends on your coral's needs. how big is your system and what type of corals?

BRB · Aug 31, 2016

cromag08 said:
It depends on your coral's needs. how big is your system and what type of corals?

40 GALLON, 10 GALLON SUMP... all my corals died so i decided to upgrade and transfer the fish, live rock, live sand
I currently only have xenia, mushrooms and fish.
I want to do zoa's and monti's mainly... but eventually over time once i understand the water parameters a little better get into everything else but plan is to stay with the soft stuff as of now.

cromag27 · Aug 31, 2016

Fore most lps and softies I would think regular water changes would be sufficient. for demanding lps and sps, then using pickling lime in your ato might be beneficial. iirc, the saturation point is 1/4" cup of pickling lime in 5g of water. at some point it may not be enough to keep up with demands for a lot of sps, you'd just need to test, test and test some more.

I used that formula on an sps 40g for years with success.

BRB · Sep 1, 2016

okay awesome, i dont plan on doing a ton as i have already lost tons of money and want to learn the parameters before jumping into super expensive pieces and just test like you said and see what i can learn until im ready for a big boy tank haha
goal is to one day obtain few thousand gallons

thank you again

BRB · Sep 1, 2016

cromag08 said:
Fore most lps and softies I would think regular water changes would be sufficient. for demanding lps and sps, then using pickling lime in your ato might be beneficial. iirc, the saturation point is 1/4" cup of pickling lime in 5g of water. at some point it may not be enough to keep up with demands for a lot of sps, you'd just need to test, test and test some more.

I used that formula on an sps 40g for years with success.

also says you are anemone whisperer... what do you feed yours and do to keep them growing and staying healthy?
mine shrinks up at night and opens up decently during the day and i have two tomatos hosting him but i have seen him larger than he has been...

cromag27 · Sep 1, 2016

I feed any meaty foods - mysis, krill, squid, etc. Just no silver sides. are the clowns too big for it? Sometimes big clowns can be aggressive to their hosting anemones.

cromag27 · Sep 1, 2016

I feed any meaty foods - mysis, krill, squid, etc. Just no silver sides. are the clowns too big for it? Sometimes big clowns can be aggressive to their hosting anemones.

cromag27 · Sep 1, 2016

I feed any meaty foods - mysis, krill, squid, etc. Just no silver sides. are the clowns too big for it? Sometimes big clowns can be aggressive to their hosting anemones.

beaslbob · Sep 1, 2016

kill aptasia

BRB · Sep 2, 2016

cromag08 said:
I feed any meaty foods - mysis, krill, squid, etc. Just no silver sides. are the clowns too big for it? Sometimes big clowns can be aggressive to their hosting anemones.

the clowns could possibly be too big... what can i do if they are? ive had the clowns and anemone together for about 4 or 5 months and seem fine just anemone seems a little smaller than when i first got him and doesn't open as much as when i first got him

cromag27 · Sep 2, 2016

That might happen just due to tank changes. make sure your parameters are stable, no3 and po4 aren't too high. watch the clowns though. if they're thrashing around in it then someone's gotta go.

BRB · Sep 3, 2016

cromag08 said:
That might happen just due to tank changes. make sure your parameters are stable, no3 and po4 aren't too high. watch the clowns though. if they're thrashing around in it then someone's gotta go.

Okay i will keep an eye on the parameters and watch the clowns a little more... the clowns are always playing around in him and ive seen the "female" push the anemone one time and stirred up the tank with sand but that was within a week from the transfer/upgrade of my tank...

right now it is just a condi, do you think adding another condi or another species could help or if they hosted him already they will probably stay with that one?