Tank Journal Archive

[dimitri]

So, I have not had much time to post about either tank till this weekend, kind of doing the bare minimum on the upkeep.

Again the biggest issue has been ATO and small salinity changes, nothing outside of 1.020 to 1.025 but still not ideal.

Anyways I had some outbreak of GHA in 2 spots, it goes and it comes, mostly when I run a day or 3 behind on my reactor media change out, hope that its all over with since i switched to CPB with a fair amount of Continuum Phos W (a whole large tub)


I had a couple of Gonis melt, and 2 Fungai :( everything else is doing well...

Phos got up to 0.3 and nitrate 17 at its worst in the last couple of months.

The numbers as of today are as follows:

PH 8.23
Salnity 1.023
Nitrate 8-12 NYOS
PO4 0.075 NYOS (i thought this was a mistake so i did a ULP with the hanna egg too)
ULP with the Egg 19 x 3.066 / 1000 = 0.058PPB so about right with the NYos

dKH 6 to 7

then the problems started...

I did a Mag test and it didn't change colour.. odd
I did a Calcium test and again it didn't change colour.... so i did it again incase i stuffed something up.. nope no colour change.. so then I grabbed the Hanna Calcium Egg i have (don't have a mag one, not sure they make one)

CAL 540.... which means mag is definably over 1500 if the NYOS test isn't giving me a colour change..

so holy shit how do i fix that?

It doesn't seem like i am getting much uptake of minerals by the corals in this tank, when i tested the levels several weeks ago I found them all to be bang on target or slightly higher... now let it be noted I HAVE NOT ADDED ANY SUPPS TO THE TANK since maybe february? because I noted no drops in levels..

I have however changed from Red sea pro salt to DUPLA in the last fortnight... although I find it hard to believe that the minimal water changes I have done would cause such a spike?

What are the side effects of these 2 being high..

How do I bring down the levels if water changes don't seem to be doing it?

Why are my corals not taking up any of the minerals in the water column?

is the GHA being caused by these numbers being out of whack considering my nitrate and phos are low?

Could my lighting sched be causing a lack of growth in my corals hence no uptake in the numbers?

 

[MagicJ]

Calcium at 540ppm is high, but it shouldn't cause any significant problems - although it may precipitate out of solution and coat the tank/equipment surfaces. The calcium must have come from somewhere - maybe the previous test was wrong?

The calcium use depends on what is in your tank - softies, morphs, rics etc have very little calcium requirements. How many LPS, SPS, snails, tube worms etc to you have?

Similarly, Magnesium at 1500 is high but not catastrophic.

Water changes will eventually reduce these parameters to more normal levels.

 

[dimitri]

Calcium at 540ppm is high, but it shouldn't cause any significant problems - although it may precipitate out of solution and coat the tank/equipment surfaces. The calcium must have come from somewhere - maybe the previous test was wrong?

The calcium use depends on what is in your tank - softies, morphs, rics etc have very little calcium requirements. How many LPS, SPS, snails, tube worms etc to you have?

Similarly, Magnesium at 1500 is high but not catastrophic.

Water changes will eventually reduce these parameters to more normal levels.

@MagicJ


3 or 4 small Zoanthid corals
8 or 9 LPS
1 Mushroom leather
2 Finger leather
1 Christmas tree worm rock
6/7 snails
1 BL shrimp
couple of crabs.


I spoke to my LFS where i got the dupla from and they recon the black bucket of salt has played funny buggers with some peoples tanks with mag and calc so im going to swap it back over.

I haven't tested a my batch of premade so i'll do that tonight and see what levels its sitting at as well to make double sure and not waste my time lugging a bucket of salt around...

No surfaces yet seem to be coated.

The previous test may have been wrong, I used the NYOS one though only and didn't double check with the Hannah Egg, so maybe it was and I did make a mistake during the testing..