Testing Alan's tank....dam you lumpers!

[Canadian Man]

The reason baking soda is not good is it initially decreases you ph. in my situation it was recomended by Reefcentrals chemistry guru to use baking soda to increase my alk because i dose kalk to maintain. if you are using baking soda on a consistant basis then it will throw out the ionic balance of your tank out or something like that :rolleyes:

yes kim kalk is balanced but like tony said it works well to maintain levels but raising is not too possible with the use of it.

I did use baking soda over the past few days to raise my alk and kent sbdkh, but my calcium droped to 360.

slow and steady wins the race.

oooooo if those guys arent going to pick up their mysis gold, i will buy it :D

[AJ_77]

Hold off there, Jonny! That there's MY fish vittles!

Tony, is this Saturday OK - can you bring it to Kim's place? (Of course, I'm counting on Kim's good nature and 2 hours' freezer storage.) I'll be happy to complete our transaction at that time, if that 's OK with you. Oh, and the ballast as well, if you still have that.

Pls confirm my # of bags and total $$. Thanks. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Alan

[Delphinus]

Actually I think baking soda all by itself is just sodium bicarbonate, and you want a few carbonate ions in there too. (Hmmm. I probably have that backwards, but, you get the idea.) It's the fact that you want both bicarbonate AND carbonate, and baking soda is only the one, and washing soda (yup, Arm & Hammer brand :D ) is the other kind. The exact recipe and the reasoning and explanations can be found on RC, even just do a search in Randy's chem forum, I beleive he has even suggested the "cheapy super buffer solution" in the past.

[Tau2301]

You'll have to stay longer than 2 hours if you want to use my special fish food freezer. There is a minimum time requirement before any and all charges are waived. :D

I have also changed my method for feeding mysis. I now defrost the little critters in a large volume of tank water. Use my turkey blaster to get under the oily layer and suck up the shrimps. Then wash the oily stuff down the sink - don't forget to run the hot water before dumping this stuff into your drain.

I decided to try this method after having to clean my protien skimmer twice in one week. I also noticed the the walls of the skimmer were quite slick with the oily stuff.

[Delphinus]

BTW Jonathan, what ARE your levels sitting at right now? Because ... I thought your tank was doing fine ... :confused: ... don't go by the numbers, go by how things are doing in the tank ... everytime I've come by and looked at your setup, I've seen growth on your stoneys. It can be hard to notice day-by-day, but when you only see things every now and again, you really notice the difference.

Alan: You ordered 5 bags, and they're $3 each. I have an extra bag for both you and Bob if you're interested, to make a grand slam total of SIX bags for $18. Mitch HAD indicated he wanted a bag or two, but he never got in touch in me to make arrangements ... first come, first served on the extra 2 bags remaining. (Mitch, if you're out there ... if you want those bags you better hurry up and get in touch with me! :D )

As for Saturday ... I suppose I could bring it then ... I still have a conflict for Saturday and am not too sure how I'm going to handle juggling the two commitments!

[AJ_77]

Thanks Kim - we'll stay as long as the fun is goin' ON! In other words, more than 2 hours. ;)

Tony: I'd gladly take the extra bag o' mysis, but Mitch has indicated he's coming Saturday, and he is welcome to the extras. I'll be happy with my 5, unless of course Mitch DOESN'T SHOW UP! (Insert ominous music here.)

I thought you had your scheduling conflict worked out, and you and Linda were coming earler? If not, I can maybe swing by your place "on the way" to Kim's and pick up the goods.

Cheers!

[Canadian Man]

Tony,

My levels before I played around with them were 2.2meq/l and 380mg/l. I know things in my tank are doing fine but I wanted my levels at the following: 3.2meq/l and 430mg/l. I would be extremely happy if they were at this level and I assume my corals may grow faster as a result???
Who knows? :confused:

[Tau2301]

Question:

If natural seawater has Alk of 2.6meq/l and Cal of 380mg/l (not sure on this one).

Why do we need more? Is it just to speed up growth?

I don't know if I am the big a hurry...

[Bob I]

Tony if someone else wants the Mysis I ordered please sell it to him. I just cannot find the time or inclination to travel to the deep south for something that sounds difficult to handle. :eek:

[AJ_77]

"Difficult to handle?" Bob, please...

Step 1: Take frozen mysis container, remove small cube.

Step 2: Drop cube into tank.

I'll bring it back North for you this weekend, sir, if that pleases you. [img]tongue.gif[/img]