I am so frustrated!!

seanoman · #1 08-18-2009, 02:46 AM

Hey thanks everybody for your help so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PoonTang

You said you tank was ok for the first year then started to go south? Improves after a water change for a short while? Mabey look at the possibility that something has built up in your tank to toxic levels. Are you skimming enough, do you have enough LR, running phosban, what shape is your sand bed, running a Fuge? All valid questions that should be looked at also. Look also for things like stray voltage, some foreign metal object in the tank, something you started dosing. I find it odd that parameters that are slightly off would cause so much trouble. Especially if your levels were the same during the first year.

As far as skimming, we have a BK300 external, which i believe should be more than enough. About 200 lbs of LR. ROWAPhos running in the other phosban reactor. We have a bare bottom tank and no fuge. I have also looked for stray voltage and other things in the tank. So far have seen nothing.

Marie, I have also heard of that happening, but I know that is not the case for us, because all the equipment is in its own fish room and we don't ever use any of that stuff in there.

Dave and Ian, I am dialing back my Calcium reactor as we speak, and I will be slowly dripping in some kalkwasser as well to try and slowly bring up the DKH.

Again, thanks so much for everyones quick posts it is greatly appreciated!!

seanoman · #2 08-18-2009, 02:57 AM

Oh, I forgot to mention, that none of this has affected any of the fish in the tank. They are all doing better than ever. They are all in great health.

Sebae again · #3 08-18-2009, 03:07 AM

Once you get your Mg up it will be easier to raise the alk and maintain it.

Oceanic · #4 08-18-2009, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebae again

once you get your mg up it will be easier to raise the alk and maintain it.

+1

Oceanic · #5 08-18-2009, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanoman

Hey thanks everybody for your help so far.

As far as skimming, we have a BK300 external, which i believe should be more than enough. About 200 lbs of LR. ROWAPhos running in the other phosban reactor. We have a bare bottom tank and no fuge. I have also looked for stray voltage and other things in the tank. So far have seen nothing.

Marie, I have also heard of that happening, but I know that is not the case for us, because all the equipment is in its own fish room and we don't ever use any of that stuff in there.

Dave and Ian, I am dialing back my Calcium reactor as we speak, and I will be slowly dripping in some kalkwasser as well to try and slowly bring up the DKH.

Again, thanks so much for everyones quick posts it is greatly appreciated!!

Slow is good when dealing with ALK!

seanoman · #6 08-18-2009, 03:32 PM

Any suggestions on what to use to increase the MG. I know Tailor Aquatics has a liquid form of MG that you can dose. Anybody have experience with that?

Haloreef · #7 08-18-2009, 04:20 PM

Sean I use Zeo Mag in my calcium reactor aprox 10% of my reactor medium volume. It seems to work for me.
It was a tip I got from Superfudge when I first started keeping SPS.

Oceanic · #8 08-18-2009, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanoman

Any suggestions on what to use to increase the MG. I know Tailor Aquatics has a liquid form of MG that you can dose. Anybody have experience with that?

There are many ways of doing this including the Zeomag, I used to run Zeo mag in the reactor but now I just pour in Kent Tech-M into my auto top off resevoir. I go through about a 64oz bottle in about 6-8 weeks. I keep my magnesium very high; infact, I used to run the magnesium at or around 2100 ppm in order to battle a some bryopsis on some new rock (only use Tech-M for this) worked like a charm! I have seen no ill effects of running high Magnesium and I actully believe it promotes faster Coral growth and quicker healing of frags etc.

Tech-M love this stuff
Epson Salts (walmart) Cheap but Sulfate may get to high ??
Bulk reef supply Great if you go through lots.

Oceanic · #9 08-21-2009, 04:13 PM

Any updates on your situation? Have you raised up your ALK to 9-9.5? Have you added MG?

seanoman · #10 08-21-2009, 04:25 PM

I have been raising both my alk and mg. I have been doing both through my top off for the past few days. I checked my alk last night and it was close to 8.5 and mg was around 1200. So slowly but surely, they are coming up. The rate of decline has seemed to slow down aswell. I will be doing another water change today and think I will actually be changing salts aswell, as I need to buy more anyways. I was thinking of using the H2O salt, does anybody have good experience with it? I have only seen good reviews for it, and it seems to have higher mg and alk then what seachem does.