low alkalinity

[makana]

Well hopefully now that it is up there I will only need to maintain it. The swing didn't seem to bother the snails any. I suppose it is possible that the soda hadn't fully dissolved yet and I got a false reading. If not that then I would have to blame the calculator. I know my tank has 8 gallons in it. I put it my dkh and what I wanted for dkh and chose baking soda. It said .3 of a tsp and 1/4 of a tsp would only be .25. I guess if I ever have to change it again I will have to use a very small amount.

[reefermadness]

Did you use a measuring spoon? Just curious.

I'm sure you tank is fine with the small swing. Swings over 1dkh is usually only a problem for fusy corals.

[makana]

I used a 1/8 measuring spoon. For the most part I just really want to get this all figured out so that when I have livestock I'm not guessing.

[Delphinus]

There's a fair bit of trial and error at first until you find the right amounts. Right now there isn't a lot of draw in your system so start off small. Basically I take an amount, and dose it everyday. Then I test. If things are too high, I use a smaller amount and try again for a week; if things are too low, then I increase the amount. If I'm really not sure of the rates I might test everyday at first until I'm comfortable I'm not pushing huge swings on the tank. It's better to let things get little depleted than it is to push a wild swing on a tank.

At this point it's no big deal mind you, but as stated already, alk is one you don't want to adjust too much in one go. Particularly SPS are sensitive to this, you get "alkalinity burn". Make small adjustments and it should be OK.

Hope this helps..

[makana]

My tank seems to have taken a bad turn. Christmas day it turned brown and cloudy. I tested everything and all was fine except ph which had dropped a lot. The tank also stinks quite bad. There is no amonia so I don't think anything died in there. I did a large water change last night while scraping the hair algea off the glass but I'm not sure it helped.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by makana

The tank also stinks quite bad. There is no amonia so I don't think anything died in there.

I would be surprised if there is stink and no ammonia.

You really should have taken my advice and others here to just let the tank cycle normally. Dosing is not required for new tanks, anything it needs will be supplied by the reef salt.

So going forward and others please add your advice. - Remove any delicate species and give to a friend or LFS until your tank is healthy and cycled.

1. Stop Dosing - Why you started adding Soda to chase two point of Dkh on a new setup is beyond me, and why others instructed you to do so is baffling too.

2. Add carbon to remove any ammonia or other chemicals as a result of the probable die-off. (Stink)

3. Water changes 10% at a time with good water and salt, match Temp and salinity as much as possible.

4. Patience - Just wait and treat you tank as if it was new again. Don't do anything until 4 weeks have expired, treat as a new tank.

[makana]

As per:
"You really should have taken my advice and others here to just let the tank cycle normally."

To the best of my knowledge the tank had completed the cycle days before I added the soda. I have dosed nothing other than that one time trying to bring up the alk.

As Per:
"Remove any delicate species and give to a friend or LFS until your tank is healthy and cycled."

I have added no live stock to the tank due to the fact that I wasn't satisfied that the tank was stable and ready yet. The only livestock in the tank is an aptaisa that I havn't gotten around to killing yet and some stomatella snails that were living in the rock when I got it.

As Per:
"Why you started adding Soda to chase two point of Dkh on a new setup is beyond me, and why others instructed you to do so is baffling too."

I dosed because I figured it would be better to try and get stable water conditions now that the cycle had finished rather than after I add livestock. I didn't want to fill the tank with livestock and then have to worry about how to dose when they are consuming the nutriants from the water. I figure it is better to learn before lives are at stake. I also belive that you should always start out with ideal conditions in anything you do, rather than start out with less than ideal conditions and try to sort it out as you go. Maybe I'm wrong.

I have been testing all the levels every day and there has been no amonia or nitrite or nitrate for over a week. It wasn't until this morning that I had amonia and nitrite. If the stink was caused by die of from dosing would I not have had an amonia spike last night before the water change?

The stink was also there before the amonia spike. I am thinking that the algea has consumed the nutriants and began to die off and that is what caused the smell and clouded the water. I am also thinking that the ph was caused by CO2 so I have taken the lid off so that it has proper air exchange.

I just bought and installed a rio nano skimmer and it is now running with the carbon to hopefully remove the decaying matter.

I apreciate the experiance and knowledge that you have to offer. However, I don't apreciate you assuming that I would be so stupid as to have "delicate species" in a tank that hasn't cycled, and that I would be stupid enough to dose that tank and risk the livestock.

If I am doing anything wrong please let me know. I really don't want this to fail. I apreciate all the help I can get and do take all the replies I recive into consideration.

[makana]

Well the tank is clear today and the smell is gone. Amonia and nitrite are going down fast. PH still hasn't changed its 7.9.

How long should I run the carbon? Should I continue to run without the lid? With the lid I didn't need to top off the water because any evaporation pretty much collected on the lid and fell back in. I checked salinity daily and never had it change. Now it has changed half a point since yesterday. I don't mind daily top offs but I'm wondering how you keep fish in and cats out without a top. I also would prefer the lid to minimize evaporation if I go away for a weekend in the summer.

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by makana

Well the tank is clear today and the smell is gone. Amonia and nitrite are going down fast. PH still hasn't changed its 7.9.

How long should I run the carbon? Should I continue to run without the lid? With the lid I didn't need to top off the water because any evaporation pretty much collected on the lid and fell back in. I checked salinity daily and never had it change. Now it has changed half a point since yesterday. I don't mind daily top offs but I'm wondering how you keep fish in and cats out without a top. I also would prefer the lid to minimize evaporation if I go away for a weekend in the summer.

I'm sorry if I came off as strong in my previous post. I apologise.

Run the carbon until your confident all is well, some folk always run carbon of some kind. Chemipure, which has been rumoured to solve world hunger, contains a very active carbon component and lasts a long time. I have a small bag of Chemipure in my system all the time.

As far as your lid goes, describe it. Is it a piece of glass that seals the top? If yes then you might want to consider keeping a portion open for gas exchange. If it is a hood then you can keep it closed but make sure you have some surface agitation either from a power head or return jet or even a bubble wand. Something to break the surface.

Does the water surface have a "skin" to it? A skin is water tension, a seal that will prevent proper gas exchange, it looks sorta dusty that gets broken when you put your hand in. If yes then you need to adjust your overflows so the water draws off the surface properly and not just under the surface.
Keith

[makana]

Sorry I was a little deffensive the other day. A brown tank wasn't the Christmas present I was hoping for.

The lid is plexiglass that I cut to fit. There is a small squre at the back that I cut out to make room for the heater and cords. If I put it back on I will have to cut a hole now for the skimmer so it will not really be sealed.

I've got a koralia 1 power head and it keeps the surface fairly rippled. And now with the skimmer return that should be good. My PH hasn't improved any so I'm doubting it droped due to CO2 now.

I found a small dead crab that may have caused the spike. Or the water changed caused the spike and that killed the crab. I had no idea there was a crab in there.

I'd like to keep the lid but I'm not really sure if it will be a problem. I read that they can trap CO2 that is escaping from the tank and then there is no fresh air under the lid for gas exchange.