Kessil

Coral confusin

Sorry to not of asked this earlier but the things that are doing bad sps and chalices. Are the on the same side of tank, far apart, together, high low in tank, is the cyano close to the chalices or far away. Is it possible that any of these things got light shock meaning were they moved to a different spot. I moved an acan once and it was never happy for weeks till i moved it back about 12 inches away. I believe it liked the flow of the area it was in.
 
Don't be surprise that your nitrate is high. This is probably due to the possibility that things had already started dying off at the lower level way before your larger organisms showed negative impact. The die off is probably what's feeding the cyano too.

You really want to confirm your PO4 and your Mag with better test kits. My hunch is that one of these may be the culprit.
 
I agree Robert, the Red Sea kit is a POS and tests high compared to Salifert and SeaChem, it may be that your Mag is low but the test kit reads otherwise. I say that because I went through the same thing years ago with that heinous kit.
 
OK I get that the kit is a POS, but can either of you tell me if I should be counting the 1st .40 ml that you add or not. I mean there is deffintly something wrong in the tank and even if the test is not 100% acrurite the 2 readings I could possiblely have are either way high (which would mean I may need to do a massive WC) or way low (which would mean I need to add some Teck M)
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=6183.msg78598#msg78598 date=1233853466]
If I was you, I would take the water to a reliable LFS and have them test it out. Double check everything..
[/quote]

I tried that yesterday, but it seems like all the LFS's around here don't offer testing for Mag or PO4, I checked the cal test yesterday with the calibration regent they included and it was spot on.


If anyone in the richmond/vallejo area knows somewhere that will test PO4 and Mag please let me know as I bought the red sea kit yesterday for 20.00 and it seems it was a total loss since no one can even tell me how one is to read it.
 
Do you run GFO? If not toss a bag in your sump, or better yet run it with a reactor, that way you don't need to worry too much about PO4, I really don't test for it since I use a ton of it.

AFA Mag, I'm sure there is someone in the club close to you that can test it, there are plenty of members in your area.
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=6183.msg78621#msg78621 date=1233856995]
Do you run GFO? If not toss a bag in your sump, or better yet run it with a reactor, that way you don't need to worry too much about PO4, I really don't test for it since I use a ton of it.

AFA Mag, I'm sure there is someone in the club close to you that can test it, there are plenty of members in your area.
[/quote]

GFO what is that?

And if someone lives in my area and has a test kit please speak up.............
 
Ok I had it tested by a friend, he called me and said it's wayyyyyyyyyyy low 740 to 750, which is about what I got with the Red Sea kit, so I am going to try and add some Tech M. The bottle says to add 1 ml per gallon, which will rasie it 18.3 per day, at that rate it will take me 33 days to get to the right level. Should I

A. Wait until my saltwater is mixed and do a 20% water change, then test then add

or

B. Not lose anymore time and start adding tonight

or

C. Start adding tonight and add more then the reccommended dose.


Also I stop dosing the b-ionic 2 days ago as I was't sure if that was the issue, should I go back to dosing it?
 
Start adding it now, FWIW I've boosted Mag faairly rapidly (200+ ppm in 24 hrs) and not seen anything but good results when it's real low.

AFA the B-ionic you want to maintain stable levels throughout the boosting, so test the big three as you increase and try to stay balanced.
 
Jeramy,

The instuctions say that if you add 1 ml per gal it will rasie the mag 18.3ppm, so should I add the reccomended dose, then test and adjust if it has infact only rasied it that amount (and what would you seggust to shoot for 100ppm a day or like you said 200ppm per day)

or

Should I just add like 5 times the amount today and then test tomoorw and adjust (same question about what would you shoot for)
 
Yea I used that cal to come up with a figure last night. It said I could add enough to rasie it 100ppm per day. I need to go get more Tech M as the bottle I had was just enough for that dose :(
 
Roc, careful with adding the mag to quickly, I think I did like 300-400 in a day and while the affects weren't to bad, some of my zoanthids almost looked like they bleached at the tips of the skirts. They are all almost back to normal now (Except for some RPE's) that still look a little pale.
 
Consider Epsom salt as well, as a cheaper way to boost large amounts of mag (and sulfate...so beware!)

I checked one of the calculators and for my 60g of water, it said 8oz of epsom salts would do the trick. That's about a bucks work of epsom salt. Not sure how much Tech M costs (but if you already have it, then use it, right?)

V
 
[quote author=Roc link=topic=6183.msg78591#msg78591 date=1233852707]
OK I get that the kit is a POS, but can either of you tell me if I should be counting the 1st .40 ml that you add or not. I mean there is deffintly something wrong in the tank and even if the test is not 100% acrurite the 2 readings I could possiblely have are either way high (which would mean I may need to do a massive WC) or way low (which would mean I need to add some Teck M)
[/quote] I don't think you are supposed to count that first .40 ML...
 
I think the Red Sea mag test is pretty good... When I first got it I tested 3 times, and got the same (or pretty close to) results every time. I sometimes double check my numbers and they come super super close every test.

I shake the crap out of it during the first 5 drops, I do about 20 seconds after each drop of A

For B I add 5 drops and shake for about 5 seconds

For C, fill it up so your fluid is exactly at 1.0ml (I just say 100 to make the math easier)
Squirt in until the fluid level reaches .6ml (so you just used .4ml of solution C), swirl and wait a few seconds. At this point you have .4ml already in the solution which you should add to the rest of the amount used.

Slowly drop (about a drop every 2 seconds or until well mixed) until the color changes... I noticed if I do a test under my 14k halides it's really difficult to discern the purple from the blue. I know do my tests under an regular old energy saving bulb and it's easy as pie.

Anywho, when your done if you have lets say you have .3ml left in the tube, subtract that .3ml from the 1.0ml and you used and you get .7ml of solution C.

So .7 x 2000 = 1400ppm Mag.

Hope that makes sense, my brain was starting to hurt trying to figure out what I just typed....
 
Jay, everyone else says you don't count that cuz they say on the box that if you used .64 then your mag is 1280, under yur logic if you used .64 you have used 1.04 which would put you at 2080ppm

So I don't think your posed to count that 1st .40.


I'm gonna get some epsom salt tomorrow as last night I figured out that in my tank I have to add 550ml to rasie 100ppm and thats more then comes in a full 16oz bottle which costs 13.00
 
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