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Author Topic: am I in trouble?  (Read 3803 times)

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Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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am I in trouble?
« on: July 13, 2017, 18:46:53 »
I tested my ALK and my CAL last week, and noticed both were a little on the low side. 
I turned off the alkalinity doser for some time.  Would not dosing the alk, make the calcium levels drop?

I started the doser back up, along with the calcium doser.  A day or two later, I notice my DT has a cloudy haze to it.  What is causing this?

I will be testing all my levels tonight around 10:00 and will report back with the readings as of "now".

But is this haze normal?  without knowing my current levels, I know this is probably hard to answer.  I'll be back in a few hours

(oh, one more important detail.  BRS suggests NOT dosing more than 50ml per day of calcium.  So I currently have my BRS doser going for 5 minutes at a time, for 8 hours. (12:30am-7:30am) SO I am falling short of the 50ml a day.)
« Last Edit: July 13, 2017, 18:59:52 by crankbait09 »

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2017, 22:30:45 »
OK, after testing the water at this point, here is where I stand:

ALK - 10.0
CAL - 275
MAG - 1290
PH - 7.8-7.9
N03 - 50 (yes, I know)
NH4 - 0

As I mentioned, I had my ALK doser off for some time. That has since been turned back on.  Will that help the Calcium level?

I have never seen calcium drop that low, so I am trying to get it back up to the 440 range.

Looking at the DT straight on, haze is very very faint.  But when I look in to the side of the tank, length wise, it's really noticeable.  Any ideas what would be causing this?
What do I do at this point?

I will be doing a 35% water change tomorrow night when I get home.  I do this every two weeks

Offline AJ

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2017, 12:47:04 »
The haze could be caused by a bacterial bloom.

I'm not sure where you are seeing that BRS says not to dose more than 50 mL of Calcium per day. I think you can dose as much as it takes to bring your Calcium up 50 ppm per day. So 275 -> 325 then the next day 325 -> 375 etc... until you reach your desired levels.

Keep the ALK online and just manually add extra Calcium.

I'm not sure of your water volume, but if you have 100 gallons of water volume, it would take around 500 mL of Calcium to bring it up by 50 ppm.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator

If you read carefully on the Calcium calculator, you will see that it does in fact say that you shouldn't raise Calcium more than 50 ppm per day.

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2017, 12:51:07 »
What could cause this bacteria bloom?  How do I know that's what it is?
How do I remove that bloom, if that's what it is?
Will it harm any of my fish/inverts?

Yes, the BRS calculator mentions that 50ppm per day.

The calcium has been turned off since last night.  Letting ALK run alone

Offline AJ

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2017, 13:00:29 »
Why would you be letting ALK run alone? I'm guessing your goal is to increase Calcium...

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2017, 13:07:08 »
ya, I'd like to get calcium up to the 440 range.  it's very low right now.  The ALK was running cause it was once at 7.8 or so. I want that to be around 9, maintained
I use Instant Ocean, so that also results in lower readings.

Offline AJ

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2017, 13:12:35 »
Ok, cool. So, turn your regular Calcium dosing back on. Then manually dose Calcium. Use the BRS Calculator to figure out how much you need to go from 275 to 325. You can just split that dose into 2 doses. So for instance, if BRS tells you to dose 500 mL to bring your Calcium up to 325, then dose 250 mL now, then 250 mL tonight before you go to bed. Then retest tomorrow to see where you are and repeat the process until you reach your goal.

I wouldnt worry too much about the haze. If it bothers you, you can run some Carbon in your system, which should clear it right up.

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2017, 13:27:54 »
I currently run ROX 0.8 carbon in my system.  I change that out every two weeks.  At first I thought it was all used up, which led to this haze.  But I really don't know.

thanks for the help

Offline AJ

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2017, 13:32:39 »
It could very well be all used up, which is what caused the haze. Go ahead and replace it and see if it goes away. Report back in a few days and let us know how it is.

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2017, 14:31:20 »
i'll definitely do that this weekend.  after tonight water change.
thanks for the help

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2017, 21:58:32 »
After my water change, carbon media change, and a few days after............I have retested my water.
Here is where I stand
ALK - 9.3
MAG - 1260
CAL - 300

And the water quality has improved and I no longer see the haze.  So I chalk it up to the carbon.

I'll continue to dose the alk, and continue to test......See where it goes from here.

Offline AJ

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2017, 22:20:48 »
Good to hear! Try to keep rising the calcium to around 400 by manually dosing. Just for peace of mind.... I dosed 500 mL of calcium yesterday to boost my levels by 50 ppm, zero adverse effects.

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2017, 22:31:39 »
I'd like to hi-jack my own thread, but I just noticed one of my clowns having white stringy poop.  I hear could be internal parasite, or could need a specific food.
I also heard that I could feed the fish in the DT, then I hear it needs to be caught and placed in the QT.

As for the clown behavior......He seems to be eating and swimming like normal.  Hos behavior doesn't concern me at all.  Just the poop color.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2017, 09:58:44 »
Your fish's behavior is the best indicator of something wrong, or nothing at all.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2017, 10:01:18 »
Also, I may have missed it but I didn't see any mention of what your salinity is...

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2017, 10:03:40 »
1.025

Offline Humphrey

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2017, 20:09:13 »
White stringy poop could be an internal parasite. Qt with API general cure may not be a bad idea.  You could treat with metro buond to food using seachem focus in a reef. Supposed to be reef safe and I have done so successfully in the past.

Offline Tonya

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #17 on: August 04, 2017, 11:33:06 »
How's it going?


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Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2017, 11:37:12 »
I did that water change I mentioned, and the haze seems to have gone away completely.  I also changed out the carbon media at the same time too.  So as of now, it's all good.

As for the clown, I don't see him go tot he bathroom often.  So I can't tell if it went away or not.  I certainly see no different behavior from any of the fish.  everyone is swimming and eating like normal.

I will be moving towards the end of the month, so we'll see what kind of stress related sickness that brings up.  :-\

Offline Tonya

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Re: am I in trouble?
« Reply #19 on: August 05, 2017, 08:24:18 »
Good. Fingers crossed!


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