Lunchbucket
Premium Member
very nice looking great!! keep the pics coming
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
250 Gallon Starphire SPS tank
- Thread starter gregt
- Start date
LittleBlueGT
New member
BIG BIG Problems
I took these pics, all going well!
I ran out of alk test solution, so I have been kinda geussing things lately. In-laws in town, tried to go to LFS but didn't work out, etc.....................
My kalk reactor's O-ring at the top didn't seal anymore and I just got a new one from Brent at Barr Aquatics. In trying to re-set up my kalk reactor the stir bar (magnetic) got knocked off its position. I was unable to get it re-centered. Being lazy I just started slowly siphoning a bit of kalk out of the reacotr each day into the tank, no biggie I thought!
After day 4 of the siphoning all looked well, my wife came over and said why is they tank all white!
Major, Major snow-storm!
Couldn't see a thing in the tank, at all.
Gotta check on something, be right back.
I took these pics, all going well!
I ran out of alk test solution, so I have been kinda geussing things lately. In-laws in town, tried to go to LFS but didn't work out, etc.....................
My kalk reactor's O-ring at the top didn't seal anymore and I just got a new one from Brent at Barr Aquatics. In trying to re-set up my kalk reactor the stir bar (magnetic) got knocked off its position. I was unable to get it re-centered. Being lazy I just started slowly siphoning a bit of kalk out of the reacotr each day into the tank, no biggie I thought!
After day 4 of the siphoning all looked well, my wife came over and said why is they tank all white!
Major, Major snow-storm!
Couldn't see a thing in the tank, at all.
Gotta check on something, be right back.
LittleBlueGT
New member
Added large amounts of vinegar to tank, brought ph down from 9.0 to 7.9. Tank cleared up, major sliming.
Started to cloud again.
Ran to store to get vinegar!
Brought ph down to 7.4
Clouding stopped.
Now using tap water w/ dechlorinator to do a 70 gallon water change within the hour.
Started to cloud again.
Ran to store to get vinegar!
Brought ph down to 7.4
Clouding stopped.
Now using tap water w/ dechlorinator to do a 70 gallon water change within the hour.
Travis
10 and over club
Nice update and sorry to hear of your problems. What made the tank all white and the PH spike?
I'm sure you are already keeping a close eye on things after what happened but keep an even closer eye because adding that much vinegar could cause some problems of its own. Vinegar is a carbon source for bacteria and adding it is pretty much the same thing as dosing vodka. If too much is added, a bacteria bloom will shortly follow. If the bloom is large enough, it can actually suffocate some of the livestock by sucking up all the 02. Another thing to worry about is that the bacteria will suck up all the nutrients in the tank while it is blooming and then suddenly release them en masse when it dies off. But it looks like you probably have pretty low nutrients so that shouldn't be a concern. I would just make sure to run your skimmer extra wet and maybe clean it every day for the next few days to be sure it is working at maximum efficiency to remove the bacteria if there is a bloom. The bacteria bloom may be the reason your tank got cloudy after adding the vinegar. But I agree, under your circumstances the top priority was getting that PH back down and FAST.
I'm sure you are already keeping a close eye on things after what happened but keep an even closer eye because adding that much vinegar could cause some problems of its own. Vinegar is a carbon source for bacteria and adding it is pretty much the same thing as dosing vodka. If too much is added, a bacteria bloom will shortly follow. If the bloom is large enough, it can actually suffocate some of the livestock by sucking up all the 02. Another thing to worry about is that the bacteria will suck up all the nutrients in the tank while it is blooming and then suddenly release them en masse when it dies off. But it looks like you probably have pretty low nutrients so that shouldn't be a concern. I would just make sure to run your skimmer extra wet and maybe clean it every day for the next few days to be sure it is working at maximum efficiency to remove the bacteria if there is a bloom. The bacteria bloom may be the reason your tank got cloudy after adding the vinegar. But I agree, under your circumstances the top priority was getting that PH back down and FAST.
LittleBlueGT
New member
I added the vinegar to stop the mass precipitation event. It worked, only added 1.5 gallons!:eek2:
Now that the solution in my off-line kalk reactor has settled I know exactly what happened:
Everyday I was siphoning some of the kalk out of my reactor so that I could find the magnetic stir bar in there so I could get it working again. My levels used to be 9.5 dkh and 420 calcium. I must have gotten my levels a little higher then usual, I am guessing 11 and 450, or maybe 12 and 470. I manually mixed up my kalk reactor and siphoned some kalk mixture out, it turns out I siphoned out about 2 cups of straight kalk, in about 1 gallon of water. The water was soo white I didn't think it was that concentrated though!
Last night my levels were over 14 and over 500.
I got 70 gallons of tap water ready, got rid of the chlorine (never in my life used tap water in a tank!) and did a water change. Turned my calcium reactor off-line. Now my levels are 13 and 490.
My ph slowly rose last night to a current 8.1
Now that the solution in my off-line kalk reactor has settled I know exactly what happened:
Everyday I was siphoning some of the kalk out of my reactor so that I could find the magnetic stir bar in there so I could get it working again. My levels used to be 9.5 dkh and 420 calcium. I must have gotten my levels a little higher then usual, I am guessing 11 and 450, or maybe 12 and 470. I manually mixed up my kalk reactor and siphoned some kalk mixture out, it turns out I siphoned out about 2 cups of straight kalk, in about 1 gallon of water. The water was soo white I didn't think it was that concentrated though!
Last night my levels were over 14 and over 500.
I got 70 gallons of tap water
ready, got rid of the chlorine (never in my life used tap water in a tank!) and did a water change. Turned my calcium reactor off-line. Now my levels are 13 and 490.My ph slowly rose last night to a current 8.1
Whaledriver
New member
Go to the Chemisrty forum and run all this past Randy and see what he says.
LittleBlueGT
New member
Calcium now at 480. Ph at 8.11 steady. Lights are being left off for the next day, except actinics. 45 gallon water change tonight.
Not one casualty so far, fingers crossed.
All fish look pretty good.
All zoos look great, can't kill those things!
Most SPS look exactly the same as before, some have lightened up a bit, but I actually like there lighter color better, reminds me of when I first got them. Some SPS colors look better!:thumbsup: Go figure.
LPS look great.
Clams also look normal.
It looks like I averted disaster.
Running the skimmer wet, keeping the ozone strong, running phosphate remover for the first time.
I hope the 70 gallons of tap water won't cause major problems.
Not one casualty so far, fingers crossed.
All fish look pretty good.
All zoos look great, can't kill those things!
Most SPS look exactly the same as before, some have lightened up a bit, but I actually like there lighter color better, reminds me of when I first got them. Some SPS colors look better!:thumbsup: Go figure.
LPS look great.
Clams also look normal.
It looks like I averted disaster.
Running the skimmer wet, keeping the ozone strong, running phosphate remover for the first time.
I hope the 70 gallons of tap water won't cause major problems.
LittleBlueGT
New member
The bar in the stirrer is just off of the magnetic area, and because of the kalk I cannot see it. Just a matter of me taking it down and recentering it. Once that is done it will go indefinitely, as long as I don't do anything to screw it up.
LittleBlueGT
New member
Use it for about 50% of my top-off. It is a consistent drip that is always at the same rate, never have to worry about over-dosing or under-dosing, it is consistent. The onlyproblem comes in when I mess with things!
Psyire
Premium Member
Ben, If you turn on the stirrer (on low) and use a long stick to poke around in the bottom of the reactor, the magnet should move back into position as the stirrer will pull it there automatically. This has happened to me before if I put too much kalk in the reactor or had the stirrer speed set too high. (only needs to be set at like 1/2 full speed)
LittleBlueGT
New member
Do a search on it, but here are some of the main reasons:
-Way less detritus = cleaner water, better color, less algae
-more potential for flow w/o sandstorm
-less$, don't have to buy sand or all the needed critters
-more room in display tank
-if loss of power tank will last longer due to less oxyegn requirement for tank (sand will use up O2 like crazy)
-had it before and it was a PITA
-I think you get the idea!
