A less than perfect start
- Thread starter Gup_King
- Start date
Looks that way. I'm gonna see what I can do about it but I'm not sure about returning it to the LFS for the same thing to happen again.
I do plan on doing something though, I just haven't got it worked out yet.
Mhay
Crazy Cat Lady
If the urchin is dead all the spines would fall off. I would get your parameters stabilized before adding anything else. I personally think it is too soon to add corals, but that is my personal view. What size tank and how much rock do you have? You may need more to be able to handle the bio load.
The first urchin was definitely deadbut still had its spines.
I will hold off on adding much but the corals that are in there will have to stay and once I get the Xenia establised I'm hoping it will act as a 'parameter alarm' (as well as testing).
The tank is 130litres with 11 kg of live rock.
Mhay
Crazy Cat Lady
Xenias are pretty hardy not sure if they would work as an "alarm" as it would take a good amount to upset them. I would add more rock, I would rather have too much than not enough. Also depends on the type of rock you have. I would also test for copper just to rule that out as well. I had a problem with that and it really messed things up.
I know they're hardy but I've also heard that they are also quite moody and will stop pulsing if things are out, even before kits pick it up.
At the moment I'm going to avoiding adding rock as the bioload is low and I'm already causing stress by bring the salinity back down (albeit slowly) but will look into it asap.
Mhay
Crazy Cat Lady
They can be moody about anything not just parameters. If a hermit touched them, if they don't like the lighting, etc. So I wouldn't soley rely on that as a heads up.
Yes, hydrometeres are not a reliable way for testing SG. This is probably why you have some unhappy inhabitants I would work on getting that down immediately, but not too quickly.
Reefer4evaa
New member
I'm assuming that your using coralife salt mix as I notice the high calcium levels..also I really think the salinity is too high.i usually test my water hours after I mix the salt in and do whatever adjustments needed to match the paremeters in the tank such as calcium,alkalinilty,magnesium and salinity
It's Kent marine salt. Yeah, salinity is far too high; I brought it down by .002 yesterday and am going to bring it down by .001 for the next few days until I reach 1.025.
I tended to prepare the water a day in advance and measure just before adding (the hydrometer obviously caused issues though).
Reefer4evaa
New member
Can't go wrong with a refractometer..with a hydrometer all you need is an air bubble or salt creep to throw things off
