Apparently i have gotten in over my head, please help
- Thread starter cedwards04
- Start date
cedwards04
New member
So i tested again 24hrs after dosing 1ppm worth and i am back at 0. Dosed 1.5ppm worth this time, I'll test again tomorrow and see where i am at. It appears the tank consumed the 1ppm in 24hrs.
cedwards04
New member
So almost 24hrs after dosing 1.5ppm and i do have detectable nitrates. Its hard for me to say exactly what they are, definitely lower than 2ppm which is where the red sea kit starts giving a color reference. If i had to guess i would say i am somewhere between 0.5-1ppm. Im going to dose another 1.5ppm and see if i measure closer to 2ppm tomorrow.
cedwards04
New member
Absolutely, definitely an improvement in color. Not where they need to be but better without a doubt. My purple digitata hasnt looked purple in months, the skeleton is still white but the top 1/4 of it now has very distinctive purple polyps. My green birdsnest has always grown like a weed but only about a 1/2" of the tips would be green, now 3/4 of the entire colony is green.
cedwards04
New member
I need to find a good site to host pics on that is mobile phone friendly. I use my phone for pics and internet. I have pictures i could show but ever since photobucket started charging i havent been able to find somewhere to easily host photos.
reefmutt
Active member
Well.. despite costing a little, I think photobucket still rules for ease of use and worry free storage.
I was going to dump it but they reduced their prices, in the end. And I have ALL of my reef shots on photobucket.
There are other options but they aren't free either I don't think. Like Flickr.
I'm the same as you. I use my phone exclusively for posting pics and surfing the net.
Tapatalk is the only other serious option, I think. It's free, takes the photos right off your phone so no hosting them anywhere. But it's cumbersome for navigating I find.
cedwards04
New member
So its been a few days since i updated. My dosing pump came in and i got it all set up, I've been dosing red sea a,b and c, and also dosing nitrates.
My numbers now are sitting at
Ca 440
Alk 9.2
Mg 1400
Nitrates 4
Im going to check again in a couple of days and see where everything stands at that point and i will decide if i need to make any adjustments to my dosing amounts. I will most likely back off at least on the nitrates a little. I did want to elevate my alk a little as i have always struggled to keep it much over 7dkh, so i am happy to see that number climb some, but will definitely monitor it to be sure it doesnt get out of hand.
I will also note that while i have seen an improvement in coloration, i am still no where near where i need to be color wise. My next purchase will be a phosphate tester of some sort so i can make sure my phosphates are where they need to be. I would love suggestions on an accurate phosphate tester. I use red sea test kits for everything else and am happy with them, so I'll likely go that route but i am hesistant after reading a few bad reviews.
If my phosphates seem in a good range, im going to adjust my doser just to keep all parameters stable and wait a few weeks to see if the colors continue to improve. Im not sure how long it should take for my colors to make a comeback. I can for sure see an improvement, no doubt about it, i just wonder if it will stop there or continue to improve.
My numbers now are sitting at
Ca 440
Alk 9.2
Mg 1400
Nitrates 4
Im going to check again in a couple of days and see where everything stands at that point and i will decide if i need to make any adjustments to my dosing amounts. I will most likely back off at least on the nitrates a little. I did want to elevate my alk a little as i have always struggled to keep it much over 7dkh, so i am happy to see that number climb some, but will definitely monitor it to be sure it doesnt get out of hand.
I will also note that while i have seen an improvement in coloration, i am still no where near where i need to be color wise. My next purchase will be a phosphate tester of some sort so i can make sure my phosphates are where they need to be. I would love suggestions on an accurate phosphate tester. I use red sea test kits for everything else and am happy with them, so I'll likely go that route but i am hesistant after reading a few bad reviews.
If my phosphates seem in a good range, im going to adjust my doser just to keep all parameters stable and wait a few weeks to see if the colors continue to improve. Im not sure how long it should take for my colors to make a comeback. I can for sure see an improvement, no doubt about it, i just wonder if it will stop there or continue to improve.
It can definitely take a while to see improvements. You should really consider more fish as others suggested. I'm not sure nitrate dosing is a complete replacement for adequate dio load although it may help some.
Reef mutt suggested the Elos High Resolution phosphate test kit. He's on the money it's a great kit. I personally use one as well and prefer it over any of the kits I've tried. Just make sure it's the "œHigh Resolution" version.
Reef mutt suggested the Elos High Resolution phosphate test kit. He's on the money it's a great kit. I personally use one as well and prefer it over any of the kits I've tried. Just make sure it's the "œHigh Resolution" version.
cedwards04
New member
Got sent out of town for work, but im back home today. It has been 3 days since i last tested so i did another round of tests. Results are as follows
Ca 435
Alk 9.5
Mg 1400
Nitrate 10
Judging from this test i may be slightly over dosing alk and slightly under dosing ca. I am going to leave them alone for now and test again in 3 days to make sure i have a pattern before making changes. I would imagine those discrepancies could just be the accuracy tolerance of the kit itself.
I was pretty shocked to see my nitrates that high. I was dosing 6ml/day. I dropped that down to 1ml/day and will test again in 3 days to see where i am at. I suppose 10 isnt a bad number, but how quickly it got there is what suprised me. I would like to stay in the 5-10ppm range i think. Colors continue to get better. I am starting to see a slight amount of algae growth in the tank so i wil be keeping an eye on that.
Im trying to pay better attention to how oftenci need to clean my glass. It was last cleaned on monday, and i of course cleaned it today once i got home. It wasnt terrible but i like to keep it pretty clear, so judging from what it looked like i probably would have cleaned it yesterday had i been home. I guess going roughly 3 days with no visible growth on the glass isnt too bad. I know that doesnt mean a whole lot but im trying to keep a low maintenance tank so that is the only reason i am mentioning it.
Ca 435
Alk 9.5
Mg 1400
Nitrate 10
Judging from this test i may be slightly over dosing alk and slightly under dosing ca. I am going to leave them alone for now and test again in 3 days to make sure i have a pattern before making changes. I would imagine those discrepancies could just be the accuracy tolerance of the kit itself.
I was pretty shocked to see my nitrates that high. I was dosing 6ml/day. I dropped that down to 1ml/day and will test again in 3 days to see where i am at. I suppose 10 isnt a bad number, but how quickly it got there is what suprised me. I would like to stay in the 5-10ppm range i think. Colors continue to get better. I am starting to see a slight amount of algae growth in the tank so i wil be keeping an eye on that.
Im trying to pay better attention to how oftenci need to clean my glass. It was last cleaned on monday, and i of course cleaned it today once i got home. It wasnt terrible but i like to keep it pretty clear, so judging from what it looked like i probably would have cleaned it yesterday had i been home. I guess going roughly 3 days with no visible growth on the glass isnt too bad. I know that doesnt mean a whole lot but im trying to keep a low maintenance tank so that is the only reason i am mentioning it.
cedwards04
New member
Update on my situation. I have completely stopped dosing nitrates. In a matter of a few short days one of my birdsnest colonies went from healthy and growing (just didnt have great color) to 90% dead. I dont think it will pull through. I was out of town for work and came home to find it almost completely dead. I have a few other frags of it i was going to sell, they are dying, and my candy cane coral appears to be dying as well. My other sps and lps corals appear to be ok for the moment.
My alk, ca, and mg have all remained stable. My temp and salinity has all been rock solid according to my apex. I dont kmow that dosing the nitrates (stump remover) is the problem but i stopped it just incase. I had to leave town for work again, so i did a 30% water change before leaving and turned on my carbon reactor just incase some kind of toxin found its way into the water. I imagine my other corals will soon follow the ones that are dying if i cant figure this out.
I plan to do several 30% water changes spread out a few days apart until i have changed all of the water in the tank
Sort of a reset if you will. I will be exploring other means of keeping nitrates up rather than dosing the stump remover. I see a lot of success stories with it, and i cant be certain that is the cause of my issues, but im not going to risk it anymore. I may try feeding some reef roids or something as i hear that can raise nitrates as well. I'll give the tank a few weeks to kind of settle out first.
My alk, ca, and mg have all remained stable. My temp and salinity has all been rock solid according to my apex. I dont kmow that dosing the nitrates (stump remover) is the problem but i stopped it just incase. I had to leave town for work again, so i did a 30% water change before leaving and turned on my carbon reactor just incase some kind of toxin found its way into the water. I imagine my other corals will soon follow the ones that are dying if i cant figure this out.
I plan to do several 30% water changes spread out a few days apart until i have changed all of the water in the tank
Sort of a reset if you will. I will be exploring other means of keeping nitrates up rather than dosing the stump remover. I see a lot of success stories with it, and i cant be certain that is the cause of my issues, but im not going to risk it anymore. I may try feeding some reef roids or something as i hear that can raise nitrates as well. I'll give the tank a few weeks to kind of settle out first.
cedwards04
New member
Made it back from work and things are worse but it appears to be slowing down. I did another 30% waterchange and have another batch of water made up to do another 30% probably on tuesday. Hopefully the domino of death with stop soon.
cedwards04
New member
Did the final 30% water change today. So 3 total. I think i am going to stop here and just ride it out. Things appear to be settling down, if i am still getting tissue loss it is considerably less. I think things are leveling out. My plan now is to test the water and make a log of the parameters, keep all my dosing pumps off, and then test again in 3 days so i can see where i stand on daily element consumption. I suspect it will be very low. There isnt much left in there to suck up much. Oddly enough, i have a couple of acros that do not appear to have been affected by all of this. I figured they would have been the first to go.
After i see daily consumption i will set my dosers back up for 2 part and just continue to monitor nitrates and phosphates and move much more slowly and carefully to keep them in check.
Anyone have any other advice to offer? I am also going to run my alk and ca slightly lower than i was previously running it. Going to aim for 400/7.5 and see what happens.
After i see daily consumption i will set my dosers back up for 2 part and just continue to monitor nitrates and phosphates and move much more slowly and carefully to keep them in check.
Anyone have any other advice to offer? I am also going to run my alk and ca slightly lower than i was previously running it. Going to aim for 400/7.5 and see what happens.
