Coral and other questions

[yoboyjdizz]

any pictures?

 

[palileo]

i haven't been adding anything for calcium... so how should i bring down the calcium? what are causes of a higher calcium?

thanks for the tip Edwin, i'll start doing that... it was a bit repetitious to have to add a drop then cover to shake over and over.

update on the devil's hand... it seems to be coming out of it's rut. it looked good this morning and polyps were extending. may be just as i read in the post in the softies forum... does this as it grows bigger.

i'll take some pics when i get home...

i was planning on doing a water change again tomorrow... will that be enough time between water changes to bring the salinity up or should i wait a bit longer?

have not been testing alk...

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Just a note as to how I adjust my tanks’ SG when needed. If the SG is too high I just remove a little of the SW from the sump occasionally. The auto top-off will then add some RO/DI to make up the difference. As others have mentioned do this slowly. I would never try to change the SG more than .001 per day. To Increase the SG is very easy. Just add some premixed SW at your present SG to the sump and evaporation will increase the SG over time. Just make sure you still have enough reserve in the sump in the case of a power outage and again slowly.

As to your Ca level, my understanding is that a very high calcium level may cause the precipitation of calcium carbonate. This could cause a depletion of carbonate in the system and problems with its buffering capability. If you are supplementing calcium it needs to be done in balance with carbonate. I try to keep my carbonate levels at about a dKH of 10 and my calcium at a level of about 450.

 

[duec22]

Honestly that Ca sounds like it's really high esspecially if you haven't been suplimenting, and probably not an accurate meassure. I would try and take some of your water to a LFS that can test it for you. Or if you have another local reefer around you that has test kits you could have them double check them for you. I've got both Ca and Alk kits if you live anywhere near Watt and 50 I can test it for you.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7937354#post7937354 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by duec22
Honestly that Ca sounds like it's really high esspecially if you haven't been suplimenting, and probably not an accurate meassure. I would try and take some of your water to a LFS that can test it for you. Or if you have another local reefer around you that has test kits you could have them double check them for you. I've got both Ca and Alk kits if you live anywhere near Watt and 50 I can test it for you.

Yes David, very good point. Especially if the SG is low in the first place.

 

[palileo]

could it be from not thoroughly defrosting the frozen Mysis before feedings? i've been holding the frozen cubes to a power head in the water to defrost. i read a post last night that mentioned additives in the frozen foods.

 

[duec22]

No, that is just going to add unwanted nutrients like phosphate. For fozen foods, I've found it best to put them in a very fine mesh net and run them under cold water to wash off the packing juice.

 

[palileo]

i will now be rinsing them the same way... thought to start doing that after reading that post. thanks david