How do I know if SPS is distressed

[Lilbitreefer]

So I bought a small frag last week it has been in my tank and I have acclimated it to the lights. It is in the upper 3/4 area of the tank. There seems to be a brittle star hitchhiker as well. How do I know if it is distressed? It is white around the edges that turns to a light green and brown at the central portion of it. So far what I have read this is normal. The first day I was able to see what looked like some polyps sticking out but now I have not seen any. It is not changing any colors and does not appear to be bleaching at all. Any thought or am I just lucky? the nitrates are a little high right now and the Ca/Mg are low. I plan on doing a water change with the red sea coral salt. I have been using instant ocean and it sucks, really high alkalinity low ca/mg. I was just going to add two part but when it called for almost two liters of mg and 250ml of ca I figured a couple water changes with a bit cheaper salt would be better than expensive two part.
Lab values as below
Nitrate 10
Ca 325
Mg 760
alk 11

 

[MondoBongo]

different sps show stress in different ways, so to a large extent it can depend on the coral. some of mine never really to have some polyp extension, and that's normal for them, others always have their polyps out, so if they're retracted i know something is up.

bleaching usually happens pretty quickly, colors changes usually happen slowly.

you're likely going to have to supplement beyond water changes to raise those ca and mg numbers. those are atrocious. i don't care for any of the instant ocean salts.

i would probably start switching salts, as you are, but also start slowly supplementing the values to boost them in to acceptable ranges. testing accordingly so as not to raise too much in too short a time.

you will also probably want to think about how you're going to maintain ca/alk/mg long term. stabilizing those values will go a long way to making any hard corals, but especially sps, happy. i don't know what else you have in your tank, but i'm a big fan of kalk in tanks with low to moderate demand. it's real easy to work with, and cheap as chips.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

I was debating two part to kalkwaswer, the only worry I had with kalkwaser was it destroying my ATO pump. I seem to be going through 2-3 gallons a day a least. So far I have been using all the red sea junk mainly cause it has an idiots guide to it. How much do you recommend adding to it? I have been adding 15ml ea of Mg, Alk, Ca in that order for the last two days while I was making the water. I am adding salt today so I should be able to the water change tomorrow.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

I believe the coral is a Pavona as well.

 

[MondoBongo]

when i was dosing kalk i actually used a BRS dosing pump to doll it out separately from my top off, so i can't speak to its effect on ato pumps. that worked well for me because i was able to fine tune it to what i wanted, and not have to worry about it being dependent on my evaporation rate. i switched to two part when kalk would no longer keep up with my demands.

what size tank are you running? i'm pushing an honest 150 gallons of water volume, so when i dose to bring my levels up, i am usually adding quite a bit, so for my purposes, 15ml is next to nothing.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

yeah it's a 120G tank.

 

[MondoBongo]

ok, so maybe you're running somewhere in the area of 80 - 100 gallons total system volume?

i guess i should have asked what you're using for your dosing. i'm on soda ash and calcium chloride, so if i'm trying to raise my alk/cal i'm usually going around 250ml a day until i get where i want. this would obviously hold no bearing on your dosing if you're using different supplements.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

I have a small red sea kit mg/alk/ca but I don't think it is no where near enough since the first calculation I did said I would use all the bottles just for the first day dose. I tend to have a a bit of a timmet (tim the tool man) syndrome going on. Maybe I should just go and order some kalwasser to start. https://youtu.be/1Jz3Z5h1S_4
This is my tank I have to give you a better idea.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

What do you use as a container?I can't find anything bigger than a gallon size or is that ok?

 

[MondoBongo]

well even if you do go kalk, you will still need to dose something to get your levels in to their target range. kalk will help keep your levels stable, but it can't be used to raise them.

usually supplements for things like this have some advanced calculations you can use on them. usually something like "to raise your XXX level by YYY dose ZZZ"

sometimes the YYY value there (total increase from dose) is safe to do in one day, sometimes it is not. so you may need to break up the doses over a few days to limit the jump at one time.

cal and mg are usually a lot more forgiving with how much you can add at once versus alkalinity supplements. alk supplements will also often tend to raise pH, so you have to be careful how much you're adding. i've dosed up to 1000ml of my mg supplement at once, i wouldn't dream of dosing near that much of the soda ash.

 

[MondoBongo]

for my kalk container i used a 5 gallon fish tank. it was the largest container i could fit in my stand at the time.

for my two part reservoirs, i actually use two large plastic food storage containers:

http://www.amazon.com/Lustroware-B-...1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

again, largest i could find that would fit in my stand, but i realized after that 3.3 gallons of cal or alk supplement is a heck of a lot when you're talking about two part. i could have easily gotten gallon sized containers and been just fine. obviously with kalk you will be dosing more, so larger containers can be helpful. at my peak the 5 gallon reservoir of kalk was lasting me about 7 days.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

Thanks

 

[moatdaddy]

I use IO, but i know it is low on calcium and Mag. I would do reef but it mixes at 13 alk. I buy BRS 2 part bulk, and have the jugs of calcium, alk, and mag. EVERY day i test Alkalinity. I use a hanna alkalinity checker and love it. I test calcium and mag the day after a water change and the week between changes. My calcium jug goes down much quicker than my alkalinity. If i added kalk right now then i would be over doing the Alkalinity. Im just not burning that much at the moment.

My point of that mess is, i test and adjust each 3 seperately. If you do kalk your doing a combo and lose some control of balance imo. plenty of veterans do it in a stable aquarium no problem though and swear by it.

 

[Lilbitreefer]

If my alkalinity is already high should I just maybe be doing two part with Ca until the alkalinity come down to a treatable rang?