Hey all! Another new guy on RC. This site is great. I've been a member here for a few years now, but never really introduced myself. I started up a 55g long SW tank w/ a 10g sump, and hang on back refugium for chaeto. It's been up and running nearly 2 years now with some MAJOR ups and down and learning experiences. I think after 2 years I may finally have a pretty good understanding of the water chemistry, after some recent muff ups.
A busy fall semester at school got my tank a little neglected....not really any water changes, and was dosing a little iodine about once a week and some trace elements along with the normal calcium, magnesium....but somehow I didn't realize the importance of the alkalinity until the last few weeks. I currently have some green, orange, and brown zoas, some yellow polyps, green clove polyps, green maze brain coral, a couple miscellaneous mushrooms. AS for fish, I have 2 yellow tail damsels, 1 blackbar chromis, 1 yellow watchman goby/tiger pistol shrimp, and a sally lightfoot crab.
As you can imagine without dosing any alk, and dozing some iodine and other harmful things in bad amounts/hardly testing ever, I ran into a few problems. I lost a coral banded shrimp, and the zoas were receding especially bad. I think my ALK was at a dismal number around 2 or a tad lower even with too much iodine. I'm due for an ALK test later today, but the level is probably around 2.8-3.0 right now, so it's getting better, and i've done about 4 20% water changes over the last couple weeks.
I will have to post pictures and start a thread, as this is probably a good learning experience which can help other newbies learn to test often, keep good records of your tests, and to research the importance and thoughts from other reefers on water parameter items and dosing procedures.
I'm about to graduate with an accounting degree....funny how I'm in the field which focuses on budgets and such, yet this hobby has no end to the spending, haha. Absolutely love this hobby and can't wait to finish the tank recovery and get everything consistent with the tank.
I've definitely enjoyed everything this forum has to offer!