new "canvas"

[mcrist]

How high did your alkalinity spike and what salt did you try?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

alk was 15+dKH when I tested it. I tested as soon as I realized something was wrong. That means alkalinity was probably greater than 15dKH at some point because corals didn't look good.
There have been a lot of problems associated with the use of 'Crystal Seas' saltmix and SPS bleaching in the past (search the RC archives). It might not be the fault of the saltmix but the shock/stress corals experience when switching to CS from another brand.
Whatever the case, I'll be avoiding the use of CS in the future.

 

[jnarowe]

OUCH.

 

[Kent E]

Thanks for sharing Gary. It's a terrible occurrence but perhaps a lesson can be taken out of it for all.

A good standard of practice may be testing salt when you switch to something new or if your really a stickler test before each change.

 

[jnarowe]

I test each batch, even though I buy salt in large quantities that are coded from the same batch run. But my alk problems have always been a product of equipment/user error. If I didn't have a larger than normal water volume, I know I would have wiped my tank out more than once with alkalinity swings.

IMO, you cannot trust that a salt is going to be the same batch-to-batch.

 

[tcmfish]

Do you have a pair of leopard wrasses or are they two different species. I'm not too familiar with what the males look like.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12526349#post12526349 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kent E
Thanks for sharing Gary. It's a terrible occurrence but perhaps a lesson can be taken out of it for all.

A good standard of practice may be testing salt when you switch to something new or if your really a stickler test before each change.

I agree that testing salt is good practice.
Ironically, it's this very practice that led me to ignore all the warnings and give CS another chance.
CS is bagged in three 50 gallon bags inside each 150 gallon bucket (helping to ensure uniformity of product) and it tests out ideally. I'm not accusing CS of being a "bad" saltmix but there are many recorded problems associated with this saltmix (both bioassay and regular) when switching to it from other brands.
I don't want to get carried away with a saltmix discussion in this thread- anyone considering a switch to CS should search the RC archives for more on this subject.

tcmfish- I currently have two Leopards in my reef. The fish above the Linckia in the previous pic is Macropharyngodon bipartis

the fish currently seen in my avatar (and pictured below) is a male M. meleagris

 

[mcrist]

What do you test for when testing the salt? I have never tested just the salt.

 

[OrionN]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12529068#post12529068 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcrist
What do you test for when testing the salt? I have never tested just the salt.

The usual that we tested for. Ca, Alkalinity, pH, Mg.
Most important IMO is test for Alkalinity. This is mainly what cause tank to crash. Some of the patch seem to have very high Alkalinity, which is Gary problem with this new salt patch.

 

[mcrist]

That sure turns into a lot of testing. I purchase my salt in 50 gallon buckets/bags to make water changes easier so I would have to test weekly. Since water changes are such a small percentage of the total water volume can it really change your water parameters that much? I sure hope not since I don’t want to be testing weekly.

 

[Kent E]

Let's start a salt thread, don't want to derail Gary's thread too far.




Gary, is the emp still giving an occasional chew on the anemone?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12529153#post12529153 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kent E
Let's start a salt thread, don't want to derail Gary's thread too far. Gary, is the emp still giving an occasional chew on the anemone?

I haven't seen the Emperor Angelfish bite the anemone in the past few weeks.
The salt issue should be addressed elsewhere in a dedicated thread (and it already has been- do a search of the archives).
Many reef aquariums don't contain the sensitive creatures that I have in mine and the use of CS might not be an issue for them. For example: I've personally seen successful reef aquariums being maintained with CS saltmix, but they don't contain Acropora, gigantea carpet anemones etc.

 

[mcrist]

[No message]

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12532702#post12532702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
The salt issue should be addressed elsewhere in a dedicated thread (and it already has been- do a search of the archives).

here it is for anyone interested:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168736&highlight=crystal

I'd like to point out (again) that CS might work just fine for some people. It all depends on what animals that you're keeping and your maintenance routine.

this quote (from RC member "bookfish") is excellent and sums up my thoughts exactly:
"Given the complexity of chemical/physiological reaction and adaptations in coral, many of which are not understood,and...
given the complexity of making asw mixes (are there any that agree on the "right" level of "trace elements", let alone which are important?) I am not surprised that even small water changes with a different salt mix would produce dramatic results."

 

[maxxII]

I recently had an Alk spike which caused my Platygyra (maze brain coral) to slough off several inches of tissue. Its since stabilized, but it now looks like its got mange....sigh.

Re: CS salts and salt mixes in general...this is based solely on my experiance, and my experiance only. I have only used Instant Ocean salt mix....because its readily available and waaaayyy back in the mid 80's when I got into this hobby, it was the only one I could find. IME, IO does vary from batch to batch, but nothing that cant be corrected.

I have two 55 gallon plastic barrels that I use for mixing water. I get the water to the desired salinity, and test it against my tank. I then adjust the ASW to match my tank's parameters. I try to make up a big enough batch of water at one time that I have enough for a few water changes...but I dont have a system nearly as large as yours, (I'm at about 170 gallons total volume). I would assume that you could find a container large enough to mix a suitably large volume of water and do the same thing...thereby saving you the trouble of testing water every week.

Now for a complete assumption on my part, based on my opinion only.....following the great CS/Bio Assay/Dr Ron-say's everyone-should-switch-their-salt-mix-to-this-one debacle a few years ago....I've been under the impression thats its really not a good idea to switch salt brands suddenly, and mixing salt brands isnt really a good idea either....but again, that is supposition on my part, based on absolutely no factual basis.

Beautiful leopards BTW Gary....

Nick

 

[jnarowe]

a lot of advanced reef keepers mix salts. And I believe that switching salts is good to maint. elements that we cannot test for. I guess that amounts to a different philosophy, but one caveat is that when I do a water change, it is a fairly small percentage of total water volume.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

FWIW I've mixed salt brands and I've switched up salts in the past all with good (or no negative) results. However, it's the first time that my reef aquarium is running with 100% CS. (300 gallons of CS used to do water changes during March/April 2008)
I change out 50 gallons during one water change and I often (but not always) take two or three days to complete one 50 gallon water change.

 

[jnarowe]

thanks for the additional info.

 

[1fishkeeper]

WOW thats about all I can say. I just have spent the last couple of hours reading all this thread. That is a great looking tank that you have and even more that is some great info that has been shared with everyone here.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

thank you!

thank you!

for future reference I'm including a link to this CS thread here and now:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168736&perpage=25&pagenumber=1