Theme for the next meeting

[northbay-reefer]

Beside the corals swap and raffles

I was thinking about for the next meeting everyone should bring:

Water sample from your tank,
refractometer or hydrometer (I am hoping some one can bring some reference liquid so we can adjust them if needed)
Alk, cal, mag, phosphate, nitrate, etc test kits

I would like to turn this meeting into a workshop to talk about water testing and comparing different methods and how to bring your water parameter to the right level and how to maintain your tank's parameter.

Please add your ideas

 

[Reef Bass]

Bring it on Tom!

Anyone who attended the BAR swap should have received a bottle of refractometer calibration fluid in their yellow bag. I already calibrated mine. It was off by 0.001. Now it's right on.

I could bring some copies of Randy's dosing solution recipes for people. And we could raffle off a d.i.y. solution kit (ingredients for alk, ca and mag dosing solutions).

 

[Grant W]

That sounds good Tom. I am still having a tough time keeping my alk above 7.

 

[Reef Bass]

Dose more! When your corals are growing as fast as yours are, you will be frequently adjusting your dosing quantities upwards.

 

[northbay-reefer]

That sounds great Ken, I was too busy at the swap so I didn't take a reference bottle, I would love to try it on my refractometer if you can bring it.

Grant, When you can't keep up your alk then you should be very happy because your sps is growing fast in turbo mode you have hit the sweet spot my friend ... keep it up.

I think the three most important thing in reef keeping are flow, lighting and parameters. the first two we can buy but the third we have to spent a lot of time to dial in to find that sweet spot.

 

[Grant W]

Thanks Tom, My biggest prob is I havn't taken the time to figure out a location for dosing pumps and gallon jugs yet plus to be honest I'm too lazy to do all the testing it will take to dial in an automated dosing setup. btw my refractometer was off by 0.002

 

[northbay-reefer]

I really wished more of our members come in and participate in the discussion and write something instead of just read and move on.

 

[shaneh]

I’ll all for this meeting...i find the biggest PITA the mag test it takes like 15 min of wait time plus the time to do all the drops and titrate......I only do it once every 2 months at most. I got so much going on it falls on the priority list. It's the sealife test or some brand like that...white plastic box.

My tank is finally settling in, i have three plates on the Idaho grape I got from Ken, thanks bud!

 

[northbay-reefer]

I hate the Mag test too so I don't do it very often, but the alk test I do one every week at least. This meeting also give you the oportunity to compare test kits and see how your kits measure up

 

[crispyreef]

I like this idea because I've been trying other products like Epson salts and baking soda for mag and alc. At first I was nervous with Epson because it takes more than a pound to raise mag 100ppm in my tank. That seemed like an awful lot.

 

[Reef Bass]

My salifert mag test takes like 2 minutes.

Yeah, those Epson salts (mag sulfate) are heavy. Mag supplement would ideally be a blend of mag sulfate and mag chloride. Mag chloride is also better at battling bryopsis.

 

[kokaneejr]

O.K.O.K. I need to be better at testing. BTW I will be doing a lot of testing this week as my anenome tried to commit suicide again yesterday. Last year he did it and now I have two. This time the biggest one was in the powerhead when I got home from work!! He is still caught in the screen of the powerhead as I took it off and put it on the bottom to see if he gets unwound. I may get another two out of this again or maybe it will die this time as it seems it's foot got sliced, we will see.
So on my day off this morning I have done a water change cleaned the tank and tried to untangle an anenome ..and gone to Petsmart and traded my heater in as I have three stealths. I have to do one at a time as it has been cold and I don't want to leave it cold for to long. 2 heaters per setup.They were very good about it just checked the list and gave me what it was worth

 

[Grant W]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one that isn't thrilled about testing. I was a bit too obsessive with the testing when I first started reefing and burned out on the whole process. Thats my excuse and I'm sticking too it.............. But I'll try harder lol

 

[Reef Bass]

Slackers...

Craig, speaking of "things in powerheads", my algae blenny went inside my vortech while I had it off during some mounting of frags. When I turned it back on, I didn't know he was in there. Needless to say he exited it very quickly. I'm amazed he's not destroyed.

Grant, I found that in the not very long run, the ease, accuracy and stability of automated dosing vastly outweigh the hassle of initial setup.

 

[thysrof]

Grant,

i thought you we're going setup the dosing under the kitchen table and punch thru the wall.

now you have a reason!:fun2:

 

[Reef Bass]

I have a sledge I'd be happy to put through your wall for you if that would help.

 

[Grant W]

You guys are too funny.... Ken you are right as usual. I guess I've been dosing by hand for so long its hard to change but I am going to have to at some point. Hey I know, I can use this as a way to slow down the growth of all of my corals, My coraline algae has already slowed down so I have less scraping to do. hmmm, I may be on to something here :dance:

 

[GiantBen]

When is this meeting going to take place? I have a few weekends booked by family outtings this month.

I have some API test kits I can bring. They are pretty old, so it would be good to validate them against some newer ones before trusting them. They are just the standard things: ates, ites, amm, ca, ph, alk

I have to admit that I never test anything but temp and salinity these days. I have some two part I could dose, but never do. Partly because of not wanting to deal with the testing.

For those of us who don't dose (am I the only one), it might be interesting to bring a sample from right before and right after a WC.


I'd love to get my refractometer calibrated. Been a very long time since I did this with fluid.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Ben, please bring those API test kits so we can show you what you are missing

 

[GiantBen]

Not a fan of API? I'll bring them. If it is on a day I am unavailable, I can arrange to pass them to you in advance, if you are interested in doing the comparison without me being there.