Water changes and calcium levels..

[Kissfan79]

Wow....big increase in dosage from the Kent Turbo calcium to the Part A supplement from C-Balance. 8 tsp vs 76 tsp. My question would be how much to add per day (check the intructions on the turbo calcium?) and how long would it take to get my calcium from 260 to around 420 or so? Thanks for the info.

Jim

 

[Billybeau1]

Jim, I'm assuming you dont have any corals since you keep your tank at 1.022 (as I do). That said you really dont need to keep your calcium at 420. There is just no need. I would target 360-380 or so.

The calculator will thell you how much to dose after you plug your numbers in and how fast you can raise it.

 

[Kissfan79]

Currently....no I don't have any corals. I want to add some corals however. That is why I want to get my calcium up. What would be the preferred salinity for coral keeping?

Jim

 

[Billybeau1]

1.0264 (or as close as you can get it).

If you want corals I would target 420-450 cal, 8-10 dkh alk and 1300 mag.

 

[Kissfan79]

Hey...
I've just done some more testing on my water and have come up with some interesting results. The results are as follows:
Ammonia .25ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
Nitrite 0
PH 8.3 (or that is my interpretation of the color chart comparison. That is also what Tasha got at my lfs the other day)
Salinity 1.019-1.020 (although Tasha got 1.022 using a refractor the other day)
Alkalinity 5.25 meq/l (used an Instant Ocean test kit)
Calcium 260-280ppm

I tested the water that I used for may last water change that I got from my lfs pre-mixed (I had some left for topping off) and I came up with the calcium at 260ppm and the alkalinity was 2.75 meq/l. Any ideas about why my alkalinity is so high and I have some elevated readings on my nitrates and ammonia? My last water change was about a week and a half ago and I changed about 4 gallons in my 24 gallon tank. The only inhabitants are my blue regal tang and my clown (I recently added the clown after my last clown hopped the back wall and got sucked into the pump. There was a few day period where I just had my tang in there). I also have 5 astrea snails, a few hermit crabs, and a few nassarius snails. Could the hermit crabs killed a nassarius snail or 2 and this is why I have those readings with my water? Any thoughts would be appreciated once again.

Jim

 

[jdieck]

Two things, I know everyone has been concentrating on the Alk issue but I think you got to find out were that Ammonia is comming from. If your tank has been setup since mid June your Ammonia shall be absolutely undetectable.

Now on the Alkalinity, have you added any Alkalinity supplements?

On the Calcium, TurboCalcium is the highest concentrated Calcium supplement you will fing (Pure Calcium Chlride Anhydrous) that is why you need a lot less than any liquid additive.
Go slow to give some of the Alkalinity a chance to precipitate and add 50 to 75 ppm per day until you reach a target of 380 to 390 if you want to use that salinity of 1.022

Finally check your Magnesium and if necessary boost it to 1300 ppm.

Check

 

[Kissfan79]

I had been using the C-Balance 2 part formula but have since backed off on the part B. I have had the hardest time getting my calcium to budget over 300ppm. I will try the Turbo Calcium. I too would like to know where the ammonia is comming from. Is it possible that it is comming from the live rock and that it is not truly finished cycling even though the tank is 3 months old? The only other thing I can think of is possible over feeding of my fish but I only feed them once per day. Thanks for the info.

 

[Billybeau1]

What is the capacity of your biological filtration. In other words, How many lbs live rock, what tank volume ?

This is what converts your ammonia to trites and to trates ?

Do you have any other means of bf ? (bio-balls, canister ?)

 

[jdieck]

Yes Billy might be in the right track. If I recall well the aquapod has a drip bioball based filtration and a sponge without skimmer.
I think you may be feeding too much or need a bit more of more porous live rock. When cleaning the sponge do it with tank water to prevent killing the bacteria in it.

Also if you are having difficulty with the Calcium check your Magnesium level, also note that if using only part A of C-Balance you will need about 100 ml of it (About 20 fullcaps) of it to rise your Calcium by 50 ppm.

 

[Kissfan79]

My tank is a 24 gallon (about 19-20 gallons of actual water volume) and I have 19 pounds of live rock in it. In the back chambers I have the blue filter sponge, a media bag with carbon, and a poly filter. It did come with black bio-balls but I have since pulled them out. Should I replace them or go without them? When I clean my sponge, I have done it with tap water and then rinsed with filtered water. Should I rinse with actual tank water or would some of the extra salt water I keep on hand for topping off be ok? Current-USA does make a small skimmer for this tank. It is small...about 6" tall by 2.5" in diameter. Do you think that would help or be a waste of money being as it is so small? Thanks for the help guys. When I get home tonight I will post a picture so you can see what it looks like.

Jim

 

[jdieck]

You can use some of the old water from you water change to rinse the sponge. The idea is that you remove the detritus without killing the bacteria in it. Bio balls will help you process the Ammonia by increasing the bacterial population but later on may turn into a Nitrate factory so it is a double edged sword.
Is there enough room were the bioballs were to fill it in with small pieces of live rock?

 

[Kissfan79]

There is indeed room to put some small live rock pieces or chunks in where the bioballs were. My concern would be that wouldn't I have to cure it first before adding it to my tank? Also...what do you think about the small nano-skimmer idea?

Thanks,

Jim

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8253977#post8253977 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kissfan79
There is indeed room to put some small live rock pieces or chunks in where the bioballs were. My concern would be that wouldn't I have to cure it first before adding it to my tank? Also...what do you think about the small nano-skimmer idea?

Thanks,

Jim

I have never seen a small one efficient enough so I really do not know. Regarding the rock you can put small pieces eveery two weeks until full so that way you will do it over a long period of time, the other way is to get some fully cured already.

 

[Kissfan79]

I just had my water tested again and I did a water change. My magnesium tested at 1100 ppm and my alkalinity is down to 4.75 meq/l. I will do smaller water changes more frequently to get my alkalinity down a bit and see if my nitrates won't come down a bit more as well.

Jim

 

[Kissfan79]

It took a day or two...but here is a picture of my tank. I will take another of the tank as a whole but this shows my 2 fish, the live rock, and you can make out the new frag I just put in on the left hand side. It is the orange zoanthid. The lights on my Aquapod should be sufficient shouldn't they?

Jim

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8270024#post8270024 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kissfan79
It took a day or two...but here is a picture of my tank. I will take another of the tank as a whole but this shows my 2 fish, the live rock, and you can make out the new frag I just put in on the left hand side. It is the orange zoanthid. The lights on my Aquapod should be sufficient shouldn't they?

Jim

Jim:

Some comments / questions:
a) I would advice to be patient and do not add any more critters or corals until the parameters are stable.

b) Water changes will not help you much with the Magnesium unless you use a high Magnesium salt. Get some Magnesium additive and increase it to 1300 ppm. You can use Kent Tech-M

c) What is the status of the Ammonia level?

d) What is the wattage of the lighting in the Aquapod?

e) What is the status of the Calcium level?

f) I will also advise to continue testing Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Ammonia and Nitrites to really have a feel for the behaviour of the parameters to your adjustments.

 

[Kissfan79]

I wasn't avidly looking to add something to my tank but for $10....I couldn't pass it up. I don't plan on really adding anything else for while. As far my lights go...the Aquapod I have has the 32w dual Actinic and 32w dual daylight setup. I will start a magnesium supplement. My calcium is hovering right around 300 ppm. As stated earlier...my alkalinty is down to 4.75 meq/l. My ammonia appears to be between 0 and .25 ppm. My lfs tested and called it .25 but when I test it and compare colors...the color appears to me as though it is between the shades for 0 and .25. If I take the vial outside and look at it against the white garage door in the sunlight it looks more like 0 to me. I will keep testing on a daily basis until this gets where it needs to be. Thanks again for your help and information. I have gotten a lot of purple coraline algae on my rock which looks beuatiful and I am getting lots of red statring in my rocks...but what about all of that green? Is that a type of coraline algae as well? It appears to be of a hard consistency rather than a soft or slimy type algae.

Jim

 

[jdieck]

It could be coralline but hard to know from a picture. Keep adding Calcium only supplement. Regarding parameters, supplement Magnesium, keep supplementing Calcium only until you reach the 380 to 420 ppm mark and stop all Alkalinity addition for now. Also if you are still adding Purple up stop the addition. It will not do much for your coralline anyhow.