reef tank 2.0
Member
I need some suggestions on what could possibly be happening with my octospawn. I have had him for a good 4 months. In the 4-6 months of having him, He has doubled, if not tripled in size. Needless to say, he was small when I got him. He became fuller, and happier looking.
Over the past month or so, I have watched my calcium levels go from 400, down to 250, down to what is now 50. I have tested the same way for as long as I have had my tank up and running (3 years). I have asked for instructions on how to test correctly over the time. I have read instructions, and I see nothing that I am missing/doing wrong. Over the past 3 weeks, I have replaced the calcium test kit, with a new. No matter which test kit I use, the reading is still the same. I have used the BRS calculator to figure out how much I need to manually add to get it up to the desired level. Although, the calculator says I should add 1860ml of calcium chloride, I have not done that. I added about 60ml twice, within a couple days time. Test the water the next night, still no change. I just did a water change yesterday (Sunday). Tested the water tonight, and my level is still at 50. No matter what I do, it isn't changing.
I am refilling my salt water bin now, and will get that back up to the desired temp/salinity level. Once I do that, I will test the water in the bin to see what reading I get. (I use reef crystals, salinity is at 1.025)
All my corals look fine, except for my octospawn. Within the last day, maybe 2, it looks like the octospawn is deteriorating. I am starting to see his skeleton below the head. It's just all of a sudden. First thought was the calcium level.
Second thought was possibly my peppermint shrimp, or emerald crab. No other corals have been touched. It's just the octo. I had a torch coral, and a frogspawn about 2 years ago, and I lost them both rather quickly. When they withered away, they looked exactly the same was as the octo is now.
Until I can figure out this calcium issue, I'm not sure what to do. I have a fellow reefer coming over in a few days to see if he can test, or possibly see what I am doing wrong. I certainly can't figure it out.
I contacted salifert about the issue, wondering if they heard any customers complaining about a bad test kit. They told me no, and that it was operator error. So I quit that fight and proceeded to retest. same results.
Here is a picture of the octo currently, you can certainly see he isn't happy.
Yet, none of the mean is torn, or looked like it has been eaten. As far as I can tell.
Over the past month or so, I have watched my calcium levels go from 400, down to 250, down to what is now 50. I have tested the same way for as long as I have had my tank up and running (3 years). I have asked for instructions on how to test correctly over the time. I have read instructions, and I see nothing that I am missing/doing wrong. Over the past 3 weeks, I have replaced the calcium test kit, with a new. No matter which test kit I use, the reading is still the same. I have used the BRS calculator to figure out how much I need to manually add to get it up to the desired level. Although, the calculator says I should add 1860ml of calcium chloride, I have not done that. I added about 60ml twice, within a couple days time. Test the water the next night, still no change. I just did a water change yesterday (Sunday). Tested the water tonight, and my level is still at 50. No matter what I do, it isn't changing.
I am refilling my salt water bin now, and will get that back up to the desired temp/salinity level. Once I do that, I will test the water in the bin to see what reading I get. (I use reef crystals, salinity is at 1.025)
All my corals look fine, except for my octospawn. Within the last day, maybe 2, it looks like the octospawn is deteriorating. I am starting to see his skeleton below the head. It's just all of a sudden. First thought was the calcium level.
Second thought was possibly my peppermint shrimp, or emerald crab. No other corals have been touched. It's just the octo. I had a torch coral, and a frogspawn about 2 years ago, and I lost them both rather quickly. When they withered away, they looked exactly the same was as the octo is now.
Until I can figure out this calcium issue, I'm not sure what to do. I have a fellow reefer coming over in a few days to see if he can test, or possibly see what I am doing wrong. I certainly can't figure it out.
I contacted salifert about the issue, wondering if they heard any customers complaining about a bad test kit. They told me no, and that it was operator error. So I quit that fight and proceeded to retest. same results.
Here is a picture of the octo currently, you can certainly see he isn't happy.
Yet, none of the mean is torn, or looked like it has been eaten. As far as I can tell.
