What to add to bring back color?

[Mikey122687]

So your tds is reading 30-40?

Yea, sometimes i get 32 and sometimes like 40

Also, this would be a stupid question but how do i take a picture without having everything so blue? If i turn off my lights and take a picture of it, you won't see anything. And if i turn on the lights and take a picture, the whole picture is blue.

 

[Allmost]

Yea, sometimes i get 32 and sometimes like 40

Also, this would be a stupid question but how do i take a picture without having everything so blue? If i turn off my lights and take a picture of it, you won't see anything. And if i turn on the lights and take a picture, the whole picture is blue.

that's really high and source of your problem !!!

TDS of 32 means, there is no3, po4, Silica, Iron, Cupper and .... in the source water !!!

get a RO/DI unit and lower it to zero and u will see GREAT results.

just so you get a feel of it. when my DI gets old, my TDS goes up to about 8 PPM, that's mostly ammonia and si ! the SI makes most of my white corals (not bleached, but actual white) look yellow and ....
next element is Iron, Iron gives a tint of green to everything !

 

[thebanker]

Allmost, I've been following your thread in reef chemistry. These are some pretty cool findings with the Si/yellow and Fe/green relationships.

Is Iodine/blue another one?

Mikey122687 - Look in the photography forum. You may need to adjust your camera's white balance, which is hard to do with most point and shoot cameras. Since I don't have a pro SLR camera, I turn off my actinic lights to take pictures.

 

[Allmost]

Allmost, I've been following your thread in reef chemistry. These are some pretty cool findings with the Si/yellow and Fe/green relationships.

Is Iodine/blue another one?

Mikey122687 - Look in the photography forum. You may need to adjust your camera's white balance, which is hard to do with most point and shoot cameras. Since I don't have a pro SLR camera, I turn off my actinic lights to take pictures.

well Iron and greens are already known. too much Iron will lead MAJOR algea outbreak, so I never dose it.

pottasium-Iodine-floride does wonders to blues and purples, I dose at night and when the light come on in the morning I see a big difference. ( I dose it once a week at most, mostly when I miss a water change). Overdosing this can turn yellows to green, reds to green too ! so I guess I have a bit too much Iodine !

SI, I have no Idea yet ! but gonna pick up a test after work to see the amount of SI in my tank right now. I'm also reading Randy's article on SI, to find more useful info.

and of course K+ on brightness of colors.

this change has made me want to try different elements now just to see their effects lol there are 70 of them

 

[smokenax]

how much k+ do you dose weekly? ive been holding back because i dont know the value and i have not gotten around to buy a test kit for it.

well Iron and greens are already known. too much Iron will lead MAJOR algea outbreak, so I never dose it.

pottasium-Iodine-floride does wonders to blues and purples, I dose at night and when the light come on in the morning I see a big difference. ( I dose it once a week at most, mostly when I miss a water change). Overdosing this can turn yellows to green, reds to green too ! so I guess I have a bit too much Iodine !

SI, I have no Idea yet ! but gonna pick up a test after work to see the amount of SI in my tank right now. I'm also reading Randy's article on SI, to find more useful info.

and of course K+ on brightness of colors.

this change has made me want to try different elements now just to see their effects lol there are 70 of them

 

[Allmost]

how much k+ do you dose weekly? ive been holding back because i dont know the value and i have not gotten around to buy a test kit for it.

I test using KZ test kit, and add, usually about 1 ml of K concentrate from Zeo/week. not much

do you run any Zeoliths ? many believe that the K+ is removed mostly by the Zeoliths and skimming, and most none Zeo tanks dont need it.

last note, KZ k+ test is not accurate lol fauna marine I havent tried but they say Elos has a new test kit too, I wont add any without testing as it cam become toxic.

 

[Mikey122687]

Damn, i didn't know 30-40 TDS make that huge of a diff. I thought i could get by with it but i guess not! I guess now i have to go to my friend every week for RO/DI. He got the spectrapure 90GPD RO/DI which has 0 TDS :lol2: Gonna bum some water from him every week now :thumbsup:

Also i've been using Potassium weekly, with reef vital DNA by marc wise, should i keep doing it or stop it?

 

[sreefs]

You should stop adding every thing but cal. alk. & mag. to keep your levels very stable. Also start using 0 TDS rodi for top off and making saltwater. Your tank will improve in a few months.

 

[Allmost]

Damn, i didn't know 30-40 TDS make that huge of a diff. I thought i could get by with it but i guess not! I guess now i have to go to my friend every week for RO/DI. He got the spectrapure 90GPD RO/DI which has 0 TDS :lol2: Gonna bum some water from him every week now :thumbsup:

Also i've been using Potassium weekly, with reef vital DNA by marc wise, should i keep doing it or stop it?

excessive K+ is toxic. just dose what u test for, kh, ca and mg. and use TDS 0 water, u will see HUGE difference.

 

[Mikey122687]

http://www.aquacave.com/vertex-puratek-100-gpdbr-rodi-unit-2531.html

How about that unit? I don't think i need 100GPD since i do 15G. Is there a lower GPD one (which are good) that i should be looking at?

Also i only do K+ once a week and only a little bit, along with Iodide too

 

[jedheuer]

Can anybody post a link to randys article on SI. I can't find it.
thanks.

 

[Allmost]

http://www.aquacave.com/vertex-puratek-100-gpdbr-rodi-unit-2531.html

How about that unit? I don't think i need 100GPD since i do 15G. Is there a lower GPD one (which are good) that i should be looking at?

Also i only do K+ once a week and only a little bit, along with Iodide too

the RO/DI system is perfect, I have the same :thumbsup:

why are you dosing Iodine and K+ ? you really have to stop dosing things you do not need, as BOTH Iodine and K+ are TOXIC at higher levels, do not dose them without testing ! there is no good that can come from it. only bad

 

[Allmost]

Can anybody post a link to randys article on SI. I can't find it.
thanks.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

 

[sreefs]

When you buy a RO DI make sure it is a 98% rejection on the ro, most 100 gpd are only 90% rejection. Do you know what your water pressure is? Good chance you don't need a booster pump. Check with the Filter Guys, you can get all you need with this, OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI its $199

 

[wickedfish]

So I ordered my elos potassium test kit. Lets say this test consistently tells me my corals are consuming potassium, what do I dose? What product, what type of potassium? I already have NSW readings on my iodide and iodate according to my salifert test. So the Pottasium iodate or iodide is out.

 

[CleveYank]

You should stop adding every thing but cal. alk. & mag. to keep your levels very stable. Also start using 0 TDS rodi for top off and making saltwater. Your tank will improve in a few months.

Sounds about right to me.

--------------------------------

Get your phosphates down, your nitrates in the 5ppm range and keep it there. And your Mg, Ca and Alk numbers, pick a number you like for each in the recommended ranges and keep it there all the time. In 2 to 5 months things will color up on their own.

This toss in this and dose that leads to more testing and lots of extra time.

I find that just keeping the above 5 concerns and 5 to 10% weekly water changes and RO/DI water quality output are task enough and will get things colorful again.

If you maintain all of the above in rock steady precision and you are doing your water changes things will color up on their own.

I did some major changes in my system and the colors paid the price. Growth didn't skip a beat. And in keeping with the K.I.S.S. principle, I'm seeing colors rebounding in only a few weeks. And I didn't go on a dosing jag to get them there. To eaches own, but the dosing thing just leads to more work and more tail chasing in my opinion. And you can end up in a toxic overdosed state really fast if you forget to test or are adding something that is hard to test.

 

[phenom5]

You should stop adding every thing but cal. alk. & mag. to keep your levels very stable. Also start using 0 TDS rodi for top off and making saltwater. Your tank will improve in a few months.

Got to agree here with sreefs. I would focus on the basics first here, rather than chasing a bunch of parameters that may help, or may make things worse.

Most hobby grade PO4 kits can't test down to the levels we'd like, so that 0 for your phosphate may not be accurate. And API NO3 kits work well enough until you get down to low levels. Your source water should be 0 TDS, 30-40 is too high.

I would probably hold off on the the Kent Superbuffer, and slowly bring your alk down some. I'd say you're better off dosing some 2-part as needed. Focus on getting your alk stable, Mg could stand to be bumped up a bit, but I don't think this is a mojor area of concern.

Once you get all that in check, then you can worry about potassium or iron or iodine if you feel the need.

Just my two cents.

When you buy a RO DI make sure it is a 98% rejection on the ro, most 100 gpd are only 90% rejection. Do you know what your water pressure is? Good chance you don't need a booster pump. Check with the Filter Guys, you can get all you need with this, OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI its $199

Also agree with going for a 75gpd membrane because of the better rejection rate.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

the hannah phosphate test kits are really good, and not too expensive considering how accurate it is.

 

[mike810]

Just that one, i got a 48" tek light with 4 ati blue plus, 1 fiji purple, and 1 ati aquablue special.

I have about 3000GPH circulation in my tank, which is a 80 gallon tank.

I use brightwell amino acid for trace element and i have 0 phosphate (i use DI water and dosing vodka + MB7)

your alk should not be at 12 when dosing vodka. it should be at 7-8 max