Parameters

[ccoakley]

Good morning everyone. I have a 90gallon and most everything in my tank is doing great with the exception of my anemones and some coral. Some of my parameters are either low or high while others are on point. My problem is I cannot get my ph any higher unless I use a buffer however it drops back down after an hour or so. I had a nitrate spike and they are falling since I am dosing. Additionally any macroalgae I put in the refugium disappears after about a week; I’m using an Kessle Tuna Flora. Any suggestions to get all the parameters back to norm and keep them normal?

Salinity 1.023
Alkalinity 3.5 meqL
Phosphate 0.25 ppm
Ph 8.1 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Calcium 460 ppm
Kh 179 ppm

 

[Bhuddafunk]

How old is your tank? I prefer to not chase numbers but provide as stable of an environment as possible. The Ph in my display tank is currently 7.8 and fluctuates between 7.7 and 7.9. Your Alkalinity seems really low. I generally keep mine between 8 and 9 dKH; perhaps, double check and dose some ALK. Hope this helps.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What kind of test kits are you using, especially for the phosphate?
Alk looks way too low.

 

[ccoakley]

How old is your tank? I prefer to not chase numbers but provide as stable of an environment as possible. The Ph in my display tank is currently 7.8 and fluctuates between 7.7 and 7.9. Your Alkalinity seems really low. I generally keep mine between 8 and 9 dKH; perhaps, double check and dose some ALK. Hope this helps.

I forgot to mention the age; the tank is a little over a year old. Should I only dose to get the Alk up or should I be doing something different with the tank?

 

[ccoakley]

What kind of test kits are you using, especially for the phosphate?
Alk looks way too low.

Should I only dose for the Alk or is there something I should be doing in the tank? I use a probe and a seachem kit for the ph as well as seachem for the Alk and API for everything else.

 

[Dipi]

I forgot to mention the age; the tank is a little over a year old. Should I only dose to get the Alk up or should I be doing something different with the tank?

Is your Alk 3.5 meq/l or 3.5 dKH? If what you originally posted is the correct one, then it is not low at all, since it converts to ~9,8 dKH

 

[ccoakley]

Is your Alk 3.5 meq/l or 3.5 dKH? If what you originally posted is the correct one, then it is not low at all, since it converts to ~9,8 dKH

Alk is meq/L

Someone had told me to keep my Alk around 4.1 meq/L

 

[Dipi]

Alright, then your Alk is fine! Usually, in the forum people uses dKH as mesure for Alk. It can confuses people a little when using meq/L, hence the comments to increase your alk

 

[ccoakley]

Alright, the your Alk is fine! Usually, in the forum people uses dKH as mesure for Alk. It can confuses people a little when using meq/L, hence the comments to increase your alk

Gotcha. I understand it’s in acceptable range however, I’ve been told 4.1 is where it should be. Thoughts?

 

[Dipi]

Gotcha. I understand it’s in acceptable range however, I’ve been told 4.1 is where it should be. Thoughts?

I'm a noob myself so i'm not the best person to give tou advice. From what I read, this value is ok, but on the higher end. I would mantain the 3.5 meq/L you have now. But again, I'm very new to the hobby

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alk is meq/L

Someone had told me to keep my Alk around 4.1 meq/L

I recommend 2.5 - 4 meq/L (7-11 dKH). Yours is fine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Alright, the your Alk is fine! Usually, in the forum people uses dKH as mesure for Alk. It can confuses people a little when using meq/L, hence the comments to increase your alk

A fact that I list among my failures: lol

Summary of my worst failures

Everyone has issues with their reefing efforts that they consider significant failures, and these are the ones that I consider worse than the usual loss of an organism... 1. For many years, I tried to steer the reefing community away from the utterly ridiculous unit of measure dKH for...

www.reef2reef.com

1. For many years, I tried to steer the reefing community away from the utterly ridiculous unit of measure dKH for alkalinity. No scientist uses dKH. Almost no reefers can even tell you what it means. It's just a black box number to nearly everyone. But the continued lack of change by most of the hobby kit manufacturers to more reasonable units of measure (e.g., meq/L) defeated me, and I've largely given up.

 

[ccoakley]

I recommend 2.5 - 4 meq/L (7-11 dKH). Yours is fine.

Good deal. Any thoughts on the phosphate level or any ideas on why my nems and some coral aren’t happy as well as my macoralgae never staying around?

 

[X-37B]

Stability = success!
Get a plan for success, by keeping all parameters in range.

What is the range you have established for all your parameters?

How are you controling them to keep them in range? This is your plan.

What lights are you running?

A pic would help.

 

[fish farmer]

Specific Gravity is 1.023?

 

[ccoakley]

Specific Gravity is 1.023?

Yeah. Usually I keep it at 1.025; I was sick and missed a top off so it dropped a little.

 

[fish farmer]

Yeah. Usually I keep it at 1.025; I was sick and missed a top off so it dropped a little.

Were all your corals doing fine before the drop?

 

[ccoakley]

Get a plan for success, by keeping all parameters in range.

What is the range you have established for all your parameters?

How are you controling them to keep them in range? This is your plan.

What lights are you running?

A pic would help.

My plan is to keep them all in range, problem is I can’t keep some steady and having trouble figuring out why. My ranges are;

Ph 8.1-8.5 ppm target 8.3 actual 8.1
Phosphate 0.00-0.03 ppm target 0.02 actual 0.25
Nitrate 0.00-0.30 ppm target 0.15 actual 20
Alkalinity 3.93-4.29 meq/L target 4.11 actual 3.5
Calcium 435-465 ppm target 450 actual 460
Salinity 1.020-1.0256 SG target 1.025 actual 1.022

I do keep confusing myself on the nitrate ideal parameters. Fro what I read on Red Sea it says ideal is less than or equal to 0.3mg/l. My test is in ppm. I read mg/l to ppm is 1:1. According to my API test kit 20ppm isn’t terrible, but obviously needs to be lowered. Is ppm and mg/l not 1:1?

 

[ccoakley]

Were all your corals doing fine before the drop?

Most were, some died and some seem fine, but don’t seem to be growing. My leather though is now growing like crazy. All my anemones became very unhappy with some dying and some shrinking an incredible amount. A couple seem to have leveled off, but not getting back to their large size. Also, my long tentacle was stationary before the drop and now is moving constantly in addition to its shrink in size.

 

[tzabor10]

I have abandoned anemones in my display tank entirely. They live in my 40 breeder that used to be an observation QT. Running carbon might help to eliminate any sort of chemical warfare released by corals or anemone. Anemones don’t like to be touched. Is a snail, crab, conch, or urchin around their tentacles? What do you feed the anemone?
If you want the high pH (don’t chase numbers) fresh air or a recirculating CO2 scrubber can help. But this is an expensive rabbit hole without stellar results.