Acer's build thread ( 3RMAS area)

[acer]

ALK yesterday evening is 7.56. I retested my new water mix (Fritz pro blue box) and ALK was 6.8 at 1.027 salinity and 78 degrees.

 

[kevinl]

I'm surprised with the fritz fresh mix.
your looking stable with alk and no dosing.
Take a break with alk testing for a day or two, I know its hard for you to test daily.
Whats ya doing for nutrient export?
Fix your fresh mix, match your tanks salinity and you could raise the alk some.
What test kit do you test alk with?

 

[acer]

Lol, well after being so careful for several weeks. Today I notice a few MoJo's in the tank so I mixed up a talk paste in a shot glass and got out my hypodermic to inject the little buggers. And proceed to knock over the shot glass dumping about a quarter of it into the tank..... SOB...!!! So now , no way if knowing what my ALK would gave been today. Nutrient export= skimmer (vertex 180) , water change = 15-20 gallons per week, refugium with several kinds of Macro. BSR reactor with GFO. Alk testing is a Hanna Checker.

Edit: PH of tank is now 8.5 - hope I don't loose any fish, etc. Doing water change asap.

 

[kevinl]

you wont loose fish.
This is were your acros (if u had some) would be stressed.
normally u would just let the extra alk be consumed over a day or 2, it's not a extreme jump for what u have in the tank.
You want to relax a little, not try so hard to fix these numbers every day.
Talked with the boss today and he brought up a good point about your new mix at 6.8,
maybe you had some sort of precipitation when you mixed, u should check into that one also.
Keep chugging along, it will all come together for you and be that much easier for you.

Edit: sorry, just assumed 8.5 was alk reading, ph different story.
a quarter of a shot glass raised it that much?
what is your normal ph at?

 

[acer]

For whatever reason my PH runs 8.25-8.3 normally. It's came back down to it's normal within a few hours. Tank looks fine today.

Just so irritated with myself . Took the whole rock out that had the Mojo's on it. It's sitting outside on the patio in the snow now. Rrrrr.....

 

[acer]

Tested ALK this morning at 9:30 = 7.3. So hopefully will be able to get back on track after the kalkwasser spill.

 

[acer]

Over the last 5 days it looks like I am using less than .1 DKH per day which is less than what the accuracy of the test is. Did not supplement at all this whole week. Current test about 5 minutes ago reads 7.0. Not sure how to proceed. Maybe there is something else wrong as that is a pretty stable tank situation. Doing 5-10 % water changes with new salt water that has 6.8 DKH ALK, with 450 CA, 1350 MG. Will do water change today and add soda ash liquid to new salt water to bring it up to 7.0 DKH before I do the water change. Reef calculator says the 20 gallons of new salt mix which at 6.8 to bring it up to 7.0 requires 2.8 ml of Soda Ash liquid. I will be getting some SPS this evening- so I guess we will see if they thrive or if the same thing happens.

 

[acer]

This morning:

ALK= 7.1 DKH
PO4 = .095 ppm
Nitrate= 2 ppm

Edit: Edit: One more "snaffoo" or "learning moment"- my pinpoint PH probe unit has been reading 8.2 night and 8.35 day for months now. I decided to check it against solutiuons of 10.0 and 7.0 and it was high on the 7.0 and low on the 10.0 by more than I am comfortable with. So I took looked through my drawer of new equipment in and find a new BRS PH probe- never been used. I proceed to go thru the calibration for the new probe as I suspect the old probe ( 2 years old) is no longer working well. And sure enough my real PH is not that good- more like 7.96- 7.99 which is not bad, but certainly not the 8.2-8.35 that I was thinking it was. My Salifert PH kit confirmed the PH is about 8.0. So , I guess probes have a life expentency of less than 2 years for them to be accurate.

According to Mike Paletta's speech last night at the 3RMAS Club meeting (well done Mike). If I remember correctly (he talks fast), Mike suggested target numbers for a colorful mixed reef should be around 8.2-8.4 PH, Po4 =.05 - .077, nitrate about 1 PPM among other parameters ( ALK, CA,Mg) and trace elements. Yes, those are just numbers as each system is different and you should go for consistency, do not chase numbers (yep guilty as charged ..LOL) and do massive corrections all at once.

 

[kevinl]

Ted those numbers are perfect! Can look at P04 and lower a little. (not bad though)
Ph is fine where your at.
You have not done much in past week, the tank is slowly getting into it's "groove thing"
Now you work with those parameters, SLOWLY do your thing & watch the results of your regular maintenance by doing your testing.
Your not using much alk so a water change will be enough to maintain and also help some on P04.
Do not add any thing for Ph, it;s fine where it's at.
Great Job!

 

[acer]

I was thinking the same thing. However - tested my Po4 this evening after a I fed and its really high = .18 PPM. My Alk tested at 7.3 DKH so I think we have the ALK stabilized. Did a 15 gallon water change yesterday so expected my po4 to come down. Hopefully its because I just fed coral and fish ( homemade club food from 2 years ago I think) an hour earlier. So will test tomorrow morning. I think I will be throwing that old food out.

 

[acer]

After unsuccessfully trying a few grocery store "Nori" products I picked up Julian Sprung's Sea Veges at Reef Gallery yesterday. Even my pickiest eater is enjoying it.

 

[acer]

Well, I guess we will find out about Acros and PO4/NO3 levels as I am going to the LEAR swap in 2 days and my PO4 is at .2 and my Nitrates are at 2 according to testing his evening. ALK is 7.70.

 

[kevinl]

Dont worry bout P04 too much, it will come down.
Are you testing after feeding, will be higher after you feed.
You have your gfo running?
Alk is looking good! You have not dosed anything, right? Just WC.

 

[acer]

Kevin, I dosed just 10 ml soda ash on Tuesday evening - that is it. Yes running GFO. Yes , I think the higher reading of Po3 and No4 is somewhat due to the increased food ( especially the older homemade club food), as well as me removing unwanted brown button polyps and a bunch of common green mushrooms by taking out the involved rocks and breaking off portions of the rock with chisel/hammer. I am thinking if the ALK drops to under 7.5 tomorrow evening I will add 10ml soda ash again. So, of this pattern holds - I think every third day dose 10ml soda ash ( assuming testing doesn't change much other than lowering .1-.2 per day), and 15 gallon water change ( adding enough Soda Ash to new water to bring its Alk up to tank levels of 7.5-7.75 ) every 7 days. Calcium= 450 and Mg 1380 are both good. Hopefully, some of the SPS/Acros I will get at LEAR will start growing and I will have to start dosing with the BRS dosers I have in the near future.

 

[kevinl]

Test alk on every fresh batch of saltwater you make up.

 

[BIGGUN]

Where is your Alk going?

 

[BIGGUN]

oh, And what is your calcium at?

 

[acer]

Tonight Alk was 7.3 and Ca was 430 - did the 10 ml soda ash liquid addition.

 

[acer]

Before I lost power yesterday,I made up a batch of new water fur a water change using Fritz pro ,at 1.026 / 76 degrees the ALK was 8.0 on Salifert kit ( thanks Kevin), pH was 8.0. So , was ready to do my usual water change yesterday, but we list power. Have generator running LED lights, main pump, Gfo, and heater - no skimmer or wave pumps. Stupid battery backup failed in 10 minutes on the MP40, my ups failed quickly as well as just keeps even when I have power from outlet going to it. So assume they both need to be replaces or new batteries installed at least.

 

[BIGGUN]

I think I would check it weekly and dose 2 part to keep the alk where you want it. At least until the calcium got ridiculous.