Crab's is about ready to throw in the towel.

[vetteguy53081]

Both days? We will be there Saturday.

I'll be there Saturday for sure and Sunday if we don't cover everything we want to

 

[drawman]

I'm working the R2R booth with Daniel and Rev

Yup! Ill be there all weekend.

I'll be there Saturday as well!

 

[Brew12]

I was hoping to go to this RAP since I grew up less than 20 miles from there but it's too much traveling. Spent all last week in the Bahamas, going to Arkansas for work most of next week and still trying to figure out when work needs me in Switzerland for a week in early November. I need some time at home to mess with the tank so it doesn't do too well. ;Blackeye

 

[foxt]

I'm working the R2R booth with Daniel and Rev

Well, at least you should be able to get one of those fancy R2R towels to "throw in" when the time comes. Ouch!

 

[Cory]

Have you confirmed you alk test is accurate yet? 10 years ago i had discovered salifert to read 7 dkh when it was actually 4dkh! Later on the owner started including little vials to double check... now they dont.

 

[Stigigemla]

Having a shop I have some customers that used the ICP test. And I sell a good Iodine test from Giesemann. I dont know if it is possible to by in the US but it has more clear colors.
All the customers that measured Iodine in the tank had no problems with it but a few that were measuring zero iodine.
The most evident sign of zero iodine is that shrimps have a very hard time to molt.
I have one customer thats measuring zero iodine although he is adding every day (Balling method with original trace elements). No problem. Refugium with chaeto + Caulerpa.
Nowadays I say to my customers that the Iodine level is not so important but You must have some.

I would raise the potassium level. I have had bare patches on corals at 320 mg/l

 

[drawman]

Having a shop I have some customers that used the ICP test. And I sell a good Iodine test from Giesemann. I dont know if it is possible to by in the US but it has more clear colors.
All the customers that measured Iodine in the tank had no problems with it but a few that were measuring zero iodine.
The most evident sign of zero iodine is that shrimps have a very hard time to molt.
I have one customer thats measuring zero iodine although he is adding every day (Balling method with original trace elements). No problem. Refugium with chaeto + Caulerpa.
Nowadays I say to my customers that the Iodine level is not so important but You must have some.

I would raise the potassium level. I have had bare patches on corals at 320 mg/l

From struggles I have seen I would agree with this. It seems to deplete quickly so a measure of zero isn't terrible as long as it is being replenished per all the anecdotal evidence.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Have you confirmed you alk test is accurate yet? 10 years ago i had discovered salifert to read 7 dkh when it was actually 4dkh! Later on the owner started including little vials to double check... now they dont.

Between the Hannah checker and the Salifert checker both giving the same or very close readings, I like to think i'm where I should be

 

[Dugless]

Chemiclean and similar products aren’t always a bandaid solution. There are situations where bad bacteria gets out of control and no matter the WC regimen or husbandry it persists. I recently had such a scenario in which coral were declining fast over a 2mo period and parameters were solid. I dosed a half dose of chemiclean and within 48hrs all issues were resolved. STN stopped on all coral, PE returned and I’m now seeing decent growth. There is a regurgitated response for cyano/bacteria problems in which antibiotics shouldn’t be used, but let’s be honest that reefers still don’t fully understand the circumstances or causes behind these issues just yet. Lots of speculation still. There is a slight risk in the loss of bacterial population, but I had eliminated other possibilities in my situation and deemed it worthwhile. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

I also ditched the DFS salt I tried during that time period. Maybe not correlative, but too many sudden hints of things not looking right made me dump it. Some believe it is rebranded Fritz.

 

[Mical]

I don't think you would want to go this route. It's great stuff but it is harvested directly from the ocean. It's known to come with all sorts of hitchhikers. Even though the rock is reasonably priced it is VERY expensive to have it shipped.

Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock - Price List

They only ship via air freight and you have to pick it up at the airport. I looked into it for my build 2 years ago and the shipping was more than the rock.

Check w/Jason at Premium Aquatics - https://premiumaquatics.com/search?search=live+rock

 

[ccombs]

It would take me a little bit, but I could try. Ive already done over 125 gallons with the new filters and salt mix. Only done about 15 gallons with the non mixing station though.

Maybe go to a different LFS for a new salt mix. Could they have potentially gotten a bad batch of boxes?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Well, things still appear to be deteriorating

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well, things still appear to be deteriorating

Noooooo - don't say that

 

[jda]

I apologize for not reading 19 pages, but have you gone back 100% to EVERYTHING that you were using and doing when your 40b was thriving? I mean everything?

 

[Dolelo96]

Well, things still appear to be deteriorating

Did you tear down your tank?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I agree with this, I run the same and Minneapolis water is bad, I get 2-3 months out of my carbon chloramine blocks and TDS always says no, you need to test the RO water to waste with the LeMotte strips, I do it weekly. When cyano starts to get annoying its usually a sign my blocks are dead. I run two and move the old #2 to the 1 position and add a new #2 to help get more life out of them.

A little bit of chloramines seems to reek havoc on my tank, despite showing 0 TDS.

Northern Virginia uses chloramine.. and tbh i dont use RO.DI. i chabge water right from the tap... I add a cap or two of prime and thats it... I have 50+ coral including 10 acros and 10 other sps.

Chloramine evaporates... and i have 0 issues with it in my water.. hell even my top off water is from the sink and i dont even add prime when i do like 2-3 gallons of top off.

I know everyones tank is diff but yea.. why doesnt it bother my corals ? I really dont tholink chloramines does anything.. specially if you use prime to bind it until it evaporates.



Also crabs if you want rock why get live rock.. go to amazon look up the dead rock they have there.. you can get 50 lbs boxes of boulder sized and smaller sizes for 50-60$. Its much cheaper.

Then just buy a bottle of fritzyme 9 and you can instant cycle your tank.. Thats what i did... 150lbs of rock for 150$ lol...

 

[Crabs McJones]

Did you tear down your tank?

Nope its still there.
I tried something last night, i'll keep ya'll posted. But I had an epiphany yesterday. Going to see what happens. See my build thread for details.

 

[User1]

I'm going to save my pennies and get the rock from BRS. No hitchhikers seems like a good deal to me

I think this is a interesting post. I've used rock back when we could get it directly from Fiji back in the day and was shipped overnight or 2 day in wet news paper. Some of the best rock I received at the time. Still have some of it in my tank today although it is much different from then. I always wanted to use TBS rock but with two in college it was not possible last year due to my lack of proper planning. Why I mention this is interesting in this.

Careful as you may be you will still introduce pests into the tank be it spider or aptasia. I do not believe there is a QT or process that will guarantee a 100% success rate. Dry rock takes a very long time to mature. In my case I went the route of dry Pukani from BRS and 18 months later I would say only now is it mature enough for starter corals, etc. Pests still showed up in the form Aptasia, high phosphates, etc.

Not sure if this helped at all but I know personally I would not use dry rock again unless I planned to mature it ahead of time. TBS, KP Aquatics, or other live rock or shipped under water far out weighs the dry rock timeline.

 

[Hairmetal89]

Crabs..Any updates? I didn’t read every post here, and I know this is an obvious thought but make sure you’ve recently calibrated your refractometer. I experienced corals deteriorating and was going crazy w Hanna checker testing and retesting and Salifert testing and retesting all parameters. Found out over time my salinity was actually at 1.022 instead of what my out of whack refractometer was telling me 1.026. Again, I know this is from the “no kidding” camp, but just wanted to chime in. Good luck -I know how much time you put into this hobby

 

[Punchanello]

Well, things still appear to be deteriorating

Wow, that looks a lot like the problems I am having