Dosing Order of Operations

[mythesis]

Background:​

90 gallon tank + 20ish sump; started in July with Live Rock so pushing 4 months old. Looks like Coralline spots are starting to appear and we were on the other side of Diatoms for several weeks.

Around Nov 17, noticed corals were grumpy. Tried to do some lightweight changes with lighting/flow to see if that fixed it. Root cause was Anemone guards got clogged and had significantly reduced flow. We had also just finished a 30 day acclimation to raise lighting from 70 - > 85%.

Updated carbon last week, but things still not recovering. I was out of town and didn't want to dose anything before leaving. We've never dosed before and I didn't want to do it and then leave the tank with the family.

Reduced lighting back down to 65%, restored flow, new bag of carbon.

The dinos seem to be significantly reduced / gone, but corals are still not fully extended.

Note:​

One of the corals we bought a few months ago came on live rock with some Palys attached. These are all closed up and very grumpy. I wonder if they're releasing some toxin in the water causing issues. I may remove that coral into the Quarantine tank (we've never medicated/copper in there yet; only observational) to see if that helps.

Today:​

Today's params look to point to a Calcium deficiency:

Temp: 77.7
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 4
Phosphate: 0.5
KH: 8.9 (had been around 9.5 since September)
Calcium: 320 (had been 380 since September).

Plan of Action:​

I figure I have a few things I can do:

1. Remove rock w/ palys
2. Water change of 10-20 gallons
3. Dose some RedSea AB+ for Coral Nutrition
4. Dose Reef Fusion Parts 1 & 2 to raise KH & Ca

Dosing Question:​

The Seachem site indicates I would need to do 61.5 caps of Part 1 to restore calcium (which exceeds our limit of ~12 caps / day). So I was thinking I would dose ~8-10 caps every other day since I've never dosed anything before. I only need about 20 caps of Part 2 to restore KH, so should I do like 8 of Part 1 & 3 caps of Part 2 so both get dosed equivalently over a few days to reach the goal?

Action Question:​

Which of the 4 steps should I do, and in what order? I am assuming the order I listed, but wasn't sure the Nutrition was a good idea and if I should perhaps do that on alternate days from the Fusion?


Thanks in advance!

 

[JTP424]

Background:​

90 gallon tank + 20ish sump; started in July with Live Rock so pushing 4 months old. Looks like Coralline spots are starting to appear and we were on the other side of Diatoms for several weeks.

Around Nov 17, noticed corals were grumpy. Tried to do some lightweight changes with lighting/flow to see if that fixed it. Root cause was Anemone guards got clogged and had significantly reduced flow. We had also just finished a 30 day acclimation to raise lighting from 70 - > 85%.

Updated carbon last week, but things still not recovering. I was out of town and didn't want to dose anything before leaving. We've never dosed before and I didn't want to do it and then leave the tank with the family.

Reduced lighting back down to 65%, restored flow, new bag of carbon.

The dinos seem to be significantly reduced / gone, but corals are still not fully extended.

Note:​

One of the corals we bought a few months ago came on live rock with some Palys attached. These are all closed up and very grumpy. I wonder if they're releasing some toxin in the water causing issues. I may remove that coral into the Quarantine tank (we've never medicated/copper in there yet; only observational) to see if that helps.

Today:​

Today's params look to point to a Calcium deficiency:

Temp: 77.7
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 4
Phosphate: 0.5
KH: 8.9 (had been around 9.5 since September)
Calcium: 320 (had been 380 since September).

Plan of Action:​

I figure I have a few things I can do:

1. Remove rock w/ palys
2. Water change of 10-20 gallons
3. Dose some RedSea AB+ for Coral Nutrition
4. Dose Reef Fusion Parts 1 & 2 to raise KH & Ca

Dosing Question:​

The Seachem site indicates I would need to do 61.5 caps of Part 1 to restore calcium (which exceeds our limit of ~12 caps / day). So I was thinking I would dose ~8-10 caps every other day since I've never dosed anything before. I only need about 20 caps of Part 2 to restore KH, so should I do like 8 of Part 1 & 3 caps of Part 2 so both get dosed equivalently over a few days to reach the goal?

Action Question:​

Which of the 4 steps should I do, and in what order? I am assuming the order I listed, but wasn't sure the Nutrition was a good idea and if I should perhaps do that on alternate days from the Fusion?


Thanks in advance!

I doubt the Palys are releasing toxins unless they have been ruptured somehow? (I'm no expert so I may be mistaken)

Is Nitrate (4) or (0.4)

Apologies if I missed it but what type of salt are you using? A water change may be beneficial so long as the salt you are using contains the necessary replenishing elements.

Have you thought about All For Reef? @Randy Holmes-Farley can chime in regarding what to dose for proper KH and CA increase.

*Edit - disregard Nitrate question

 

[Aquachristik]

Coraline growth and no more diatoms is good.

I would switch your unit of measurement to ml rather than using "caps". With the correct amount of calcium product to use in ml, slowly dose calcium back up to your desired levels, around 420?

 

[mythesis]

I doubt the Palys are releasing toxins unless they have been ruptured somehow? (I'm no expert so I may be mistaken)

Is Nitrate (4) or (0.4)

Apologies if I missed it but what type of salt are you using? A water change may be beneficial so long as the salt you are using contains the necessary replenishing elements.

Have you thought about All For Reef? @Randy Holmes-Farley can chime in regarding what to dose for proper KH and CA increase.

*Edit - disregard Nitrate question

Currently using the cheap Instant Ocean Reef Salt (not Crystals). We didn't have much in the way of coral and were advised it wasn't needed at the time and to just dose. Guess it's time to dose finally.

Coraline growth and no more diatoms is good.

I would switch your unit of measurement to ml rather than using "caps". With the correct amount of calcium product to use in ml, slowly dose calcium back up to your desired levels, around 420?

Yes, sorry. Seachem suggests about 308ml of Reef1, where my max is about 60ml/day.

 

[exnisstech]

I dont use the products listed so I can't comment on them. I can comment on the palys. I've always had a tank with palys. When they've gotten out of hand I go in with forceps and just start pulling them out. I've never seen an adverse reaction to anything in the tank doing this. Maybe in a very small tank but mine have been 100g and larger. If you do remove the palys be sure and wear PPE and not have kids or pets near by.