I know this is going to be long, but I want to give as full a picture as possible for help. Ok, so confession, I've been really bad about testing and staying on a regular water change schedule for a long while. I'm trying to get back to my regular water changes (doing one later today), and I know changing the water and cleaning the filter will help some with my test results from yesterday, however, I need advice on certain aspects of how to get the chemical balance right and address the issues I'm having.
My results from yesterday's tests:
SG: (Hannah) 1.024 (I make my SW at 1.025)
pH: (Salifert) 7.7
dKH: (Hannah) 9.3
Phosphates: (Salifert) (too high for Hannah ULP) 1
Nitrites: (Salifert) 0
Ammonia: (Salifert) between 0 and <.15
Calcium: (Hannah) 467
Nitrates: (Salifert) 100
I have a 75g (2 years old) with several fish, a mushroom, a small halimedes, CUC - a few various snails (getting more this week), and a few hermits. Lost a hermit, my cleaner shrimp, and pretty sure my pistol shrimp this week (and possibly my porcelain crab, unless he's hiding to molt, but totally been MIA a couple weeks). I recently discovered a colony of feather dusters and I have a couple sponges that have popped up. I've been battling some GHA and I get "regular?" algae on the glass and fixtures that I clean off every couple weeks. I have a good growth of hard algae on the rocks and fixtures and some, but not a lot, corralline algae.
My setup is nothing fancy. I'm running a Fluval FX4 with the standard stock media and standard Fluval SW LED bar. Cut back on blues to try to kill GHA, so running all below 50%. 1 Ice Cap 4X gyre (getting a second this week) and 2 Hydor Koralias for flow. No dosing of anything.
I know I feed heavy (I change it up for them between LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, thawed frozen cube mixture of mysis, brine, and spirulina mixed with a few drops of Selcon, and occasionally flakes or pellets, and periodic sheets of nori, but I never see food lying around. I know my pH needs to come up, and my phosphates, ammonia, and definitely nitrates need to come down. I'm not sure why my calcium is high, because I thought halimeda absorbs it. I'm also adding a Shaving Bush this week. My thought is to out-compete the bad algae with good algae, since I don't have a sump.
I'm over-due by a week for my water change, and like I said, I'm doing it today and I know that will help some, but I'm not sure how to get everything back in check and balanced. Should I treat with something? Start dosing something? Am I doing something wrong? It was so stable for so long I had quit testing but then I got off schedule with water changes. The CUC deaths this week could be coincidence or various reasons, but it was enough to make me test, and I'm glad I did! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
My results from yesterday's tests:
SG: (Hannah) 1.024 (I make my SW at 1.025)
pH: (Salifert) 7.7
dKH: (Hannah) 9.3
Phosphates: (Salifert) (too high for Hannah ULP) 1
Nitrites: (Salifert) 0
Ammonia: (Salifert) between 0 and <.15
Calcium: (Hannah) 467
Nitrates: (Salifert) 100
I have a 75g (2 years old) with several fish, a mushroom, a small halimedes, CUC - a few various snails (getting more this week), and a few hermits. Lost a hermit, my cleaner shrimp, and pretty sure my pistol shrimp this week (and possibly my porcelain crab, unless he's hiding to molt, but totally been MIA a couple weeks). I recently discovered a colony of feather dusters and I have a couple sponges that have popped up. I've been battling some GHA and I get "regular?" algae on the glass and fixtures that I clean off every couple weeks. I have a good growth of hard algae on the rocks and fixtures and some, but not a lot, corralline algae.
My setup is nothing fancy. I'm running a Fluval FX4 with the standard stock media and standard Fluval SW LED bar. Cut back on blues to try to kill GHA, so running all below 50%. 1 Ice Cap 4X gyre (getting a second this week) and 2 Hydor Koralias for flow. No dosing of anything.
I know I feed heavy (I change it up for them between LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, thawed frozen cube mixture of mysis, brine, and spirulina mixed with a few drops of Selcon, and occasionally flakes or pellets, and periodic sheets of nori, but I never see food lying around. I know my pH needs to come up, and my phosphates, ammonia, and definitely nitrates need to come down. I'm not sure why my calcium is high, because I thought halimeda absorbs it. I'm also adding a Shaving Bush this week. My thought is to out-compete the bad algae with good algae, since I don't have a sump.
I'm over-due by a week for my water change, and like I said, I'm doing it today and I know that will help some, but I'm not sure how to get everything back in check and balanced. Should I treat with something? Start dosing something? Am I doing something wrong? It was so stable for so long I had quit testing but then I got off schedule with water changes. The CUC deaths this week could be coincidence or various reasons, but it was enough to make me test, and I'm glad I did! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!