Precipitation and I don’t understand why. Bout to karate kick my tank.

[olonmv]

I’ve been having a white frosty film on my water surface for about 3-4 weeks now. When I do my feedings (frozen mysis and brine and dip my feeder tool into the tank the film clumps together creating what looks like precipitation. I tested last week and found that my mag was extremely low according to my red sea test kit. Bought fluval magnesium and found a thread where Randy suggested to use the option of RR #1 to get dosing amount. My mag was at 1080 when I tested. according to the calculator and the advise of Randy’s option I had to dose the entire bottle 270ml to get my mag back to the 1400 range, did that and a couple days later I did a water change with red sea blue bucket salt (dosed my water with a tad bit of alk solution and calcium to bring the alk to 8.4 ish and calcium to 420 before I changed the water). I didn’t dose any mag. Today that film looked like it’s gotten a little worse and the little coraline that I had is starting to lose color. I just tested my water and the results with Red Sea test kits are as follows. Yesterday’s calcium reading was 480. I have no idea what is goin on. Why did my calcium and mag jump super high when I dosed zero mag and like 1 mil of liquid calcium into a 5 gallon bucket? I run a evo 13.5 and don’t see what it is that I’m doing wrong. Tank has been running a Lil over 10 months and all was smooth sailing until I needed to start dosing. I’m about to put a .357 through this thing. Can anyone shed some light? Had I known this “hobby” was gonna be this stressful I would have never gotten into it.

Mag 1600
Calcium 460
Alk 8.1

 

[Saltyreef]

100% water change with fresh mixed salt water.
Go from there. Dont dose unless you know your cosumption and proper dosing amounts to get back to your target.


What are you using to measure salinity?
Make sure thats spot on before proceeding.

 

[olonmv]

100% water change with fresh mixed salt water.
Go from there. Dont dose unless you know your cosumption and proper dosing amounts to get back to your target.


What are you using to measure salinity?
Make sure thats spot on before proceeding.

I’m using a refractometer, salinity is at 1.026 and after 2 weeks of daily testing I only dose a couple mils every other or 3rd day. I do weekly or bi-weekly 25% ish water changes. I just don’t understand how cal can go from 420 to 480 and mag went from 1440 to 1600 in a matter of a few days with zero dosing since my last wc.

 

[Saltyreef]

I’m using a refractometer, salinity is at 1.026 and after 2 weeks of daily testing I only dose a couple mils every other or 3rd day. I do weekly or bi-weekly 25% ish water changes. I just don’t understand how cal can go from 420 to 480 and mag went from 1440 to 1600 in a matter of a few days with zero dosing since my last wc.

With the low mag its common for your alk and cal to be highly unstable and precipitation is likely.

It sounds like you may have just overdosed the mag using the wrong calculator, overshot by 200ppm no biggie.

A 100% water change with the blue bucket should solve your imbalance issue.

 

[olonmv]

With the low mag its common for your alk and cal to be highly unstable and precipitation is likely.

It sounds like you may have just overdosed the mag using the wrong calculator, overshot by 200ppm no biggie.

A 100% water change with the blue bucket should solve your imbalance issue.

Welp, since I’m low on salt I’ll probably do a 50% water change and test again tomorrow. Is there any way I can get that funk off the water surface? I don’t own any fancy equipment so it would have to be removed manually. I imagine a paper towel that acts as a filter would do the trick? Thanks for calming my nerves a bit. What would cause the coralline to lose its color like that? Literally lost coloration from one day the next. Again, thank you for the advise.

 

[Saltyreef]

Welp, since I’m low on salt I’ll probably do a 50% water change and test again tomorrow. Is there any way I can get that funk off the water surface? I don’t own any fancy equipment so it would have to be removed manually. I imagine a paper towel that acts as a filter would do the trick? Thanks for calming my nerves a bit. What would cause the coralline to lose its color like that? Literally lost coloration from one day the next. Again, thank you for the advise.

Could have been exposed to air too long...
Hard to say.
Mine will sometimes die back a little with tank changes and start regrowing.

As far as removing the precipitate film, increase surface skimming.

 

[piranhaman00]

Had I known this “hobby” was gonna be this stressful I would have never gotten into it.

Quick!! Leave now before the real stresses of this hobby happen

 

[olonmv]

Quick!! Leave now before the real stresses of this hobby happen

Tanks already in the trash where it belongs and I’ve murdered all the fish thanks to your advise. You da real hero!

 

[olonmv]

Could have been exposed to air too long...
Hard to say.
Mine will sometimes die back a little with tank changes and start regrowing.

As far as removing the precipitate film, increase surface skimming.

Good to know that it’s not my ignorance doin it in. I don’t own a skimmer and really don’t plan on getting one. Ill look for an alternative to a skimmer that I can do manually? Thank you!!

 

[Jekyl]

I’ve been having a white frosty film on my water surface for about 3-4 weeks now. When I do my feedings (frozen mysis and brine and dip my feeder tool into the tank the film clumps together creating what looks like precipitation. I tested last week and found that my mag was extremely low according to my red sea test kit. Bought fluval magnesium and found a thread where Randy suggested to use the option of RR #1 to get dosing amount. My mag was at 1080 when I tested. according to the calculator and the advise of Randy’s option I had to dose the entire bottle 270ml to get my mag back to the 1400 range, did that and a couple days later I did a water change with red sea blue bucket salt (dosed my water with a tad bit of alk solution and calcium to bring the alk to 8.4 ish and calcium to 420 before I changed the water). I didn’t dose any mag. Today that film looked like it’s gotten a little worse and the little coraline that I had is starting to lose color. I just tested my water and the results with Red Sea test kits are as follows. Yesterday’s calcium reading was 480. I have no idea what is goin on. Why did my calcium and mag jump super high when I dosed zero mag and like 1 mil of liquid calcium into a 5 gallon bucket? I run a evo 13.5 and don’t see what it is that I’m doing wrong. Tank has been running a Lil over 10 months and all was smooth sailing until I needed to start dosing. I’m about to put a .357 through this thing. Can anyone shed some light? Had I known this “hobby” was gonna be this stressful I would have never gotten into it.

Mag 1600
Calcium 460
Alk 8.1

Do you have anything that cleans the surface? Like an overflow or HoB filter with surface cleaner?

 

[Jekyl]

It may not be your parameters at all.

 

[olonmv]

Do you have anything that cleans the surface? Like an overflow or HoB filter with surface cleaner?

I do not have anything of the sort. I have my two hands lol but no skimmers or HoB filter or nothing like that. I hope those items aren’t the only route to getting rid of the surface film.

 

[Jekyl]

I do not have anything of the sort. I have my two hands lol but no skimmers or HoB filter or nothing like that. I hope those items aren’t the only route to getting rid of the surface film.

I use a HoB filter that has a surface cleaner. It will solve your issue. I run a sponge, floss and a bag of carbon in mine. They're a useful thing to have.

 

[Jekyl]

Perfect parameters won't fix that issue.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Your tank has a built in weir that skims the surface. Check the grating and make sure it is not clogged with stuff. I had a whitish film building up on my frag tank recently and noticed the teeth of my weir had clogged and the water was being drained from below the surface, defeating the skimming. Yours may need to be cleaned as well.

Dennis

 

[Jekyl]

Your tank has a built in weir that skims the surface. Check the grating and make sure it is not clogged with stuff. I had a whitish film building up on my frag tank recently and noticed the teeth of my weir had clogged and the water was being drained from below the surface, defeating the skimming. Yours may need to be cleaned as well.

Dennis

This.

 

[olonmv]

It may not be your parameters at all.

I think it was my previous parameters with low magnesium that kicked it off. It really never cleared itself and I thought it would eventually dissipate on its own. Surely not happening. It’ wasn’t really bothering me astetically so I was living with it since I thought it would go away naturally. Seems like I have to get my behind in gear and resolve the issue.

 

[olonmv]

Perfect parameters won't fix that issue.

I was hoping that would have been the case, to be honest. Looks like I was wrong……again.

 

[olonmv]

Your tank has a built in weir that skims the surface. Check the grating and make sure it is not clogged with stuff. I had a whitish film building up on my frag tank recently and noticed the teeth of my weir had clogged and the water was being drained from below the surface, defeating the skimming. Yours may need to be cleaned as well.

Dennis

I’m not very familiar with the terminology but I’m assuming the weir is where the water returns to the chambers, is that correct? If that’s the case, that part of my tank has been set in a fashion where water would cascade into the chamber. I suspect that maybe the way my flow is set may be hindering it a bit. The surface kinda goes round and round. I will see if I can set it to where it doesn’t do that anymore. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will report back tomorrow with results so that hopefully someone can use this if needed in the future. You guys are awesome!!!! Except the guy who told me to throw in the towel……just kidding, you’re awesome too!