Turned it around

[ZoWhat]

I turned around a major crash about to happen when I was blindly dosing 2part. I'm an idiot. Got some really bad advice from an out of town LFS Owner when I visited their shop.

May 1st 2019 - 30 days into blindly dosing 20ml of equal 2part solution per bad advice from the LFS Owner

Calcium 340
Alk 17.2.... ah yeah, yikes
Mag 900

May 28th 2019- After a couple of large WCs and completely stopping the dosing of the Alk 2part:

Calc 450
Alk 8.5
Mag 1520

Darn near perfect #s in my book on my May 28th testing

The Alk part is being put on a shelf for a long time, may never use it again.....

WORD TO THE WISE: if you 2part, you better test your water like crazy

For me.... K.I.S.S. and back to routine WCs

Yaaaaaaahoo - tragedy avoided




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[ScottR]

Whoa! 17.2 alk!!!! If you have any SPS, did they survive the ordeal ok?

 

[reef lover]

Generally people dont dose blindly....they test thier tank and only when it starts using more alk and calcium than wc can make up for, then they calculate thier consumption and dose based on that...and still test periodically...i do every few days to a week...to make sure its staying level...
Also...always dose equal amounts of 2 part even if it appears that alk is consumed more than calcium...sorry the lfs steered you wrong.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Cardinal sin #1

 

[ZoWhat]

Generally people dont dose blindly....they test thier tank and only when it starts using more alk and calcium than wc can make up for, then they calculate thier consumption and dose based on that...and still test periodically...i do every few days to a week...to make sure its staying level...
Also...always dose equal amounts of 2 part even if it appears that alk is consumed more than calcium...sorry the lfs steered you wrong.

Yep. Deadly COPYCAT thinking. Let me and my copycat actions be the Posterchild to Idiotic Copycatting

Explanation below:

Yeah. I knew better but got stupid over an highly enthusiastic LFS Owner who had an 180g like mine as his Stores Main DT. His tank is beautiful.

He convinced me that his "secret" was dosing daily equal amts of 2part at 20ml. And has beautiful growth and color.

My deadly thought was, "Huh. All he does is dose 20mls a day of 2part....I should do that....sounds EASY"

A Skull and Crossbones thought

His tank can perfectly handle 20mls of Alk Bicarbonate a day..... OBVIOUSLY my cant.... and nearly crashed my parameters by trying to COPYCAT his tank. Deadly thinking.

I lost about 10% of random stuff at 17.2 dKH

What was strange is the previous week test show dKH at 11. I knew that was HIGH but thought it might level out.... aaaaah NO. May 1st when dKH hit 17.2 .....I was jerking around the house like the kitchen was on fire. Immediately prep'ed for a 50% WC

You now see my dKH at a stable 8.5 after working hard yet slowly over the month of May.

I'm an idiot chasing magical potions looking for magical growth.... I should have known better.

There is NO MAGICAL POTION, just solid waters parameters thru TESTING, reacting slowly, possibly slow dosing and keeping up on routine WCs




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[hockeyhead019]

Thanks for sharing, a mistake that I'm sure plenty have made regardless of admitting it or not.

IMO good salt and regular WCs help a ton and are a great starting point